The Life and Time of Lonny Quicke by Kirsty Applebaum

Author:Kirsty Applebaum [Applebaum, Kirsty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Published: 2021-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

“…and there ends our first lifeling story of this year’s festival.” SCREEEEEEEECH. “We’ve not long now before midnight and the Closing of the Gates, so if you’d all like to stand up…”

Everyone mumbles and rustles and gets to their feet.

“Lonny?” Midge tugs at my sleeve.

“…hold up your dandelion clocks…”

Everyone lifts their dandelions.

“Lonny?” Tug, tug, tug. “Their stories are—”

“Shhh,” I say.

“…take a deep breath…”

We all breathe in.

“…and offer those seeds of time to the lifeling folk!”

Whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Everyone blows.

Everyone blows and a million trillion dandelion seeds drift into the floodlit air. A million trillion specks of life. Yellow and white and gold.

Farstoke stands silent. Time floats and bobs and turns and twists like there’s no such thing as gravity at all.

“Wow,” whispers Midge.

“The festival has truly begun,” says David through the megaphone. “And now it’s time to go back into Farstoke –” SCREEEEEEEECH – “for the Closing of the Gates!”

The whole crowd claps and stamps. We drop our stalks to the ground, gather up the blanket and join the mass of people funnelling back in through the Northgate.

“Lonny?” Tug, tug, tug.

“What? Get off my arm.”

“That story,” he whispers. “It’s different from ours. Different from Grandma Quicke’s.”

I know. I don’t need blinkin’ Midge to tell me. I heard for myself.

“Get off.” I yank my sleeve out of his grip.

“But, Lonny, maybe this isn’t such a good idea after all. What if—”

Midge stops, because everyone’s started to sing.

“I’ll sing you one, oh.

Green grow the rushes, oh!

What is your one, oh?

One is one and all alone and evermore shall be so.”

It feels like the whole world is right here, shuffling under the Northgate at midnight, singing this song.

“I’ll sing you four, oh.

Green grow the rushes, oh!

What are your four, oh?

Four for the Gospel makers.”

I kind of remember it from a million years ago, but not really properly. And I can’t quite catch all the words, but the Farstokers know it all the way through. Sometimes they stamp their feet, and sometimes only the women are singing, and sometimes everyone goes loud and sometimes everyone goes soft and I just can’t seem to figure it out at all.

Half of the crowd is already back into Farstoke. Me and Midge and Erin and Katy and Jess are getting nearer and nearer and nearer to the gate.

“Lonny?” Tug, tug, tug. “I don’t think we should go in. They’re gonna close the gates and we won’t be able to get back out again. Did you hear that story? Did you listen to it, Lonny?”

“Get off me, Midge.” I stumble in the dark grass. “Shut up about the stories. I don’t care. I don’t care about any of them. You do whatever you want. I’m going into Farstoke.”

“Midge? Are you OK?” Jess jostles her way across to him. “You must be getting tired – it’s so late. Come on. I’ve got plenty of duvets and pillows; we’ll make you up a nice bed.” She wraps her arm round his shoulders and herds him forward. “I’ve got cocoa and biscuits too.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.