Downstairs could be heard Johnny's voice in energetic debate with the playwright. Geoffrey, who had nearly toppled forward, asleep, got up, and with an apology, left the room, followed by James. Frances was overwhelmed with shame, but was pleased they had gone, for at least the girls could be trusted not to nod off while sitting and holding pretty teacups as if they had never done anything else. Not Rose, of course, she was in a corner, apart.
Julia said, ‘I think the windows...’ Sylvia at once went to close them, and drew the heavy curtains, lined and interlined brocade, which had faded after sixty years to a greenish blue that made Frances's blue look crude. Rose had threatened to pull down the curtains and make herself a dress ' like Scarlet O' Hara's' , and when Sylvia had said, ‘But, Rose, I am sure Julia wouldn't like that,’ said, ‘You can't take a joke, you've got no sense ofhumour. ‘Which was certainly true.
Andrew now said that he knew they were all besotted barbarians but if she could have seen the meal they had just put away Julia would forgive them.
Her stollen, her cake, lay in untouched slices on the tiny green plates, that had pink rosebuds on them.
A burst of laughter from downstairs. Julia smiled ironically. She did smile but there were tears in her eyes. ‘Oh, Julia, ' crooned Sylvia, going to her, putting her arms around her, so that her cheek lay on the silvery cap of waves and little curls, ‘We do love your lovely tea, we do, but if you only knew...'
‘Yes, yes, yes,’ said Julia. ‘Yes, I know. ' She got up. Wilhelm Stein got up and put his arm around her, patting her hand. The two distinguished people stood together in the middle of the room which made such a frame for them, and then Julia said, ‘Well, my children, and now I think that is enough. '
She exited, on Wilhelm's arm.
No one moved, then Andrew and Colin stretched their arms out and yawned. Sylvia and Sophie began gathering up the tea things. Rose, Franklin and Lucy went off to join the lively group in the kitchen. Frances did not move.
Johnny and Derek were seated at either end of the table, conducting a kind of seminar. Johnny was reading passages from A Revolution Handbook which he had written and had published by a respectable publisher. It was making some money: as a reviewer had said, 'This has the makings of a perennial bestseller.'
Derek Carey's contribution to the welfare of nations was to exhort young people, at meeting after meeting, to fill in census forms wrongly, to destroy any official letters that came their way, to take jobs in the post offices as postmen and destroy letters, and to shoplift as much as possible. Every little bit helped to bring down the structure of an oppressive state such as Britain. In the recent election they had been advised to spoil voting forms and write insulting remarks on them, such as Fascist! Rose and Geoffrey, needing to distinguish themselves in this exhilarating company, now described their recent shopping expedition. Then Rose ran downstairs and came back with carrier bags full of stolen presents, and began handing them out: soft toys mostly, plushy tigers and pandas and bears but there was a bottle of brandy -handed to Johnny – and one of Armagnac, given to Derek. 'That's the stuff, comrade,’ said Derek, with a comradely wink that reached Rose's soul, parched for compliments; it was like a medal for achievement. And Johnny gave her a clenched fist salute. No one had seen her so happy.
Franklin was distressed, because he had wanted so much to give Frances a present, and had expected that some of this ' liberated'stuff would find its way to him, but he saw now this wouldn't happen. Rose said, 'And this is for Frances.' It was a kangaroo, with a baby in its pouch. She held it up, grinning around, waiting for applause, but Geoffrey took it from her, offended at the criticism of Frances. Franklin admired the kangaroo, and thought it a wonderful compliment to Frances, a mother to them all; he had not understood Geoffrey's reaction, and now he reached out for the kangaroo. Geoffrey gave it to him. Franklin sat taking the baby from its pouch and putting it back again.
'You could introduce a few kangaroos into Zimlia,' said Johnny. He raised his glass. 'To the liberation of Zimlia.'
Franklin looked among the debris on the table for a glass, held it out to Rose to be filled, and drank 'To the liberation of Zimlia'.
This kind of joke both excited Franklin and scared him. He knew all about the terrible war in Kenya: they had ' done' it in class, and he could not see why Johnny – or for that matter the teachers at St Joseph's – were so keen on Zimlia's going through a war. But now, happy with food and drink and the kangaroo, he drank again to Derek's toast, ' To the Revolution' , while wondering which Revolution and where.
Then he said, ‘I’m going to give this to Frances, ' and was halfway up the stairs with it when he remembered that it was stolen and that Frances had ticked him off that morning. But he didn't want to return to the kitchen with it, and that was how it found its way to Sylvia, who was carrying a big loaded tray up to Julia's.
‘Oh, how lovely,’ she said as Franklin tucked the kangaroo under her arm, her hands being full. But she put the tray down on the landing, and admired the kangaroo. ‘Oh, Franklin, it'sso nice.’And she kissed him, with the warm close hug that made him expand with happiness.
In the sitting-room were now Andrew, asleep in a chair, stretched out, his hands on his stomach. Colin, with Sophie on the divan, arms around each other, both asleep.
Franklin stood looking at them while his heart took a dive again, and he remembered how puzzled he was by everything. He knew that Colin and Sophie had been ' friends' but were not friends now, and that Sophie had a ' friend' who had gone to his own family for Christmas. Why then were these two in each other's arms, Sophie's head on Colin's shoulder? Franklin had not slept with a girl yet. At the mission there were no girls, and the boys were watched by the Fathers who knew everything that went on. At home with his parents it was the same. Visiting his grandparents he had teased the girls and joked with them, but no more than that.
Like so many newcomers to Britain, Franklin had been confused from the start about what went on. At first he had thought there were no morals at all, but soon suspected that there must be. But what were they? At St Joseph's, girls and boys slept with each other, he knew: at least that's what it seemed like. In the meadow behind the school, couples lay together in the grass, and Franklin, solitary, listened to their laughter, and, worse, their silences. He felt that the females of this island were available to everyone, available to him, if only he could find the right words. Yet he had seen a Nigerian boy, just arrived at St Joseph's, go up to a girl and say, 'Can I come into your bed tonight if I give you a nice present?' She had slapped him so hard that he fell down. Franklin had been turning over in his mind similar words, to try his luck. Yet the same girl who had done the slapping cuddled on the bed with a boy who had a room in the same corridor, leaving the door open so everyone could see what went on. No one took any notice.
He went back down the stairs, stopping to listen at the door to the kitchen, where Johnny's lecture on guerilla tactics to destroy the military imperialistic complex was similar to Derek's: shoplifting was apparently considered a major weapon. He went down to his room, and to the drawer where his money was. It looked less: he counted it: there was less than half. He was standing there counting when he heard Rose behind him.
' Half my money's gone, ' he said wildly.
‘I took half. I deserve it, don't I? You got all the clothes for nothing. Ifyou had bought clothes you couldn't have got anything as nice for that money. So you've gained, haven't you? You've got new clothes and half the money.'
He stared at her, his face puckered up with suspicion, sullen, angry. That money, to him, was more than a gift from Frances, who was a mother to him. It was like a welcome into this family, making him part of it.