Dreamland by Rosa Rankin-Gee

Author:Rosa Rankin-Gee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner UK
Published: 2021-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

This silence as the doors shut behind us. The smell of fresh paint again. We were led through a wide doorway, two, then through to a room full of tables. The guards followed behind us. I looked back once or twice. Uniforms in patches of changing grey, camouflage shapes but for a city rather than anywhere green. When we stopped, a couple of the guards walked ahead. They made a five-man circle around us. I knew the room. It used to be a dance hall. High ceilings. Big windows. The windows were blacked out.

‘Where’s the one I been speaking to?’ Kole said, trying to prove his in. Now the crowd couldn’t see him, his manners were back. This thin surface of pallyness. My heart wouldn’t settle down. I tried to cough the feeling away.

Suddenly, the door to the room started to push open and my stomach spun like a coin thinking it might be you. But no, it was a man in a suit, no tie, who walked in.

‘This man I seen…’ Kole said. ‘I seen you,’ he said to him. ‘I seen you in the photos with the big man. Is he coming down or what? Meyer?’

The man seemed cold, bored. He didn’t answer the question. ‘I won’t take up too much of your time,’ he said, which meant we shouldn’t take up much of his.

I looked at him. Salt and pepper hair, barely any wrinkles. A tiny bit shiny between his eyebrows, a scar running along his nose. He looked at both of our hands like he might shake them, then decided against it. Took a little step back instead, like he didn’t want to share our air.

‘This is my daughter,’ Kole said. ‘Chance.’

‘Not your daughter.’ I pulled away, but he gripped my shoulder.

‘Chance,’ the man said. ‘What a fortunate name.’

‘It’s not yours though, is it?’ I said. Kole’s fingertips pushed harder against my skin. ‘And it seems I don’t have much luck.’

Kole laughed then, his take-up space laugh. One of his teeth was so chipped, it looked like a saw. He was smiling though, doing sweetness and light. ‘Be nice,’ Kole said to me. I wasn’t used to him playing any kind of long game. He turned to the man in the suit. ‘Got stuff to deal with, you see,’ he said to him. ‘Money for one, then I want to know more about this – this… thing you lot are building.’

‘People were saying it was flats, a new hospital,’ I said. ‘Something good.’

‘I hear they’re calling it a wall outside,’ the man said. ‘Which is all very well if you’re in pursuit of drama. Sorry to be prosaic, but it’s sea protection. And it’s been in the pipeline for many years. Every single person was informed.’

‘No, they weren’t,’ I said. I stared at him.

‘There were letters.’

The letter I’d taken so long to open. The letter I’d read high. C-protection. Containment. ‘Well they didn’t say where your barrier things would be.’

‘What did you imagine, may I ask?’ the man went on.

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