Seed (7 page)

“Well,” Kate says. “Look at our new converts.” She doesn’t seem to notice that her hands are still dunked in the bubbly water.

“She looks nice,” says Ruby. I think she means Sophie, who has silently taken the woman’s hand as Kindred Smith talks quietly to them all, sweeping his arms across the fields beyond.

“I’ll show you around,” I hear him say and they all follow him toward the front door.

The boy still has his hands in his back pockets as he turns to glance at us again. I don’t know why, but I wish I’d already looked away.

“Ellis,” says Kate as she brushes a sponge around the inside of a mug.

“It’s a nice name,” says Ruby.

Kate looks at me, smiling. “It certainly is. And he looks like a nice boy, doesn’t he?”

“Yes, he does,” I say. “It’ll be nice for Jack to have another boy our age.”

“Oh, Pearl, please,” Kate says. And I can’t tell whether she’s angry or laughing.

“Are they really coming to stay?” Ruby asks.

Just then, the kitchen door opens and Kindred Smith comes in. The new family are behind him.

“Ah, some more people for you to meet,” Kindred Smith says. “Kate, Pearl, Ruby, this is Linda, Ellis, and Sophie. They are our new family members.”

“I’m Kate. It’s nice to meet you,” Kate says, looking at Ellis.

“You too,” he says. His voice is low and soft. Hearing it makes my skin tingle, like I’ve been out in the sun too long. He turns to look at me. “Hello,” he says. It’s strange, because I don’t really know what to say. Maybe it’s because his hair is already longer, it makes me awkward, unsure of who he is.

“So, are you Ruby, or Pearl?” He has a funny smile on his lips.

“Pearl,” I manage. I suddenly wish I’d had just a few more months to let my hair grow as long as Kate’s.

“Hi, Sophie,” Ruby says. “Will you sleep in our room?” I know that Ruby is staring at Sophie’s dress with butterflies all over it. I can’t tell whether she’s envious, or confused.

“Do you want to show her your room?” Kindred Smith asks.

“Will she not be sharing with me?” Linda looks unsure. From this close, I can see dry patches of skin on her face. They look sore.

“The women sleep in different rooms.” Kindred Smith touches her arm, and it seems to melt her hesitation.

“It will be fun to share with other children, won’t it?” Linda asks Sophie. The little girl doesn’t say a word, doesn’t even nod her head. She just looks at her mother with those wide eyes.

“I’ll show you,” says Ruby, and she reaches for Sophie’s hand. Before the little girl has time to realize it, they’re walking out of the room. Her mother’s smile looks a bit forced, as though she’s
trying too hard to relax.
Mother.
Sophie knows her true mother. There’s a rush of something in me, but I know it is dark, so I push it away.

“So, Ellis,” says Kate. “Where do you think you’ll sleep?” There’s a crackle of unease in the air. Kindred Smith stares at Kate. If she notices the look he gives her, she doesn’t show it. Her smile remains and Ellis looks right at her.

“I’ll go where I’m told,” he says, his own smile twinkling.

“Right, then I’d better tell you.” Kindred Smith does a funny sort of laugh. “Pearl, you can show Linda where her room is.” Then he turns to their mother. “When you’ve unpacked your car, Pearl can show you where to park it, around the back. Then you can give the key to me.”

“Oh,” she says.

Kindred Smith smiles at her. “We don’t want the key to get lost. It’s a big house.”

“Of course,” Linda says, but she twists her hair nervously in her fingers as she looks out the window toward her car, waiting in the driveway.

“And do you have telephones?” Kindred Smith asks. “Obviously we don’t use them at Seed.”

Linda looks flustered. “It’s in here,” she says as she reaches into the small brown bag hanging by her hip. She pulls out a black telephone. I’ve seen people from the Outside use them at
the market, but it feels wrong to have one in our home. Nature has said that they block out her voice.

“Ellis?” Kindred Smith holds out his empty hand toward him.

“Are you serious?” the boy asks. He’s looking at his mother.

“We’ve talked about this,” she says quietly.

Kindred Smith laughs lightly. “I’ll keep it safe.”

I watch as Ellis takes his telephone from his pocket and reluctantly puts it into Kindred Smith’s palm.

“We could show you around when you’ve seen your room,” Kate says to Ellis.

“OK,” he says.

I just stare at him. A stranger in our home. But he looks different from the boys I see at the market. And I don’t want to turn away from him, like I do from them.

Kate is left in the kitchen as we go upstairs. Kindred Smith and Ellis continue up to the top of the house, where the boys and Kindreds sleep. I take Linda into the room next to ours. Heather is making up the spare bed in the corner.

“I saw you come up the driveway,” she says as she goes up to hug Linda. “Welcome.”

“Thank you.” Linda’s cheeks blush red. For a moment, I’m worried that she’ll let herself cry.

“Shall I leave Linda here with you?” I ask Heather as she turns back to the bed. “Kate and I are going to show Ellis around.”

“Ellis?”

“He’s my son,” Linda says.

Heather shakes the bedsheet and it cracks in the air.

“He’s about Jack’s age,” I say.

Heather nods. “Well, you’d better go and help him settle in,” she says as she tucks the sheet under the heavy mattress. “I’ll stay with Linda.” But her words are almost lost to me, as I’m already out of the bedroom and running down the stairs, two at a time.

I stand by the back door, waiting. I’m holding my sandals in my hand, feeling the bristles of the doormat on my bare feet. There’s a bird, a wood pigeon, I think, making shapes in the sky. It lifts and swoops, a smudge of brown against the blue.

“You were quick.” It’s Ellis.

“Yes,” I say. There’s something about his eyes, as though he’s seeing right into me. I touch the thin strap of my top. Does he notice that I’m wearing a skirt?

“Where are you going to show me first?” he asks.

I wonder if I should wait for Kate, but I’m not sure where she is. “Does Sophie want to come too?” I ask.

“I think she’s with the other little girl.”

“Ruby.”

His eyelashes are a deep beetle-black, much darker than Jack’s.

“Let’s go, then?”

It’s a question and the only reply I can give is to start walking. We go across the gravel of the driveway, the stones wincing my feet. I don’t let it show, though. And anyway, the grass is only a few steps away.

“I’ll show you the barn first,” I finally say. “It’s where you’ll probably be working.”

“Mom didn’t say anything about working,” Ellis says.

“Everyone works here.” How can he expect otherwise? “It’s good work. Jack loves it.”

Ellis glances at me. “Who’s Jack?”

“One of us.” The grass is dry between my toes. “You’ll meet him now, I should think.”

I’m feeling a bit annoyed and I don’t know why. Suddenly, I’m not so sure I want these new people here. I know I shouldn’t feel like this, because Papa S. says we must welcome them. And I should willingly let them share in the beauty of Seed. But just this second, I don’t feel like it. I want us all to be left alone.

So I don’t say another word and then we’re pushing through the big, rusting doors, into the banging and clattering of the work barn.

“Impressive,” Ellis says as he looks around him, and I warm to him once more.

Instantly, I see Jack. He’s looking at a green car’s engine with Kindred John, pointing something out to him. The hood of the
car is hooked open above their heads.

“Come on,” I say to Ellis and he follows me, past the chaos and tables of oily springs and machine parts.

“Hi, Jack,” I have to say as he hasn’t even noticed us. His eyes are so focused on the ticking metal in front of him. He looks up and sees Ellis, and for a second he seems confused. “This is Ellis. The boy who’s come to live here.”

“Oh, hello.” Jack reaches out to shake Ellis’s hand, but must realize that his skin is dirty from the work and so he just shrugs lightly. “I’m glad you’re here.” If he is unsure about this boy from the Outside, he doesn’t show it.

“And this is Kindred John,” I say.

Kindred John wipes his hands on an old cloth slung over his shoulder. “Welcome,” he says as he shakes hands with Ellis. “Do you want to join us?”

“I’m showing him around,” I say too quickly.

“Yeah, I think I’ll put off working as long as possible.” Ellis laughs. But none of us do. We know that laziness disintegrates the soul.

Who are these people who Kindred Smith has brought into our home? And why do I not want to walk away? I can feel the air of Outside trickling off Ellis and yet I stay, standing by him.

“We won’t be long,” I say to Kindred John, but he’s already turned back to the engine.

“See you later,” Jack says, and something passes between them that tells me they will be friends.

It’s quieter when we leave the barn. The whir and knocking of the machines is behind us as we start to walk through the meadow. I glance at Ellis’s T-shirt, at his clothes from the Outside. They look so wrong. And they confuse me, because somehow I want to touch them. They make me have questions I cannot ask.

“It’s nice here,” Ellis says.

The long grass brushes against my legs and I’m so proud to show him our home. “It’s the most beautiful place in the world,” I say.

“Have you traveled?”

“No,” I say. “I just know it is.” He’s unsettled me again and I don’t know why.

“Well, I’ve lived in enough places,” Ellis says. “And here is definitely one of the most beautiful.” He smiles at me and then looks up at the huge arc of sky above us. “It’s certainly better than where we’ve just come from.”

“You’re lucky. Papa S. rarely lets people from the Outside into Seed.”

“Mom was desperate to come here after she bumped into that Smith guy, but he didn’t think we’d be allowed. It took him a while to persuade your leader.” Ellis laughs lightly. “I think because my mom and Smith knew each other when they were young, you
know, it kind of convinced him.”

The thought of Kindred Smith actually living on the Outside feels so wrong. I try to imagine him as a boy, but my mind won’t let me.

“When she met him again, it was the first time I’d seen her happy in years.” Ellis drifts his hand through the top of the long grass.

Kate is calling to us. We stop as she walks across the meadow. She doesn’t run.

“You went without me,” she says when she reaches us, but she’s smiling.

“I didn’t know where you’d gone,” I say.

“Where are we going?” she asks.

“The lake?” I suggest.

“It’ll be perfect today.”

“Lead the way then,” Ellis says. So we do.

We walk through the strawberry field, rather than around it, carefully stepping in a line over the rows of squat plants. The straw is scratchy on my feet and I tread carefully, not wanting rotten strawberries to squelch between my toes.

Kate stops and touches Ellis’s elbow. “Here,” she says, bending down and reaching under the soft leaves. She passes him a perfectly ripe strawberry. “Try this. I bet you’ve never tasted one like it.”

Ellis puts it whole into his mouth and we watch as his jaw moves. He’s smiling as he eats. He swallows and wipes the juice from his lips. “I think you might be right,” he says.

We keep walking and take him through the vegetable garden. Elizabeth is picking some runner beans.

“Elizabeth,” I say, rushing over to her. “This is Ellis. He’s come to live with us.” I’m speaking too quickly, dizzy in the sunny air.

She smiles at me, then kisses her palm and reaches out to touch Ellis’s chest. “You are very welcome,” she says.

“Thank you,” Ellis replies. I wonder if he thinks she looks like me. Maybe I’ll ask him later.

“We’re going to show him the lake,” Kate says, picking a green bean and crunching it raw into her mouth.

“Hey,” Elizabeth laughs, gently slapping her hand away. “These are for evening meal. In fact, when you’ve shown Ellis the lake, you’d better come back and help me. The gooseberries need picking and sieving.”

“It’s Pearl’s turn for that,” Kate says. “I definitely did them the last time.”

It’s one of the tasks none of us like. The gooseberry thorns are sharp and long. Then there’s the pushing them through the sieve to get rid of the skins. I try not to think badly of it, but it always seems a lot of work for very little to eat.

“I could help you, Pearl,” Ellis says. I hadn’t been expecting it and I feel my cheeks redden. “You’d have to teach me how to do it, though.”

“You’ll be needed in the work barn,” Kate says.

“Talking here won’t get anything done,” Elizabeth interrupts. She rubs the base of her back.

“Come on,” says Kate, and she pulls lightly on Ellis’s arm. I think I should stay and help Elizabeth, but there’s something about Ellis that makes me want to be close to him. Something I don’t understand. So the three of us walk out from the vegetable garden, over the field and into the shade of the trees that hide our lake.