Mara and Dann. Doris Lessing

to have gone back a long way, beginning with little, bright memories, mostly of her brother.

      She said, ‘The pictures on the stones are not Rock People or the People. Other kinds of people live around here.’

      ‘Lived here.’

      ‘When?’

      ‘They think thousands of years ago.’

      ‘Thousands…’ But Mara could not take this in. Only a moment ago she had been trying to work out: Ten years ago is three years before I was born, and the three years had seemed to her a very long time.

      ‘They think as much as six or seven thousand years. They left old buildings up on that hill there.’

      Mara’s eyes filled with tears: it was those thousands of years, like Daima’s always, that made her want to lie down and sleep, like Dann, who had gone to sleep because everything was too much for him.

      Mara went on, ‘You are a Person. You are one of the People, and you live here and the Rock People let you. That means they are afraid of you.’

      Daima nodded. ‘Good.’ And then, ‘But not as afraid as they once were.’

      Mara could not work this out.

      Daima said, ‘You’ve done very well. I’ll tell you the rest.’

      ‘No, no, let me try. You came here – the way Dann and I did. You had to run away.’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘And that was before I was born?’

      Daima smiled. ‘Well, yes. It was thirty years ago.’

      ‘Thirty…’ And Mara really could not go on.

      ‘I came here with my two children. My husband was killed in the fighting. We were travelling for many days, and we had to stop and hide because there were soldiers out looking for refugees. Twice I stole horses from the Rock People and we rode them for a while, and then let them loose so they could find their way back home. When we came to villages they wouldn’t let us stop, but these people here did not drive us away.’

      ‘Why was that?’

      ‘Because the year before the People punished them for attacking a sky skimmer that landed near here.’

      ‘Did they think you were going to punish them?’

      ‘They thought I was a spy.’

      ‘I don’t know that word.’

      ‘They thought the People had sent me so I could watch them and make reports.’

      ‘Then they must have hated you.’

      ‘Yes, they hated us. And the children had to be careful every minute of the day in case there was a trap. Once I had gone to the market – there was a market in those days – and left the children here, and they brought one of the dragons in. But the children locked themselves in an inside room.’

      ‘What did you do when you came back and found out what had happened?’

      ‘Nothing. I pretended nothing had happened. I let the dragon out and it went back on to the hill there.’

      Mara could see from Daima’s face how much she had suffered because of her children’s being hated. ‘Where are your children?’

      ‘That is what I hoped you might tell me. They went to Rustam.’

      ‘But that is where our home is.’

      ‘Yes.’

      And now Mara had to think for a long time. ‘So perhaps I know them?’

      ‘You probably know of them. Moray and Kluart.’

      Mara shook her head. A long silence now, and then Mara said, ‘You’ll have to say.’

      ‘I had to run away because your family threw my family out of our palace.’

      ‘Did my family treat you the way Dann and I were by that bad man?’

      ‘That bad man is my cousin Garth, and so is the good one, Lord Gorda.’

      ‘Then it is all very difficult.’

      ‘No. There have always been changes in how the families are friends and enemies.’

      ‘Always,’ whispered Mara, holding back her tears.

      ‘Yes. You must understand that, Mara. Sometimes one family is in power, and then another. But some of my family were good friends with your family and became part of the court. And your family heard I was here, later, and sent me presents.’

      ‘What did they send?’

      ‘Money. Coins. There was nothing else of any use. I hid it. I’ll show you where; but first I want to be sure no one is coming after you, because if they catch you they’ll want to know if there is money and where it is.’

      Mara was trembling, afraid, reminded of the bad man, Garth, saying he would beat her if she did not tell what she knew.

      ‘I know it is hard for you,’ said Daima. ‘But it is a good time to talk now, when Dann is asleep. Your grandmother was a cousin of my mother’s. She always liked me. Once she even sent a message to come home, and said your parents agreed. But they had not sent the message. And besides…’ she moved the brown stuff away from her chest and right across her old, wrinkled breast were scars where she had been beaten, ‘… I couldn’t forget this. It was your father who gave the order for me to be beaten.’

      Mara was crying.

      ‘It’s no good crying about these things, Mara. Bad things. It’s better to try to understand them. The next thing was, there were rumours about the one you call the bad one. I knew that Garth would try to make a rebellion. I grew up with him and I know him. He was always…you are right to call him bad. I’m not blaming him for wanting to take back what is our family’s: the palace and the land.’

      ‘You could go back now, if Garth is your family?’

      ‘No. I don’t trust him. And besides, it won’t last. There’ll be another rebellion and more fighting. The worse things get with water and food, the more fighting. Besides, if he does manage to keep power then he will soon be hated, because he is so cruel. He won’t last. I’m an old woman now, Mara. I’ve lived half my life here, in this village. I know these people. They aren’t my people, but I’ve seen some grow up, and some have been kind to me. When I was ill, after I sent my children back to Rustam, one of them nursed me. She lives in the next house. Her name is Rabat. We help each other.’

      ‘Do the Rock People know about the beautiful clothes in the chest?’

      ‘Yes. Rabat took my keys off me when I was sick, and she went in and looked at everything. I lay here in that corner and watched them all go in to find out what I had. They thought I would have more. They looked for the coins but didn’t find them.’

      ‘They didn’t take any of the clothes?’

      ‘Yes, some. But they can’t wear them. We are thin and tall, and they are short and thick. The children sometimes wear a tunic until they grow out of it – but our clothes are not meant to last.’ And now there were tears in Daima’s voice. Mara thought, That’s funny – she didn’t cry when she remembered her husband’s being killed, and being beaten and running away, but she wants to cry now and she’s only talking about clothes. ‘Everything is so ugly, Mara. And it all gets worse because it’s such a bad time. And there is a funny thing: all our clothes – the People’s, I mean – and the dishes and the furniture and curtains and coverings, they are all beautiful and delicate and won’t last. But everything here will last forever, and it’s so ugly, so ugly, I can’t bear it.’

      ‘Didn’t the People ever want the things that last forever?’

      ‘They were invented long before there were People.’

      ‘Invented?’