Doctor Who: Beyond the Sun by Matthew Jones

Author:Matthew Jones
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction:Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780426205111
Publisher: Virgin
Published: 1997-07-17T10:00:00+00:00

12

VERY WISE WITH MY HIPS

Extract from the diary of Bernice Summerfield

Errol is getting stronger by the hour. The last couple of days he’s been sitting up in bed watching us rehearse, looking restless and impatient. He keeps talking about suing the university (and me!) for the loss of his ship. I told him that if we get out of this alive I’ll be his star witness. He’s looking more like a human being and less like someone could fax him to his grave. This has to be a good sign.

And I feel more like a human being. I feel like me again. Another good sign, I think. I hope. I can’t excuse what I did, but I can try to understand it. Maybe the more our lives become about just surviving, the harsher we become. Until suddenly I’m standing there in a jackboot uniform holding someone’s life in my hands. I always thought a chasm separated me from being a soldier.

And then I look around and realize that I’ve become one of the monsters. I’m the one in the figure-hugging patent-leather catsuit. I think, for the moment at least, we can put that particular costume back on the rail.

Which is very wise with my hips.

The kids are in strange moods. The usual banter between Emile and Tameka is conspicuous by its absence, the upside of which is that our communal life in the dorm is quieter. Tameka is being curiously polite to the boy, which is very suspect in itself. Yesterday she even gave him a haircut, cutting the blond out of his hair. She’s no longer wearing her Gothic make-up – she looks more Mexican – and they are both starting to look like Ursulans. More natural, somehow, which seems strange, because the society is artificial, so deliberately designed and manufactured. Tameka is also spending more time with Scott, who, it has to be said, seems a little uneasy with the attention.

Idealistic boy meets cynical girl: damage estimated at ten thousand shillings.

In rehearsals, Emile is enthusiastic and full of energy. He’s practically choreographed the whole show. Mind you, he’s had plenty of practice. Well, what else is there for a young boy to do on an artificial satellite but lip-synch in the mirror to disco anthems with a hairbrush for a microphone?

Outside rehearsals Emile is quiet and withdrawn. I’m intrigued by what is going on, but I also feel a bit like a mum who is prying into affairs which don’t really concern her. An overprotective parent who doesn’t know when to let her babies get on with it.

I think I may be taking this loco parentis lark a bit too far. Please don’t let me be getting broody. Not again.

I spent a whole day with Scott’s brother Michael for the first time yesterday. We went searching for costumes for the show. He took me to a boarded-up theatre on the other side of the city. We had to break in through a back window. The stage looked like it had been abandoned mid-rehearsal.

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