Page 49

‘Really? OK, well OK. Stay with me for a day or so and … be human. Does that sound like a plan?’

Sky nodded.

‘Will you let me tell Rob to come on over?’

Sky shrugged, paused then said ‘Can we go back to his place? Yours is the only human home I’ve been to. Are they all the same? I didn’t really see before.’

Rose fiddled with the phone.

It went bleep and Rose chuckled.

‘Rob says no problem and he’s got something nicer for you to eat. Maybe. Anyway, I’ve told him to give us ten minutes so that you can dress and dry your hair.’

In Rob’s house, Sky roamed from room to room, lost inside one of Simon’s warmest jumpers and Rose’s smallest jeans.

Rose’s shoes were two sizes bigger than Sky needed and Sky’s toes curled to try and grip inside them.

Her senses were confused. Rob’s place was laid out the same as Rose’s but the other way round, with the two front rooms knocked together.

Yet the place had different things inside and the colours were not the same.

The smooth shiny room was white instead of green and there was no hollow thing like a pool.

The shower was in a kind of huge see through box instead.

The room smelt of rotting flowers like Rose’s did, only less so.

There was a stronger scent which Sky couldn’t quite place until she realised it reminded her of the pine forest only a mockery of it.

Rose was being very peculiar. One minute she was smiley with Rob and the next distant.

She picked up a contradiction of attraction and rejection coming from both humans and suppressed a sigh, wondering if they’d communicate better if they used their phones.

It was impossible to work out what either of them wanted to do.

She felt uneasy, wondering what she could touch and what she couldn’t.

She thought the hair-drying should have amazed her, but it had scared her instead.

The noise whined in her ears and disorientated her, the heat was hotter than the sun and the way her hair dried was as unnatural as the shower.

Then Rose called her to sit with her and Rob as they made music, playing the tune to the wordless song she had sung all those weeks ago and after a while, she closed her eyes and sang it again but this time the wordless words were different; the longing was replaced by confusion, the tears of despair with tears of uncertainty .

She stopped and the music ceased and she opened her eyes. Rob and Rose were watching her and Rose looked worried.

Outside, the rain had stopped. Rose said she would have to go into town to buy food.

‘Let me come,’ said Sky.

‘Are you sure?’ said Rose. ‘You might find it a bit too much.’

‘I said I wanted to be a human for a while, I want to know what it’s like.’

She sat in the car and the seatbelt dug into her and they went too fast, the world blurred, the motion nauseated her and then there were buildings. So many of them, all hard, angular, regular, windows stared at them, doors opened and humans spilled out.

When they parked, Sky got out and felt her legs shake.

Is this how her mother had felt when she went to live with the humans?

There were too many smells, human smells: sweat and blood and excreta and saliva and the scents they used to cover them up: distorted flowers and herbs and fruits. The smell of oily dirt from the cars and the fizzle in the air coming from machines. Sky’s hair frizzed with it.

When she touched things, little shocks like lightning hurt her finger tips and made her jump.

It was too noisy, so many humans talking, shouting, crying.

She didn’t know which to listen to. She was aware that Rose was speaking but couldn’t concentrate on her words.

There was music, but too much of it. It came from everywhere and clashed.

She could hear birdsong but it was drowned.

Doors swished, tyres squealed. The shops stank of old meat and dead vegetation but Rose bought it anyway.

Her arm, hooked through Rose’s trembled.

Why had her mother preferred this? How could she have?

Why hadn’t her brother brought her home to the plains and the forests with the clean, cold air and the fresh meat?

A crow cawed, its raucous voice cutting through everything else. Sky spun around, nearly dragging Rose over. A bird of prey darted behind a house. A foxy face peeped round a corner. She rebalanced and Rose held her steady. Sky felt as if her head was under leaves.

‘Let’s go home,’ Rose whispered, or perhaps it wasn’t a whisper. ‘This is too much for you. Come on, come on, you’ll be OK.’

Her voice was soft, her head touching Sky’s, her arm now round her shoulders. They stumbled together and Sky watched her feet cross the the hard pavement and then they walked into someone .

‘Sorry,’ said Rose, side-stepping. The other person, limping a little, side-stepped too but went the same way. They walked into each other again. Rose made a noise that was supposed to be a laugh but wasn’t.

Sky looked up and into the face of the other person. It was a tall man. Piercing eyes were fixed on her. He did not say anything and his lips narrowed into something which might have been a smile but didn’t feel like it.

‘Sorry,’ said Rose again, this time going round him, dragging Sky with her. She muttered under her breath and hurried Sky along back to the car, the bag of shopping banging against her legs. Sky turned to see the man standing still, watching them.

‘I swear that man gets everywhere,’ Rose said as she helped Sky into the car and put the seat-belt on her.

‘I’ve no idea why I keep apologising. He’s the one who keeps walking into me.

’ Her voice still seemed to be coming from a long way away.

‘Oh god Sky, look at you, I’m so sorry, I should never have brought you. ’

At Roses’s place, Sky curled up in a chair and buried her face in her arms. Rose put something over her. It smelt of Simon. Simon the human.