Part 10 (2/2)

Lizzie straightened up as though she were twenty-one again. 'I knew it,' she said to the cats. 'I told you, didn't I? He may not be all rat, I said, but he's got rat in him.'

Kevin laughed, and suddenly Tess felt remote from them, as though she had been excluded. She realised then for the first time that if Kevin went alone up to the North Pole, she might never see him again. It was possible that he would come back and look her up in her house in the park, but what if he didn't? And what if it kept on snowing, and they had to leave and go to Greece like the Sheehans? How would he find her then?

'And what about you, Tessie?' said Lizzie. 'What's you going to do?'

It hit Tess, then, with no warning, that expansive feeling which was so strong that it was hardly bearable. She was suddenly certain of her own strength and resourcefulness, and suddenly afraid of nothing.

'I, Lizzie,' she said, 'is going with him.'

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

LIZZIE MADE PANCAKES FOR breakfast, which Tess and Kevin ate much faster than she could cook in the old black skillet. They drowned them in melted b.u.t.ter and golden syrup and ate them with their fingers, and n.o.body complained about the drips.

'Like Pancake Tuesday,' said Tess.

'Yes,' said Kevin, 'but let's hope we don't have to give up too much for Lent.'

Tess thought about the blizzards outside that they would be meeting for as long as they continued north. She still had no idea how they were going to travel, and her parents were trying to edge their way into her consciousness, threatening to destroy her resolve.

As though she were reading Tess's mind, Lizzie said: 'You thinks too much, girl. I's told you that before. And it's nothing but a waste of time. If you's finished with that pancake you better go over to the sink and wash your hands, because you isn't getting any more. I hasn't had one at all yet, and I's getting weak with the hunger watching you two stuff your faces.'

Tess got up and went over to the sink. Kevin followed. The water was icy cold and only hardened the b.u.t.ter on her fingers, but most of it came off on the towel. She handed it on to Kevin and looked out of the window. The snow had already made little ledges of itself on top of every level spot it could find. Every branch, twig and leaf bowed in submission beneath its weight. Tess could no longer remember the elated sense of power that she had felt before breakfast when she made the decision to go.

'Well? What's you waiting for?' said Lizzie. 'Off you go, get your coats on. There's no sense in standing around.'

Kevin went out into the hall and came back with their jackets. Tess put hers on, feeling like a small child who has been told to go out and play and has no choice in the matter. But it wasn't Lizzie, she knew, who was driving her to do it, or Kevin. It was her own pride. She was more afraid of letting herself down than of losing their respect.

'Lizzie,' said Kevin. 'There's something I want to ask you before we go.'

'Ask away,' said Lizzie, pouring batter into the pan.

'You know what you were saying about the power that we have? How we can do things we don't even know about?'

'Was I saying that? I suppose I was.'

'Well, can you tell us about it? So that we know what kind of things we can do?'

Lizzie shook the skillet so that the pancake slid around. 'I's been thinking about that,' she said, 'and I's decided that it isn't a good idea.'

'But why?' said Tess.

'Because I doesn't want to put ideas into your heads. Because if I puts ideas into your heads they might turn out to be the wrong ones. And there's nothing that gets in the way of a right idea more easily than a wrong one.'

'But can't you give us a clue, Lizzie?' said Kevin. 'A couple of examples?'

'That's just what I doesn't want to do. I has no idea what you's going to find along your way and I has no idea how you's going to deal with it. But I does know this. I'd lock that door this minute and holler as loud and as long as I could for Oliver Griffin and his ignorant pal if I thought you was going to be in any danger that you couldn't manage. I knows that I could do it if I was still a Switcher, and I knows without any doubt that you can do it, too. So get on your way before you starts thinking about things, and be sure to call in and see me as soon as you gets home.'

Kevin turned to Tess with a question in his eyes but she looked away and went towards the door. Her heart was numb with fear and she didn't want him to see it.

Lizzie came with them as far as the front step. 'Goodbye, now,' she said, as they walked out into the snow. 'Look after yourselves. And don't be too busy concerning yourselves with what is. There's times when it makes more sense to think about what isn't.'

Kevin turned to question her, but the door was closing in his face.

It was still early. Tess looked about her as they walked across Lizzie's front garden towards the narrow path. Apart from a few cat paw-prints, rapidly being filled in, there was not a mark on the snow. The birds were moving about in the trees and causing little avalanches among the branches, but they were not at all happy about the weather and saw no sense in going further afield before Lizzie came out to feed the chickens.

'What now?' said Tess.

Kevin shrugged. 'Fly, I suppose. There's no point in walking, is there?'

'Fly where?'

He shrugged again. 'North, I suppose.'

They moved closer together as they entered the narrow tunnel of the path.

'Just like that?' said Tess. 'Just fly north into a blizzard? Nothing worked out? No plans?'

'No plans,' said Kevin. 'No compa.s.s, no maps. And no hotels along the way, either, and no tents, no sleeping bags.' Abruptly he gave Tess a friendly shove so that she sidestepped into a shallow drift. His nose was red from the snowflakes blowing into his face, and he was grinning, so that Tess had the fleeting impression of a circus clown. 'We're leaving everything behind,' he said. 'We're on our own. No rules, not even Rat rules. Just the two of us, and all that out there.'

All that out there was still filling Tess's heart with dread, but Kevin's eyes were s.h.i.+ning. 'Don't waste your fear, Tess. Save it up for when you need it, like the animals do.'

She smiled, despite herself, and he smiled back, more openly than he had ever done before. 'Pigeons?' he said.

Tess laughed, and they were friends beyond any shadow of a doubt, travelling with a common purpose. 'I hate pigeons,' she said. 'Why not be something bigger and faster? We can be anything we want. No one's going to see us in this snow.'

'Flamingos?'

'Eagles?'

'Swans?'

'Storks?'

'Albatrosses!'

'Yeah! Albatrosses.' And they were, squeezing awkwardly through the hedge, running with clumsy strides across the wide meadow beyond, and finally rising with slow, graceful wing-beats into the white heart of the blizzard.

Without thinking, without even wondering how they knew, they tilted their wings and were heading north. They flew high, to avoid the hazards of tall buildings appearing out of the snow, and they stayed close together, one slightly beneath the other, so as not to lose sight of one another. Their powerful wings settled into an easy rhythm that they could have maintained for countless hours, but even so, it soon became apparent to them that they would have to choose some other means of travel. The snow was driving into their eyes and blinding them, and the winds up there were gusty and erratic, and made them swirl and spiral in a way that made it almost impossible to stay close together. On several occasions they lost sight of each other, and had to circle and call until they met up again. It was possible for them to continue on, but it would be a slow and anxious journey.

The suburbs of the city were beneath them. The two birds pa.s.sed quickly over a sprawling area of housing estates, then followed the line of the main road towards the centre of the city. It might have been the instinct of the birds to take refuge on the water, or it might have been an unrealised decision which their human minds had reached, but there was no doubt now about their destination. They were heading for the river.

As they came closer to the city centre and the buildings and traffic became more dense, Tess and Kevin could feel the slight rise in temperature. All those houses and offices were heated, and all the cars were burning fuel, and the excess heat was rising into the air. The snow seemed a little softer. It slid off their wings without sticking at all, and it didn't sting their eyes so badly. Nonetheless, it was a great relief when, surprisingly soon, the broad band of the river came into sight.

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