We both look up into the sun.
“If one of us falls, we all fall,” she says. “What does that even mean?”
Which, when I really think about it, I realize I don’t know and so I don’t say nothing and we just sink back into the Here and let it take us a little farther.
Here we are.
Not nowhere else.
After an hour or a week or a second, the creachers start thinning and we come out the other side of the herd. Manchee jumps down off the cart. We’re going slow enough that there’s no danger of him getting left behind so I let him. We’re not thru lying there on the cart just yet.
“That was amazing,” Viola says quietly, cuz the song is already starting to disappear. “I forgot all about how much my feet hurt.”
“Yeah,” I say.
“What were those?”
“’Em big thangs,” Wilf says, not turning round. “Jus thangs, thass all.”
Viola and I look at each other, like we forgot he was even there.
How much have we given away?
“’Em thangs got a name?” Viola asks, sitting up, acting her lie again.
“Oh, sure,” Wilf says, giving the oxes freer rein now that we’re outta the herd. “Packy Vines or Field Baysts or Anta Fants.” We see him shrug from behind. “I just call ’em thangs, thass all.”
“Thangs,” Viola says.
“Things,” I try.
Wilf looks back over his shoulder at us. “Say what, y’all from Farbranch?” he asks.
“Yessir,” Viola says with a look at me.
Wilf nods at her. “Y’all bin seen that there army?”
My Noise spikes real loud before I can quiet it but again Wilf don’t seem to notice. Viola looks at me, worry on her forehead.
“And what army’s that, Wilf?” she says, the voice missing a little.
“That there army from cursed town,” he says, still driving along like we’re talking about vegetables. “That there army come outta swamp, come takin settlements, growin as it comes? Y’all bin seen that?”
“Where’d yoo hear bout an army, Wilf?”
“Stories,” Wilf says. “Stories a-come chatterin down the river. People talkin. Ya know. Stories. Y’all bin seen that?’’
I shake my head at Viola but she says, “Yeah, we seen it.”
Wilf looks back over his shoulder again. “Zit big?”
“Very big,” Viola says, looking at him seriously. “Ya gotta prepare yerself, Wilf. There’s danger comin. Yoo need to warn Brockley Hills.”
“Brockley Falls,” Wilf corrects her.
“Ya gotta warn ’em, Wilf.”
We hear Wilf grunt and then we realize it’s a laugh. “Ain’t nobody lissnen to Wilf, I tell ya what,” he says, almost to himself, then strikes the reins on the oxes again.
It takes most of the rest of the afternoon to get to the other side of the plain. Thru Viola’s binos we can see the herd of things still crossing in the distance, from south to north, like they’re never gonna run out. Wilf don’t say nothing more about the army. Viola and I keep our talking to a bare minimum so we don’t give any more away. Plus, it’s so hard to keep my Noise clear it’s taking mosta my concentrayshun. Manchee follows along on the road, doing his business and sniffing every flower.
When the sun is low in the sky, the cart finally creaks to a halt.
“Brockley Falls,” Wilf says, nodding his head to where we can see in the distance the river tumbling off a low cliff. There’s fifteen or twenty buildings gathered round the pond at the bottom of the falls before the river starts up again. A smaller road turns off from this one and leads down to it.
“We’re getting off here,” Viola says and we hop down, taking our bags from the cart.
“Thought ya mite,” Wilf says, looking back over his shoulder at us again.
“Thank ya, Wilf,” she says.
“Welcome,” he says, staring off into the distance. “Best take shelter ’fore too long. Gone rain.”
Both Viola and me automatically look straight up. There ain’t a cloud in the sky.
“Mmm,” Wilf says. “No one lissnen to Wilf.”
Viola looks back at him, her voice returning to itself, trying to get the point to him clearly. “You have to warn them, Wilf. Please. If you’re hearing that an army’s coming, then you’re right and people have to be ready.”
All Wilf says is “Mmm” again before snapping the reins and turning the oxes down the split road towards Brockley Falls. He don’t even look back once.
We watch him go for a while and then turn back to our own road.
“Ow,” Viola says, stretching out her legs as she steps forward.
“I know,” I say. “Mine too.”
“You think he was right?” Viola says.
“Bout what?”
“About the army getting bigger as it marches.” She imitates his voice again. “Growin as it comes.”
“How do you do that?” I ask. “Yer not even from here.”
She shrugs. “A game I used to play with my mother,” she says. “Telling a story, using different voices for every character.”
“Can you do my voice?” I ask, kinda tentative.
She grins. “So you can have a conversayshun with yerself?”
I frown. “That don’t sound nothing like me.”
We head back down the road, Brockley Falls disappearing behind us. The time on the cart was nice but it weren’t sleep. We try to go as fast as we can but most times that ain’t much more than a walk. Plus maybe the army really is caught far behind, really will have to wait behind the creachers.
Maybe. Maybe not. But within the half hour, you know what?
It’s raining.
“People should listen to Wilf,” Viola says, looking up.
The road’s found its way back down near the river and we find a reasonably sheltered spot twixt the two. We’ll eat our dinner, see if the rain stops. If it don’t we got no choice but to walk in it anyway. I haven’t even checked to see if Ben packed me a mac.
“What’s a mac?” Viola asks as we sit down against different trees.
“A raincoat,” I say, looking thru my rucksack. Nope, no mac. Great. “And what did I say bout listening too close?”
I still feel a little calm, if you wanna know the truth, tho I probably shouldn’t. The song of Here still feels like it’s being sung, even if I can’t hear it, even if it’s miles away back on the plain. I find myself humming it, even tho it don’t have a tune, trying to get that feeling of connectedness, of belonging, of having someone there to say that you’re Here.