The Ask and the Answer

“You were always the truer son, Todd,” the Mayor says. “The one with the potential, the one with the power, the one I’d be proud to have serve by my side.”

Pa? Davy’s Noise says–

And he’s hearing all of this–

“You effing monster,” I say. “I’ll kill you–”

“You’ll join me,” the Mayor says. “You know you will. It’s only a matter of time. David was weak, an embarrassment–”

“SHUT UP!” I shout.

Todd? I hear–

I look down–

Davy’s looking up at me–

His Noise swirling–

Swirling with askings and confuzhun and fear–

And Todd?–

Todd?–

I’m sorry–

“Davy, don’t–” I start to say–

But his Noise is still swirling–

And I see–

I see–

I see the truth–

Here at the last–

He’s showing me the truth–

The thing he’s been hiding from me–

About Ben–

All in a messy rush–

Pictures of Ben racing up the road towards Davy–

Pictures of Davy’s horse rearing–

Pictures of Davy firing his gun as he falls–

Pictures of the bullet hitting Ben in the chest–

Pictures of Ben staggering out into the bushes–

Davy too scared to go after him–

Davy too scared to tell me the truth after–

After I became his only friend–

I didn’t mean it, his Noise is saying–

“Davy–” I say–

I’m sorry, he thinks–

And that’s the truth all over–

He is sorry–

For everything–

For Prentisstown–

For Viola–

For Ben–

For every failure and every wrong–

For letting his pa down–

And he’s looking up at me–

And he’s begging me–

He’s begging me–

Like I’m the only one who can forgive him–

Like it’s only me who’s got the power–

Todd?–

Please–

And all I can say is “Davy–”

And the fright and the terror in his Noise is too much–

It’s too much–

And then it stops.

Davy slumps, eyes still open, eyes still staring back at me, eyes still asking (I swear) for me to forgive him.

And he lies there, still.

Davy Prentiss is dead.

{VIOLA}

“You’re insane,” I say to the Mayor behind me.

“No,” he says. “You’ve been right all along, both of you. Never love something so much it can be used to control you.”

The sun is down now but the sky is still pink, the Noise of the town still ROARs, there’s another Boom! in the distance as the Answer approaches, and the ship must have landed by now. Its doors must be opening. Someone, probably Simone Watkin or Bradley Tench, people I know, people who know me, must be looking out, wondering what sort of place they’ve landed in.

And Todd kneels over the body of Davy Prentiss.

And then Todd looks up–

His Noise is boiling and burning and I can hear the grief in it and the shame and the rage–

And he gets to his feet–

And he raises his rifle–

I see myself in his Noise, I see the Mayor there, too, behind me, rifle pointed, eyes glinting with triumph.

And I know exactly what Todd is going to do.

“Do it,” I say, my stomach dropping but it’s right right right–

And Todd raises the rifle to his eye–

“Do it!”

And the Mayor shoves me hard, sending lightnings of pain up my legs, and I can’t help it and I scream out and fall forward, forward towards Todd, forward towards the ground–

And the Mayor does it again–

Uses me to control Todd–

Because Todd can’t help it either–

He jumps to catch me–

To catch me when I’m falling–

And the Mayor attacks.

[TODD]

My brain explodes, burning and raging with everything he fires at it and it ain’t nothing like a slap at all, it’s like fiery metal poked right into the centre of who I am, and as I jump forward to catch Viola, it hits me so hard my head snaps back and here it comes again, the Mayor’s voice but somehow my voice, too, somehow hers as well and all of ’em saying YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING–

Our bodies are still moving together and I feel us tumble into one another, feel the top of her skull crack into my mouth, and YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING she falls into my chest and my fumbling arms and we twist down onto the rubble together, a siren ripping off the roof of my head YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING and I feel the rifle fall and bounce away and I feel the weight of her against me and I hear her as if from the other side of the moons and she’s calling my name and YER NOTHING she’s saying “Todd” YER NOTHING YER NOTHING she’s saying “Todd!” and it’s as if I’m watching her from under water and I see her try to rise up on her hands to protect me but the Mayor’s above her and swinging his rifle by the barrel and smacking her across the back of her head and she’s falling to one side–

And my brain is boiling–

My brain is boiling–

YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING–

And I see her eyes as they’re closing–

And I feel her against me–

And I think Viola–

I think VIOLA!

I think VIOLA!!!!

And the Mayor steps away from me like he’s been stung.

“Whoo,” he says, shaking his head as I blink away the buzz still rocketing from my brain, as my eyes refocus and my thoughts are mine again. “Told you you had some power in you, boy.”

And his eyes are wide and bright and eager.

And he hits me again with his Noise.

I fling my hands up to my ears (not holding the gun, not holding the gun) as if that’ll stop it but it ain’t thru yer ears that you hear Noise and he’s in there, inside my head, inside my self, invading it like I don’t have any self at all YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING my own Noise swept up and hit against me, like I’m punching myself with my own fists YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING–

Viola, I think but I’m disappearing, I’m falling deeper into it, I’m weaker and my brain is rattling–