The Peacock Cloak by Chris Beckett Page B

slightly away from his friend, so Ernesto couldn’t see the strain in his face.
    “So?” asked Ernesto. “What did you hear in your head, David? What wisdom came to you through the channel of pure mystical being?”
    “I didn’t pay much attention,” David said shortly. “You know what, though. I really wish Juan would listen to me a bit more, and do what I ask him to do, instead whatever he happens to think best. The Agency pays his salary after all.”
    He still hadn’t noticed his daughter following quietly behind them.
    “I heard the voice telling me that I was second rate,” sighed Ernesto, “and that no matter how hard I tried, I would never be as good a scientist as you.”
    In the kitchen, Paula was sobbing on Sheema’s shoulder. No one asked her what she ’ d heard in her head.
    David noticed Cassie and told her to go to bed.

    Some nights were sobbing nights. Some were sniffing and snivelling ones. But that night, after Sheema and Ernesto had gone, was the worst kind. Tonight was a wailing night.
    “I can’t stand those things, David. I can’t stand them. Can’t you see that? I just can’t bear another whole year of them. Why can’t you get that? Why doesn’t it matter to you? I know you don’t love me, but don’t you care about me one little bit? Don’t you care at least about the children?”
    “The children are fine with goblins, you know that. And please keep your voice down, or Cassie will hear us.”
    “They’re not fine with goblins. You really don’t understand anything do you? Cassie pretends she’s fine with them as way of coping and trying to keep the peace.”
    “No I don’t,” hissed Cassie in the darkness. “Stop lying about me. Stop lying .”
    She banged angrily on the wall. Her parents’ voices subsided immediately to a murmur, but she knew the wailing would soon start up again.
    “Run away, why don’t you?” asked a voice inside her head. “Why hold on to this dream?”
    She went to the window. Sure enough, the goblins had come back. They were squatting side by side with their backs against the fence.
    Cassie sighed. It was only a matter of time before Paula also sensed their presence, and then there would be no peace at all.

    “My dad said you had goblins round yours last night,” said Carmelo next day in the school playground.
    Cassie was in her usual refuge, a place close to the fence where she could squat down behind a spongy clump of pink vegetation and be shielded from the general view. Juan’s son had come over specially to seek her out. He was dark and wiry, with clever mocking eyes.
    Cassie shrugged. “Yeah, we did. I didn’t mind though. I quite like them.”
    Beyond the fence lay the silent, empty forest.
    “You quite like them?”
    The boy took a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. He was only eleven but he drew the thick soupy smoke into his lungs like a smoker of many years, releasing it slowly with a contented sigh.
    He squatted down beside her.
    “Dad said your mum yelled and yelled when those goblins came back again in the night.”
    “Yes, she did. We had to get your dad out of bed again to chase them away. Mum hates goblins.”
    “Well, that makes one person in your family who’s got a bit of sense.”
    “Why? What’s the harm in goblins?”
    “They slowly take over your head, Agency girl. Slowly, slowly. Funny thoughts and dreams: that’s just the beginning. Next thing you know, you’ve forgotten who you are or where you came from, and then you belong to them. That’s why we shoot them and string them up. We’d be goblins ourselves if we didn’t.”
    He drew in more smoke and regarded her with narrowed eyes as he let it back out through his mouth and nose. The two of them were still only children, but there was a certain electric charge between them all the same. Carmelo constantly mocked Cassie for her stuck-up Agency ways, and she scolded him for his ignorant settler beliefs, and yet he often came on his own like this