Monsters of Men

“What makes you think 1017 is trustworthy?” I say. “He attacked Viola.”

I squeeze Viola’s hand.

She squeezes it back.

Because I know him, Ben says. I can hear his voice, hear the conflict in it, hear the good that wants to come. He’s like you, Todd. He can’t kill.

I look at the floor at that.

“I think you need to talk to the Mayor,” Viola says to Ben. “I don’t think he’s too happy that you’re back.”

No, Ben says. I got that impression too, though he is very difficult to read, isn’t he? He stands. “But he needs to know the war is over,” he rasps in his spoken voice.

He looks at me and Viola sitting there, gives another little smile, and then leaves us in the tent.

We don’t say nothing for a minute.

Or for another minute more.

And then I tell her the thought that’s been coming ever since I saw Ben.

{VIOLA}

“I wanna go back to old Prentisstown,” Todd says.

“What?” I say, surprised, even though I’d seen it swirling in his Noise.

“Maybe not old Prentisstown itself,” he says. “But not here.”

I sit up. “Todd, we’ve barely started–”

“But we will start and soon,” he says, still holding my hand. “The ships’ll come and the settlers will wake up and then there’ll be a new city. With all new people.” He looks away. “After living in one for a while, I don’t think I like cities much.”

His Noise is getting quieter now that Ben’s left, but I can still see him imagining life after the convoy, things getting back to normal, people spreading up the river again. “And you want to go,” I say.

He looks back to me. “I want you to come with me. And Ben. And Wilf and Jane, maybe. Bradley, too, if he wants, and that Mistress Lawson seems nice. Why couldn’t we all make a town of it? A town far away from all this.” He sighs. “A town far from the Mayor.”

“But he needs to be watched–”

“There’ll be 5000 new people who’ll know all about what he is.” He looks down at the ground again. “Besides, I think maybe I’ve done all I can for him,” he says. “And I’m tired.”

The way he says it makes me realize how tired I am, too, how tired I am of all of this, and how tired he must be, how tired he looks, how worn out and through with it all, and my throat starts to clench with the feeling of it.

“I want to go away from here,” he says. “And I want you to come with me.”

And we sit there in silence for a good long while.

“He’s in your head, Todd,” I finally say. “I saw him there. Like you’re connected somehow.”

Todd sighs again at the word connected. “I know,” he says. “That’s why I wanna go. I came close but I ain’t forgot who I am. Ben reminded me of all I ever need to know. And, yeah, I’m connected to the Mayor, too, but I’ve pulled him away from all this war stuff.”

“Did you see what he did with the crowd?”

“It’s almost over,” Todd says. “We’ll have peace, he’ll have his victory, and he won’t need me, even tho he thinks he does. The convoy’ll come, he’ll be the hero but he’ll be outnumbered, and we’ll get the hell outta here, okay?”

“Todd–”

“It’s almost over,” he says again. “And I can hang on till it is.”

And then he looks at me in a different way.

His Noise keeps getting quieter, but I can see it there still–

See how he feels the skin of my hand against his, see how he wants to take it and press it to his mouth, how he wants to breathe in the smell of me and how beautiful I look to him, how strong after all that illness, and how he wants to just lightly touch my neck, just there, and how he wants to take me in his arms and–

“Oh, God,” he says, looking away suddenly. “Viola, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean–”

But I just put my hand up to the back of his neck–

And he says, “Viola–?”

And I pull myself towards him–

And I kiss him.

And it feels like, finally.

[TODD]

“I’m in complete agreement,” the Mayor says to Ben.

You are? Ben says, surprised.

We’re all gathered round the campfire, Viola sitting next to me.

Holding my hand again.

Holding like she ain’t never gonna let it go.

“Of course I am,” the Mayor says. “As I’ve said many times, peace is what I want. It’s what I genuinely want. Believe it out of self-interest if nothing else.”

Excellent then, Ben says. We’ll continue with the council as planned. That is, if your injuries will allow you to take part?

The Mayor’s eyes spark a little. “What injuries would those be, Mr Moore?”

There’s a stillness as we all see the burn gel covering his face and the bandages on the back of his neck and head.

But no, he don’t look like he’s feeling any injuries at all.

“In the meantime,” the Mayor says, “there are certain things that need to be done right away, certain assurances to be made.”

“Assurances to who?” Viola asks.

“The people on the far hilltop, for one,” the Mayor says. “They may not be gathering themselves into the Army of the Martyress just yet, but I would feel no surprise if Mistress Coyle had left instructions with Mistress Braithwaite should she fail. Someone needs to go back up there and settle things.”

“I’ll go,” Mistress Lawson says, frowning. “The mistresses will listen to me.”

“Me, too,” says Lee, aiming his Noise away from me and Viola.

“And our friend Wilf to drive them,” says the Mayor.

We all look up at that. “I’ll fly them,” Bradley says.

“And be gone all night?” the Mayor asks, looking at him hard (and I wonder if I hear the hum–) “Not to return until morning with a burn unit far surpassing anything we have in the city? Plus, I think you, Bradley, need to go back to the Spackle today, right now, with Ben and Viola.”

“What?” Viola says. “But we agreed on tomorrow–”

“By tomorrow, the schism Mistress Coyle wanted may have taken firmer hold,” the Mayor says. “How much better if you, hero of the first talks, come back tonight with matters already settled? With, for example, a river flowing slowly down the banks?”