‘I understand.' said Gluck. Truly I do.'

He unbuttoned his jacket, and opened it. Cal's heartbeat unaccountably quickened, but all the man was doing was fishing in his inside pocket for his visiting card.

‘Here.' he said. ‘Please. Take it.'

A. V. Gluck, the card announced, and below the Birmingham address a phrase, in red ink:

What is now proved was once only imagined.

‘Who's the quote from?'

‘William Blake.' said Gluck. ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Would you keep the card? If anything should occur to you; anything ... anomalous ... I'd like to hear from you.'

Til keep it in mind,' Cal said. He looked at the card again. ‘What does V. stand for?' he asked.

‘Virgil,' Gluck confided. ‘Well,' he said, ‘everybody should have some little secret, don't you think?'

2

Cal kept the card, more as a keepsake of the encounter than in the expectation of using it. He'd enjoyed the man's company, in its off-beat way, but it was probably a performance best enjoyed once only. Twice might stale its eccentric charm.

When Geraldine got back he began to tell her about the visit, then thought better of it, and diverted the conversation to another subject entirely. He knew she'd laugh at his giving the fellow a minute of his attention, and, outlandish as Gluck and his theories were, he didn't want to hear the man mocked, however gently.

Maybe the man had taken the wrong turning, but at least he'd travelled some extraordinary roads. Though Cal could no longer remember why, he had the suspicion that they had that in common.

‘All rising to great place is by a winding stair.'

Sir Francis Bacon

Essays

I

THE MESSENGER

1

Spring was late that year, the March days murky, the nights frost-bitten. It sometimes seemed winter would never end; that the world would go on like this, grey upon grey, until entropy claimed its little life entirely.

The weeks brought bad times for Suzanna and Jerichau. It wasn't Hobart that caused them: indeed she even got to thinking that a reminder of their jeopardy might usefully shake them from their complacency.

But, while she suffered from lethargy and ennui, Jerichau's response to these weeks was in its way far more alarming. The pleasure he took in the inconsequentia of the Kingdom, which had been a source of amusement to them both, now took on the quality of an obsession. He lost entirely his capacity for stillness, which had initially drawn her to him. Now he was full of spurious energy, spouting advertising catch-phrases and jingles which he soaked up - Babu that he was - like a sponge, his talk an imitation of the flipness of television detectives and game-show hosts. They argued often, sometimes bitterly; he'd more often than not walk out in the middle of such exchanges, as if anger were not worth his sweat, only to return with some booty - usually drink - which he'd consume in sullen solitude if he couldn't get Suzanna to join him.

She tried to satisfy his restlessness by keeping them on the move, but it only exacerbated the disease. Privately she began to despair, as she pictured history repeating itself two generations on, with her cast in Mimi's role.

And then, not a moment too soon, the weather began to improve, and her spirits started to rise. She even dared entertain the hope that the chase had actually stopped; their pursuers given up and gone home. In a month or so, perhaps, they could with some confidence go in search of a haven to begin the unweaving again.

But then came the glad tidings.

2

They were in a small town outside Coventry, rejoicing in the name of Fatherless Barn; as good a reason as any to be there. The day being bright, and the sun almost warm, they'd decided to risk leaving the carpet in storage at the boarding house they'd found, and take the air together.

Jerichau had just emerged from a confectioner's, his pockets full of white chocolate, his current passion, when somebody brushed past Suzanna, saying: ‘Left and left', then hurried on without looking back.

Jerichau had heard the words too, and he instantly followed both stranger and instructions. She called after him, but he wasn't about to be waylaid. He turned left at the first intersection. Suzanna went in pursuit, cursing his indiscretion, which had already drawn some attention. Left and left again brought her into the narrowest of streets, where the sun surely seldom came. There Jerichau was embracing the stranger like a long lost brother.

It was Nimrod.

3

‘You were so difficult to find,' he said, when they returned to the seclusion of the boarding house, taking a dog's leg so that Jerichau could steal a bottle of celebratory champagne. ‘I almost caught up with you in Hull, then lost you. But somebody remembered you at your hotel. Said you'd got drunk, Jerichau, is that right? And been helped to bed.'. ‘Could be,' said Jerichau. ‘Anyhow, here I am, and with great news.' ‘What?' said Suzanna. ‘We're going back home. Very soon.' ‘How do you know?' ‘Capra says so.'

‘Capra?' said Jerichau. It was enough to make him neglect his glass. ‘How can that be?'

The Prophet says so. It's all planned. Capra speaks to him -' ‘Wait. Wait!' said Suzanna. ‘What Prophet?' ‘He says we have to spread the word,' said Nimrod, his enthusiasm boundless. ‘Find the ones who left the Weave, and tell them liberation's at hand. I've been all over, doing just that. It was by chance I got wind of you. What luck, eh? Nobody knew where you were -'

‘And that was the way it was meant to stay,' said Suzanna. ‘I was to make contact in my time, when ,'judged the trail had grown cold.'

‘It is cold,' said Nimrod. ‘Stone cold. Surely you must have noticed that?' Suzanna kept her silence. ‘Our enemies have given up the chase,' he went on. ‘The Prophet knows that. He tells us what Capra says, and Capra says our Suppression is at an end.'

‘Who is this Prophet?' said Suzanna. Nimrod's excited flow ceased. He frowned as he stared at her.

The Prophet is the Prophet,' he said. No further explanation was necessary, it seemed.

‘You don't even know his name?' she said.

‘He lived near the Gyre,' said Nimrod. That much I do know. A hermit, he was, until the weaving. That night, last summer, Capra called him. He left the Weave, to begin his teachings. The tyranny of the Cuckoos is nearly at an end -'

‘I'll believe that when I see it,' said Suzanna.

‘You will,' said Nimrod, with the unshakeable fervour of a true convert. This time, the earth will rise with us. That's

what people are saying. The Cuckoos have made too much mischief. Their Age is over.'

‘Sounds like wish-fulfilment to me.'

‘You may doubt -' said Nimrod.

‘I do.'

‘- but I've seen the Prophet. I've heard his words. And they come from Capra.' His eyes glittered with evangelical glee. ‘I was in the gutter when the Prophet found me. Broken in pieces. Prey to every Cuckoo sickness. Then I heard the Prophet's voice, and went to him. Now look at me.'

Suzanna had argued with zealots before - her brother had been bom again at twenty-three, and given his life to Christ - she knew from experience there was no gainsaying the bigotry of faith. Indeed there was part of her wanted to join the happy throng of believers Nimrod described; throw off the burden of the carpet and let the Fugue begin its life afresh. She was weary of being afraid to meet anybody's eye, of forever passing through. Any pleasure she might have taken in being an outsider, possessed of a wonderful secret, had long since soured. Now she wanted to have her fingers in clay again, or sit flirting with friends. But tempting as it was, she couldn't accept this cant and be silent. It stank.

‘How do you know he doesn't mean us all harm?' she said.