Once they’d reached the junction of three pedestrianised streets, which would be a busy thoroughfare once the surrounding shops opened, the experienced younger men set up the stall in surprisingly quick time. Robin helped set out the merchandise and pin glossy posters of UHC projects to the front of the stall.
She’d hoped to be given a collecting box, because that would give her most freedom; she might even be able to slip into a shop and check a newspaper. However, Taio told her to man the stall with Vivienne. He then informed those departing to collect money so that members ‘averaged’ a hundred pounds a day. While he didn’t say so explicitly, Robin could tell that the collectors got the message that they shouldn’t come back without that amount, and she watched in frustration as Emily and Jiang, who’d been put in a pair together, walked out of sight.
Once the surrounding shops had opened, the numbers of people passing the stall increased steadily. Taio hung around for the first hour, watching Robin and Vivienne interact with customers and critiquing them between sales. The cuddly turtles, which were popular with children, were the biggest draw. Taio told Robin and Vivienne that if people decided not to buy a turtle or a corn dolly, they should still be offered the collecting box for a donation to the church’s projects, a strategy that was surprisingly effective: most of those they asked donated a few coins or even a note to escape the awkwardness of not having bought anything.
At last, to Robin’s relief, Taio left to check how those with collecting boxes were getting on. As soon as he was out of earshot, Vivienne turned to Robin and said, in her usual would-be working-class voice that lapsed when she forgot herself,
‘I can’t believe ’e let Emily come.’
‘Why?’ asked Robin.
‘Don’t you know abou’ what happened in Birmingham?’
‘No, what?’
Vivienne glanced around, then said in a lower voice,
‘She got into a CR with a guy up there.’
This, Robin knew, meant a relationship anybody outside the church would consider unexceptionaclass="underline" a monogamous partnership beginning in mutual sexual attraction, which the UHC considered an unhealthy extension of the possession instinct.
‘Oh, wow,’ said Robin. ‘I didn’t know.’
‘Yeah, but that’s not all,’ said Vivienne. ‘She told the guy a ton of lies that made ’im question his faith, and he ended up talking to a church elder about it, which is why she got relocated to Chapman Farm.’
‘Wow,’ said Robin again. ‘What kind of lies?’
Again, Vivienne glanced around before speaking.
‘OK, don’t spread this around, but you know ’ow she and Becca knew the Drowned Prophet?’
‘Yes, I’ve heard that,’ said Robin.
‘Well, it was stuff about Daiyu, apparently. Just utter shit.’
‘What did she tell him?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Vivienne, ‘but it was so bad, this guy nearly left the church.’
‘How d’you know all this?’ asked Robin, careful to sound admiring of Vivienne’s superior knowledge.
‘I got talking to one of the other girls who got relocated. She told me Emily and this guy were, like, sneaking off together and refusing spirit bonding with anyone else. It was pure materialism. The girl thinks Emily was actually trying to make him go DV with her.’
‘That’s terrible,’ said Robin.
‘I know,’ said Vivienne. ‘Apparently, they had to drag her onto the minibus. She was shouting “I love you” at the guy.’ Vivienne’s expression was disgusted. ‘Can you imagine? But thank God he just walked away.’
‘Yeah,’ said Robin. ‘Thank God.’
Vivienne turned away to serve a mother whose small child had dragged her over to look at the plush turtles. When they’d departed, the little boy clutching his new turtle, Vivienne turned back to Robin.
‘You know Papa J’s been in LA?’ Her voice softened as she said ‘Papa J’; clearly, Robin’s companion was now as thoroughly smitten with the church’s founder as most of the women at Chapman Farm, and indeed some of the men. ‘Well, he’s coming back next week.’
‘Really?’ said Robin.
‘Yeah. He always comes back for the Manifestation of the Drowned Prophet… Have you spirit bonded with him?’
‘No,’ said Robin. ‘Have you?’
‘No,’ sighed Vivienne, her longing quite evident.
Taio came back several times over the next couple of hours to check how much money was in the strongbox underneath the table. On one of these occasions, he arrived chewing, and brushed flakes of what looked like pastry from around his mouth. He neither suggested that the other two eat anything, nor brought them any food.
Hours passed, and Robin started to feel light-headed by what she knew, from the position of the sun, must be mid-afternoon. Inured though she was to hunger and tiredness at the farm, it was a new challenge to stand on one spot for so long, having to smile, make cheerful conversation and proselytise for the church while the sun beat down on you, and without even the usual meal of sloppy noodles and overcooked vegetables to sustain her.
‘Robin!’
‘Yes?’
She turned automatically towards the person who’d spoken her name, and one second of icy horror later, realised what she’d done. A little boy who was holding a plush, red-breasted bird in one hand, and introducing it to the turtle his father had just bought him. Vivienne was looking at Robin strangely.
‘It’s my nickname,’ Robin told Vivienne, forcing a laugh, as the father and son walked away. ‘It’s what my sis—I mean, one of my flesh objects calls me, sometimes.’
‘Oh,’ said Vivienne. ‘Why’s she call you Robin?’
‘She had a book about Robin Hood,’ Robin invented wildly. ‘It was her favourite, before I was born. She wanted my parents to call me Rob—’
She broke off. Taio was running down the street towards them, red-faced and sweaty: heads turned as he galumphed past shoppers in his white tracksuit, his face both angry and panicked.
‘Problem,’ he panted, on arriving at the stall. ‘Emily’s gone.’
‘What?’ gasped Vivienne.
‘Fucking Jiang,’ said Taio. ‘Give me the strongbox and pack up the merchandise. We’ve got to find her.’
66
DECREASE combined with sincerity…
It furthers one to undertake something.
How is this to be carried out?
One may use two small bowls for the sacrifice.
The I Ching or Book of Changes
When Taio had run off clutching the strongbox, Robin and Vivienne stripped the stall, leaving the metal frame standing.
‘Just leave all that,’ said Vivienne in panic, as Robin stuffed the last of the turtles and corn dollies back into their boxes. ‘Oh my God. What if she’s gone DV?’
The collecting box rattled in Robin’s hands as she and Vivienne set off at a jog up Castle Street. Robin wondered at Vivienne’s total, unquestioning acceptance of the fact that a grown woman choosing to break away from the group was dangerous. Did nothing about Vivienne’s own panic make her ask why such strict control was necessary? Apparently not: Vivienne was darting into every shop they passed, as alarmed as a mother might be on finding out her toddler had gone missing. In their matching white tracksuits, with the noisy collecting box clutched to Robin’s chest, the pair drew more startled looks from passers-by.