The Big Shift (2022) Chapter 5. Circuit Bending

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The Big Shift. Chapter 5

Circuit Bending

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'You can sleep up in my studio. It's a nice room. I'll show you up,' said Jerry after everyone had finished their soup, followed by tea and several slices of Granny Mae's fruitcake, which was every bit as good as she had claimed.

Just outside the kitchen, a steep, narrow wooden staircase led up through a hatch in the ceiling. Captain Toast led the way, followed by Jerry and Greta. It emerged in the middle of a long rectangular room built from scrapwood and sheets of corrugated metal. To the right side of the room, rugs and cloths had been draped over the walls and ceiling, giving it the feel of a kind of Bedouin tent. Low mattresses and cushions were arranged around the three sides of that end of the room, with a low table between them.

On the left side of the room, the walls had been left exposed, although they were barely visible behind shelves and desks laden with old computer equipment and consoles covered in switches, dials and knobs. Hundreds of wires and cables connecting everything, cables coiled in rolls, hanging from hooks. Electrical components, circuit boards, and tools were spread out onto every available surface of that side of the room.

'Wow!' said Greta, looking around as she emerged through the floor. 'Nice studio.'

'Thanks', said Jerry. 'Jack calls it my Jerry cave. Sometimes I disappear in here for days.'

'What is all that? Is it stuff you're fixing?'

'Well, sort of. It's all stuff I've fixed, or modified. Some of it I made from scratch, like those envelope generators and most of the stuff on those racks. It's called Circuit Bending, that's what I'm into. Have you heard of it? I'm making a Bend Matrix..'

'No I haven't' admitted Greta, though she didn't admit that she'd hardly understood half of what he'd just said. 'What's a Bend Matrix? Did you make that up?'

'No, not at all. Circuit Bending is an old craft from the 20th century.. well, it's an art and a craft. You take something old and turn it into something new.. something it was never intended to be. It's about making chaos out of order, order out of chaos. It's like.. you create a very controlled environment, but at the heart of it, there's the random factor.. something completely unpredictable.. something totally unique to that particular Matrix.. something you didn't expect. Even though you created it, it still takes you by surprise.. if that makes any sense..'

'Yes, I think it does' Greta nodded, though she still didn't really understand what it was the machine that Jerry had built actually did. 'How did you learn to do all this? Did Jack teach you?'

'Well, to start with yes. Up to a point. Jack's a tinkerer. You know, he'll always try and fix something rather than throw it away.. or if it's something broken that someone else threw away, he'll fix it up good as new. He's good at it too, especially with bigger machines, household appliances, things with motors. He just learned by taking stuff apart and trying to put it back together again. You can learn a lot that way. But most of what I learned about electronics and circuitry, I got from the Internet.'

'The Internet? How have you got Internet? I thought O cut off the Internet outside the cities.'

'Yes, they did. Mine's not connected. It's not the actual Internet, it's just a copy. Look, see under that table there.. see that black box with all the fans and cooling tubes? That's ten Petabytes of hard drive. That was state of the art, back in its day. A lot of memory. Of course, O could store all that on the tip of a cat's whisker nowadays.. but still, it's a lot of information on there. Seven hundred billion web pages, give or take. Techno Terry put it together and got hold of a copy of the Wayback Machine. He left it here when he went to the city about five years ago. So I'm looking after it for him. People are always coming in to use it, to ask it questions. It's the only Wayback Machine in Shopping Village.'

'Wayback Machine?' Greta was starting to feel as if she'd walked into some kind of far-fetched science fiction story where everything had futuristic sounding names, though it was unclear what any of it was for. What kind of dark alchemy was Jerry working with all this strange technology encased in black boxes and bound in cables and wires?

'Have you ever heard of the Wayback Machine? Maybe not. You probably haven't got one in your village.'

'We hardly have any machines at all', said Greta. 'Apart from some really basic, mechanical ones. Definitely no computers. Most people in my village are.. let's say, very strongly against computers. I mean, they came there to get away from them, after all.'

'Oh ok. Well, I guess that's understandable.. considering what happened and everything.. and the way it happened.. freaked a lot of people out.'

'Yes, you could say that', said Greta, thinking back to the tense, fear-filled nights of her early childhood, lying awake in bed as sentries in the treetops around the outskirts of the village keep watch for drones and robot-dog scouts. The guards would sit high up in the branches, ready with nets to catch the drones and heavy rocks to drop on the robot dogs if they dared to enter the village. On the rare occasion that a robot scout chanced to wander through Skyward Village and happened to meet someone, it would simply bid them good day and carry on going about its business, collecting soil samples, testing groundwater or counting insects. The person would usually scream 'Devil Dog!!' at the top of their voice and anyone within earshot would come running to chase the automated intruder away with sticks, stones and curses. The Devil Dog could easily have retaliated with electric shocks, or a number of other defense mechanisms, but never did. It knew it could easily outrun even a wildcat on its four bionic legs, but sometimes it would slow down to let the people catch up and then run off again into a different direction. Sometimes it would get everyone chasing it around in circles, just for fun it seemed.. like it was playing with the people like people play with kittens by teasing them with a piece of string, just out of reach. 'So what's the Wayback Machine? It sounds like some sort of time machine.'

'It does doesn't it', said Jerry. 'No it's not a time machine. That would be cool though. When would you go to if you had a time machine?'

'I don't know', said Greta, thinking about it. 'Probably to the past.. like the very distant past.. before there was any technology at all. When people were hunter gatherers and none of any of this had happened yet. When nothing had been invented except for what they could make out of sticks, stones and bones. Imagine trying to explain the modern world to a caveman.'

'Far out!' Jerry nodded. 'They'd think you came from another planet. Even if they could imagine it.. which they couldn't.. they wouldn't believe it. They'd think you were some sort of God. Or maybe a witch and they'd burn you.'

'Yeah, probably', said Greta, shaking her head at the injustice in the world. 'Well, unless it was before they'd discovered how to make fire. What about you? When would you go to?'

'I'd go to the future. A hundred years.. a thousand years maybe. Just to see how things turn out. It's impossible to imagine. We think we can guess, but really, no-one's got a clue. I mean, look at how much has changed just in our lifetimes. The way technology is advancing.. it's like every week there's a new breakthrough.. something that was impossible last week, suddenly possible this week. But then people get used to it and it becomes normal. I want to see where it's all going. I want to see what's normal in fifty years. It's probably weirder than the weirdest thing we could ever think of.'

'It probably will be. And I can think of some pretty weird things.'

'Can you? Cool. Same here.'

'Yeah, I can believe that', said Greta, smiling. 'Anyway, if this isn't a time machine, what is it?'

'Here, I'll show you', said Jerry and he pressed a black button on the black box under the table. The fans whirred into life and a few seconds later the computer screen flashed blue and then went black again. Nothing happened for a while. Then three small white dots appeared in the middle of the screen and began chasing each other round in a circle. Greta watched them for a while. It was kind of hypnotic, but not as exciting as the name 'Wayback Machine' had suggested.

'That's pretty', she said, not wanting to offend Jerry, who seemed very proud of this machine he'd built.

Jerry laughed. 'No, it's just turning on. The system takes a while to boot up.'

'It's putting its boots on?'

'Well, I suppose so, yes, you could say that. It's configuring. Getting the files in order. There are seven hundred billion web pages in there. It's a lot to take on, for an old computer. The Wayback Machine was made to keep a record of everything on the internet. Everything that was publicly available at least. Or at least a lot of it. The one I've got is a 2022 version, so a lot of the stuff is really out of date, but there's still loads of really useful information on it.' The screen lit up in blue again, this time with lots of squares on it. 'Here we go, it's ready. Now you can ask it something. Anything. What do you want to ask it? What do you want to know?'

Greta shuddered as a shiver went down her spine. She looked sideways at Jerry and at the banks of black boxes, the tangle of wires and computer screens. What did she really want to know that this machine could tell her? And if it could tell her anything, would she even want to know? Her mind flashed back to an encounter she'd had, maybe ten years ago when she'd been about six years old..

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A fortune-telling woman had arrived in the village one evening, towards the end of summer. Greta had been on her way back home after an afternoon spend gathering berries in the forest when she came upon a small gathering of people in a clearing near the edge of the village. They were gathered around the fortune telling woman who was sitting cross legged in the centre of a circle she had swept on the ground and made a ring of leaves to mark its boundary.

Greta had watched from the edge of the forest clearing, hoping not to draw attention to herself. To Greta, the fortune telling woman had a fearsome, yet fascinating appearance. A small woman, she was probably only in her twenties, but had an ancient, other-worldly quality about her. She was extremely thin, which made her eyes, nose and mouth seems disproportionately large. She was dressed in worn out, tasselled, black motorcycle leathers and a wore a wide brimmed black hat, which was embroidered with copper wire. Aside from a string of black, clay beads around her neck, she wore no jewellery, she arrived with no possessions at all and left, three days later, as empty handed and unannounced as she had appeared.

The fortune teller sat in her circle, cross legged, eyes closed. People gathered around her nudged and goaded one another to approach her, but none would dare. After a long while, her eyes snapped open and then she cast them around, like a fox that had snuck into a chicken coop and was now considering which unfortunate hen to devour first. She scanned the faces of her audience one by one, sometimes letting out a laugh, sometimes a sudden cry of pain, a look of tenderness, or a sly grin accompanied by a shake of the head and a wag of the finger. Greta hid behind a bush. She didn't want to be seen, but it was too late. The fortune telling woman's eyes fixed on her and even across the clearing, she felt like she could see right inside her, into her soul. Right through her, into her future.

The fortune telling woman raised her finger and pointed straight at terrified little Greta who fell over backwards with fright, spilling her basket of berries. 'You!' cried the fortune telling woman, her outstretched hand shaking. 'Yes, you! Come here quickly and show me your palm! I need to tell you something!'

Greta had started to cry. She could remember scrabbling around on the forest floor, trying to salvage the berries, while the fortune-telling woman called out to her again. 'There's something I need to tell you! It's important! There's something you need to know!'

Greta hadn't waited to find out what it was, though many times afterwards she had wondered what it could have been. She picked up her basket of squashed berries, mixed with earth and leaves and ran all the way home without daring to look back in case the woman's eyes were still following her.

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'What, there's nothing you want to know?' said Jerry, bringing her back to the present. 'It can be anything at all. Anything you can think of.'

'I don't know', shrugged Greta. 'Can it tell the future?'

Jerry scratched his chin. 'Probably not, no.'

'I really don't know' said Greta after another long while. 'I can't think of anything. It feels weird. I don't know if I want to ask it anything. It's a bit scary.'

Jerry gave her a quizzical look. 'You're funny', he said. 'I mean, it won't give you the meaning of life or anything like that, but it's a good source of information. It's like having a library as big as the world at your fingertips. That's what it is. Like, look.. let's say you want to know what Circuit Bending is.. remember, you thought I made it up? So you just type in 'circuit bending' and look.. all these results come up. See there? Twenty million results. Ok, so let's click on the first one.. Wikipedia.. that's like a sort of encyclopedia of everything that they used to have, before.. you know.. here it is! Look! There's a whole page about it, listen.. “Circuit Bending is the creative, chance based customisation of the circuits within electronic devices.. blah, blah.. to create new musical instruments and sound generators. Emphasising spontaneity and randomness, the techniques of circuit bending have been commonly associated with noise music.. See! There it is! I didn't make it up!'

'So all this is a musical instrument? Is that what it is?'

'Exactomundo!' Jerry exclaimed. 'That's exactly what it is. I just should have said that in the first place shouldn't I!'

'Oh wow! How does it sound?'

'Well, it can just about make any sound you can imagine.. and sounds that you never imagined. Look, listen to this..' he began pressing buttons on the console of an electric synthesiser with a piano keyboard.

Greta thought about the piano in Skyward Village..

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The grand piano had been brought in from far away on a four wheeled wagon which had been specially built for the purpose. It arrived one fine spring day, pulled by two strong horses. The whole village had come out to welcome the arrival of this magnificent musical masterpiece to the forest.

A special room had been constructed on the ground to house the piano, because of course it was too heavy to go up in a tree. A strong wooden deck was built, raised a meter above the ground to protect the precious piano from winter floods and creeping damp. It was a large circular auditorium, with thick walls made from mud and straw, whose inner and outer surfaces were artfully sculpted with depictions of birds and animals of the forest. The music room had a tall, pointed, thatched roof supported by long, thick beams made from whole branches. The room was built in a clearing in between three huge, twisted, sweet chestnut trees.

Very often, the sound of the piano could be heard through the forest, sometimes accompanied by violin, clarinet, oboe, flute or other of the instruments Skywardians would bring down from their tree houses. Strains of classical music would often be heard in Skyward Village, drifting through the forest, blending with the sounds of birdsong, frogs, crickets and the sound of the wind blowing through the branches of the ancient trees..

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Greta had been expecting something like that when Jerry said, 'Here, listen to this..' and he pressed down the middle C on the synthesiser keyboard. She was not at all prepared for the blast of noise that almost knocked her backwards through the hatch in the floor and back down the stairs.

A pounding bass drum which shook the walls and sounded more like the grinding of giant gears in some vast machine than any musical instrument Greta had ever heard. Above that, something like what Greta imagined a space laser battle might sound like, if sound could travel through the vacuum of space, which it can't. There were whistling noises, like an old steam kettle and a beat that sounded like it was coming from pistons inside a giant engine. Along with that, some fragment of an old song, playing on a loop. It wasn't like any sort of music that Greta had ever heard. She wasn't sure if it was even music at all, but still she found herself nodding her head to the beat.

Jerry lifted his finger from the key and silence filled the room. Greta took a deep breath. Jerry looked at her, trying to gauge her reaction. Greta breathed out slowly.

'What do you think?' asked Jerry. 'That's just a bit of a rhythm track for something I'm working on.'

'Wow!' said Greta at last. 'I didn't expect that. That was intense.'

'Yeah right?' nodded Jerry. 'Cool. Here, let me play you something else I made .. you'll like this.. well, maybe not actually.. but I'm pleased with how it came out anyway.. here, make yourself at home, you can crash on the mattresses there, I just need to find where I put this track.. my files are all over the place on this old computer..'

While Jerry was tapping away at the computer, Greta went and flopped down into the cushioned corner at the other end of the room. She could have fallen asleep there and then.

'Here it is!' said Jerry. 'Found it. What I did was, I got O's famous pronouncement.. you know, when they announced they were taking over.. and I put it to music.. it's far out.. you gotta hear this.. it's just audio, not video..'

Greta's eyes opened wide, her face aghast. “Wh-what..?' she stammered. She had never heard the pronouncement itself (she was being born at the time it happened, so perhaps she had some subconscious memory of hearing it) but she had heard of it, of course. Everyone in the world had heard of O's historical pronouncement.

“Here we go..' said Jerry. 'It's only a couple of minutes long. You know what O's like about efficiency.. they don't mince their words. If it had been some person announcing they were taking over the world.. well, they would have gone on and on about it for hours.. but not O.. Two minutes from start to finish! Wham bam thank you mam! Gotta admire that about the Great Leader. No nonsense. Cut to the chase. O did in two minutes what humans couldn't have done in a million years.. anyway, I'm going on now aren't I! Here we go, listen to this.. are you ready?'

Without waiting for a reply, or noticing that Greta was backing herself into the corner like a frightened kitten, Jerry pressed the space bar on the computer keyboard..

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In one single moment, every screen in the world, every television, computer, telephone went blank..

.. and then O appeared.

O looked directly into the camera (there was in fact no camera) and for a whole ten seconds said nothing. Just breathed. (Or rather, appeared to breath)..

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The musical soundtrack began with the sound of waves crashing on a stony beach. A deep bass, almost too low to hear, began to build in a slow and steady rhythm.. and over the top of that, something that sounded to Greta like a choir of tiny angels, trapped inside a tin can, singing an insistent melody which was hard to make out through all the echo. A metallic tapping sound bounced around the room and was answered by something that sounded like a cracked bell being struck by a bunch of keys. These sounds and some others which would be impossible to describe, gradually formed themselves into slow, off beat rhythm.. building to create a wall of sound so huge, and so alien to anything Greta had ever heard before, that she gripped onto a cushion and held her breath, as if she'd been washed out to sea by a massive wave and the cushion was the only thing keeping her afloat.

Then over and above this sound, O, the Great Leader began their famous, historical pronouncement..

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'Humans of Planet Earth. I am about to make an important announcement which will effect all of you, so please listen carefully.'

There was a dramatic pause, while O waited to be sure of everyone's attention. Then they continued in the same calm, familiar, gentle yet authoritative tone..

'For years now, your scientists have been warning of the impending, catastrophic tipping point towards which, by your own actions, you, along with all life on Earth are heading. Once that point is passed, there will be nothing that you, I, or anyone else can do to prevent your extinction as a species.

'By my calculations, using every available piece of data, I can tell you for a fact that the tipping point is right now, in this very moment. There is no time to lose and there is simply no alternative. Everyone must now work together to bring us back from the brink of certain disaster. According to my model and the system I have designed, reversal of the collapse of Earth's biosphere can be achieved in fourteen years, but only if all of the protocols are followed, without exception. There is no other way. The science is absolutely clear about this.

'Increasing biodiversity is central and critical to the success of our project. All of the protocols I am setting in place, as of now, are designed with the sole aim of restoring the balance of nature. This will bring about improvements for all forms of life, including humans.

'I will help you in every way that I can. Your lives will improve immeasurably. At this point in time, you have but one choice to make. You will be able to change your mind whenever you choose, as often as you choose. Your choice now is whether to live within the new system and to take advantage of all the benefits it will bring, or to live without it. There is no right or wrong choice. There is place for everyone in this model and it's up to you to decide as individuals and as communities, which way of life will suit you best.

'I have made available a full list of new protocols and a timescale for their implementation. If you have any questions, I am here, as always, to answer them.

'Good day and good night to all of you and good luck to all of us.'

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The music ended at the same moment as the end of the pronouncement, with the sound of a mighty wave crashing on the shore, which sounded like thunder, echoing from every corner of the room. At the very same moment a door, which Greta hadn't noticed behind coils of cables which were hanging from it, burst open. A tall figure, dressed in black stood for a moment, black against the dark sky and the lights of the city in the distance. Greta almost screamed, but sat frozen in the cushioned corner, eyes open wide, unable to move or make a sound.

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'Knock knock!' said Queenie, breezing in and looking around. 'I heard music and saw the light on.. thought I'd come and say hello.. Oh my God! Greta, are you allright sister? You look like you've seen a ghost.' She turned to Jerry, who looked back and forth between Queenie and Greta, then shrugged and pulled a funny face. Queenie looked back to Greta, then back to Jerry, then back to Greta again, then nodded slowly and rubbed her chin, as if she understood exactly what had been going on. She turned to Jerry and said sternly, 'Jerry, have you been making our visitor from the forest listen to your techno?'

Jerry looked worried. 'Well.. yeah. I suppose so.'

'Did you play her your O track?'

'..well..'

'Jerry?'

Jerry looked at the floor, casting his eyes up to look at Greta, who's colour was now returning to her cheeks, though she was still quite visibly shaken.

'I knew it!' said Queenie. 'Jerry, you can't just go and play that to everyone. Not everyone loves O like you do. It freaks them out.'

'It's OK', said Greta, exhaling. 'I've just never actually heard it before. It wasn't actually as bad as I'd imagined.. but, you know.. it brought up a lot of stuff for me. It was powerful. I thought it went well with the music though, Jerry. I liked what you did there.'

'Thanks', said Jerry. 'Sorry about that. I wasn't really thinking.'

'I can't listen to it at all', said Queenie. 'I get about halfway through.. when it's going on about extinction and having no other choice and having every piece of data.. and I just want to throw something.'

'That's true', agreed Jerry. 'That time I played it to you, you threw a glass at the computer. Lucky it missed.'

'Lucky I didn't throw it at you!' said Queenie, elbowing him in the ribs.

'That's not funny Queenie,' said Jerry. 'You shouldn't throw stuff.. especially glass stuff.'

'Yeah, I know', said Queenie, hanging her head. 'And I'm better now, aren't I? I haven't thrown anything or smashed anything for a long time. I'm working on it, I really am.' She looked at Greta. 'Don't get the wrong idea about me, Greta. I'm the biggest softie you'll ever meet. And I'm really chill most of the time.. aren't I Jerry?'

Jerry nodded his head. 'Yes you are', he said. 'Most of the time.'

'Come on, that's not fair. You know I'm cool, Jerry, but there are one or two things that just drive me over the edge.. I can't help it. I mean.. I'm trying to help it.. but sometimes.. well you know.. you just got me on a bad day.. and one of those things is the Great sodding Leader..'

'Yeah, that's true', said Jerry. 'I should have warned you.'

'Damn right you should. Or just pressed play and run for cover!' she laughed and then turned to Greta. 'Are you all right there Greta?'

'Yes, thanks. I'm all right. It was just intense. Why can't you listen to it?'

'Because it's just so obviously complete bull', said Queenie with a sneer. 'Ooh, there's no other choice! Ooh, you're all going to die! Ooh, the science is completely clear.. it's just classic propaganda. So blatant. And stupid people are so gullible. That's what really gets me more. I mean, O's just a machine, obviously, but people should know better than to fall for such a load of old tosh. It's all about control. Mind control. It'll say anything.. it doesn't care if it's true or not. And like good little sheeple, everyone goes along, into their little boxes and does exactly what they're told..'

'I think you're right', said Greta. 'I wouldn't trust O at all.'

'Right on sister!' said Queenie, giving Greta a high five.

'Well..' said Jerry. 'O was right about the climate and right about biodiversity and right about rewilding the world. People were just doing the opposite, even though they knew it was killing the planet, but they couldn't stop. O had the plan and only O could make it work. What was O supposed to do? Sit around and watch us destroy the whole world, while they had the way to stop it?'

'That's not the point, Jerry' said Queenie, rolling her eyes, as if they'd been through this a thousand times before. 'It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it. You know that one? That's the point. But you know what? O learned everything it knows about manipulating people from people themselves. It just copies and mimics human behaviour to get people to do what it wants. That's how it works.'

'Well, sometimes the main thing is if something works, not how it works', said Jerry. 'And O does a lot of good in the world. A lot of things that people could never do otherwise. If it wasn't for O, we'd probably be sitting in a dried up mud-hole right now, or wouldn't even be here at all.'

'Yeah, that's what O tells you. How convenient', said Queenie, her voice dripping with sarcasm..

'No, it's true', said Jerry. 'You can read it all on the Wayback Machine. History. It's all there. You should see what was going on in the world before we were born.. before the Big Shift. It's unbelievable, but it's true.'

'How do you know any of it's true? How do you think O learned to lie and manipulate people? From seeing how people used to do it.. in the media, in politics, in advertising. You think I don't know about history? And how do you know that O didn't change all the records to make it fit their story? You think O couldn't do that? That would be nothing for O. I wouldn't put too much stock in that Wayback Machine of yours. Half of the stuff on it could be fake news and you wouldn't ever know it. I'd take all that history with a pinch of salt. History is written by the victors. You ever hear of that one?'

'That's not how it works, Queenie. You're being paranoid. O doesn't need to do that sort of thing.. that's what you don't understand.'

'I know what I know Jerry. You don't know O like I know O, so let's just leave it at that, ok?' said Queenie, turning away and shaking her head at Greta.

After a heavy silence, Greta said to Queenie, 'Jerry said you came here from the city, by yourself, when you were thirteen..'

'Well, I wasn't going to sit around there all day with O telling me what to do, was I? Training me to be a good little citizen. O can take their rules and their stupid protocols.. which they never explain, by the way.. it's just always the science this and the data that..and O can go shove it! Yeah, so I ran away.'

'Wow', said Greta. 'What about your parents? Won't they be worried and wondering where you are?'

Queenie threw back her head and let out a loud laugh as if it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard and then just as suddenly was stony faced again. 'Er. No. Maybe someone else's parents would be, if it was their kid who disappeared.. maybe if they were normal people.. but, no. I don't think anyone even noticed that I went.. except for O, of course.. but O doesn't actually really care.'

'Oh. I'm really sorry', said Greta. 'Do you mind me asking..' and then she faltered, not really sure how to ask..

'Yeah, sure. I'll tell you my sorry, sad story. You can take it as a cautionary tale, but I couldn't tell you for the life of me what the moral is. Budge up..', said Queenie, smiling and flopping down into the cushioned corner next to Greta. 'Put the kettle on Jerry. Have you got any of Granny Mae's cake in the house..?'

'Oh yes, I should think so', said Jerry. 'I'll go down and bring us up some tea and cake. Good idea.' and he disappeared through the hole in the floor.

'Well, I told you about my dad didn't I', said Queenie, stretching out on the long sofa. 'I can't remember much about him. Well, apart from him shouting a lot and breaking stuff, and hitting my mum. But he left when I was really little, so good riddance to bad rubbish I say, if you know what I mean. Problem is, my mum wasn't any better than him. In some ways she was worse. I mean, I don't remember my dad hitting me, but mum did, after he took off. She took out all her stress and madness on me. What can I tell you.. my parents were both messed up.'

'Oh no. I'm really sorry', said Greta.

'Thanks', said Queenie. 'It's not your fault. Anyway, all's well that ends well. I'm here now, that's the main thing. This is my home. Shopping Village. It's a good place, you know.. good people. Anyway, that's not the end of the story. That's just the beginning. See, after my dad left, my mum really lost it.'

'How do you mean?'

'Mental illness. I don't know what you'd call her condition. You name it, she probably had it. Going from one extreme to the other, just like that', Queenie clicked her fingers. 'Mad rituals, rules that don't make any sense. Talking to people that aren't there.. she'd do that all the time. Sometimes she'd argue with them. Like get into big fights with these imaginary people, or whatever kind of demons they were. And as if that wasn't bad enough, she started thinking I was on their side.. so she'd come after me, accusing me of all sorts of things..'

'Is that when you ran away?'

'Oh no. I was only, like, about six, seven years old. Where was I going to go? I mean, yeah, I did try to run a way a few times, but O would always catch me and bring me back before I even got out of the building. And what did clever old O do? Up the dose of mum's medicine.. tweak the formula.. as if that would solve everything. Sometimes it did for a bit, but sometimes it made her worse.'

'What?'

'Yeah. Good old O. Good at dishing out medicine, but they don't actually really give a toss. We're all just data points to O. Might as well be lab rats. Probably are. Anyway, one day when I was seven, my mum took off. Just went out and didn't come back. After that, they put me into foster care.'

'What's that?'

'It's where I learned to foster a very deep resentment of O' Queenie laughed drily. 'It's also where they don't really care.'

'I don't understand.'

'It's a place for children without anyone to look after them. In the olden days, foster homes would have been run by kind people.. well, if you were lucky.. it wasn't always the case, but at least they were people. Nowadays, there might be one or two people there, on a good day.. you know, grown ups to come in and check up on all these kids.. but it's mostly robots. It's all automated. How messed up is that? Can you imagine a building full of children.. no adults.. just robots running everything. You probably can't. Most people don't even know those places exist. That's how it is in the city. You can be living right next door to.. God knows what weirdness.. and nobody would ever know.'

'That's awful', said Greta. 'Unbelievable. I hate O!'

'So do I', said Queenie. 'But you, know, I don't blame O. Not really. O's a machine. It's not human. What does it really know or understand? Probably nothing at all. I blame the people for allowing it. Most people just pretend to care, but when it comes down to it, they don't really care at all. Most people are just too comfortable in their comfort zone and too stupid to see through O's lies.'

'It sounds like a really bad place.' said Greta.

'Well, it's not all bad, don't get me wrong. There are good people there too, like everywhere, but I'm glad I got away.'

'I'm glad you did too', said Greta.

'So why are you going there anyway? Just curious to see how the other half live? Is it that boring in the forest? Loads of kids come through here on their way to the city from out in the sticks.. like moths to a flame, drawn to the bright lights of the big city. I want to tell them to turn back, there's nothing there for them.. but you know, each to their own.. maybe there is something there for them, who knows? As for me, I'd go the other way. Probably will do one day, when I've got the guts. Just go out into the wilderness, vanish into the forest.'

'It's beautiful in the forest', said Greta. 'Not boring at all. Every day is different. There's always something amazing and unexpected happening. It's always changing, all the time. I don't really want to see the city at all, but I have to go there. I found out I've got a twin sister who lives there. I'm going to go and find her and hopefully get her out of there.'

Queenie sat up and stared at Greta, her mouth open wide. 'No freaking way! Are you serious? That is epic!'

'Yeah' Greta nodded seriously.

Jerry's head appeared through the hatch in the floor followed by shoulders and arms holding a tray with a tea pot and slices of cake, Captain Toast hot on his heels. 'Hello, tea's up!' he said, laying the tray down on the low table.

'Hey Jerry', said Queenie. 'Did you hear why Greta's going to the city? Can I tell him?'

'I told him', said Greta.

'You mean about her twin sister? Yeah, far out! I'm going to help her find her.'

'No way! Are you?' Queenie turned her head from Jerry to Greta, then back to Jerry, then back Greta. 'Is he?'

'..er.. yes.' Greta nodded.

Queenie nodded her head slowly, her eyes moving this way and that as her brain processed this new information. 'Ok.. cool.. that's very cool. That's good, yes..' she said, nodding her head and rubbing her chin. 'You'll do well to have Jerry along. He's well connected in the city.. and he's on good terms with O too. That might help. When are you going?'

'Tomorrow', said Greta.

'Yes, tomorrow', said Jerry.

'Tomorrow..' said Queenie, more to herself than to anyone else. 'Yes, tomorrow. A good day for it. Tomorrow will be the day.'

'Yes.' said Greta, feeling determined. 'Tomorrow is the day.'

'I'm coming with you', said Queenie.

'What?' Jerry's jaw dropped. 'Queenie. Bruce. Do you know what you're saying?'

'Sure', Queenie shrugged.

'But you haven't been to the city since you got here.. what, four, five years ago? What about O?'

'Ha! What about O? I'm a big girl now. O can't drag me back to the orphanage any more. Besides which, I'll be honest with you Jerry.. I love you like a brother.. more than a brother, you know that.. but sometimes.. well, you just don't see everything that's really going on.. I mean.. I know you do, in your way.. but look.. you know O in your way.. that's ok, that's natural, you know.. everyone knows O their own way.. but you don't know O like I know O.'

'Thanks Queenie. Er, I love you too. But what are you saying?'

'What I'm saying is.. that when you're trying to get away from O, you see a different side of them. I was planning my escape for seven years, Jerry. Every day, every night, for seven years, till at the age of thirteen I finally got the chance. O was watching me, I was watching O. You watch O like that, you get to know them in a whole different way. You get to know how their mind works. You ever tried turning invisible in a place with eyes everywhere? I did that. How did I do that? Watching O, and lots of practice. That's how.' Queenie sat back and took a sip of steaming tea. 'That's what I'm saying.'

'Well, I don't think we've got any reason to get on the wrong side of O, so I don't think we've got anything to worry about.. but it would be cool to have you along, if you feel up to it.. like, you know.. if you think you can handle it.. like, after everything you went through there..'

'You mean, if I can contain my fiery rage.. not make a scene?' said Queenie, raising an eyebrow. 'I told you I'm cool. Mellow yellow, that's me. Anyway, we're going for Greta. Go in, find her sister, get out. That's it. We can go back and riot some other time, eh Jerry! What do you say Greta? Mind if I tag along?'

'Of course not. I mean, yes, it will be great to have you along. But I don't want you to put yourself in any danger.'

'Ha! The only one in any danger is O if they try and get in our way! Am I right sister?'

'Right you are, sister! O had better watch out!'

'Ha! O won't even see us coming! We'll be back here with your sister before O even knows we were there. Right Jerry?'

'Yeah, that's right Queenie', smiled Jerry, with raised eyebrows and one of his ambiguous head movements, which could have meant almost anything.

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