alex shearer But then as people are so fond of saying whoever said life was fair They say that so much I wonder if somebody did actually once say that life was fair and it’s down to everyone else to disprove and contradict the statement So anyway that’s how I go on turning after turning I grow fruit and vegetables in the greenhouse I put the nets out to catch a few sky-fish For company I’ve got the sky-puss here though he’s the next best thing to useless and all he does is eat and I’ve got a sky-seal parked on the far side of the island I didn’t invite him and he stinks But I can’t seem to get rid of him and even when I do he just comes back again The island isn’t huge but it’s home It would take you a day to walk around it if you weren’t rushing so there’s room to stretch your legs I’ve got solar panels for power and I can communicate over a reasonable distance with the cell phone but that’s about it So here I am when one day I spot a sky-boat heading in this direction I didn’t think all that much about it as people often pass by on their way to somewhere It’s the stopper-offers we don’t get As the boat approaches old sky-puss here actually bestirs himself and gets up onto his own six feet Don’t ask it’s how they’re made They’re curious creatures sky-cats but bone-idle It takes something unusual or something exceptionally tasty to get them off their backsides My own boat’s tied up at the jetty there It’s of the style known as a sky-runner though sky-plodder 3
sky run might be more accurate as it’s a workhorse not a racer It won’t take you anywhere fast but it will get you there in the end if it gets you there at all and if it doesn’t well you probably won’t have missed much So I wondered what was coming in that morning It didn’t look like the mail boat though it had been a while since I’d had a letter But then I got a sight of the compressors and the scarred faces and the tattoos and I knew that it was a bunch of Cloud Hunters But not just them for they appeared to have two faces among them that didn’t bear those scars or the dark suntanned skin or the various bangled adornments and badly advised piercings These two sore thumbs were pasty-faced and unhealthy-looking like they’d spent too long in dark ened rooms and not playing outside like you’re supposed to for the avoidance of rickets And they were young by the look of them five or six maybe seven at the most a boy and a girl As the cloud-hunting boat drew near I went and stood on a rock and called to them Got all the water I need right now friend I said It pays to be friendly out here because you never know when you’re going to need one Tanks are full and I won’t be requiring any for a while Call again in another half-turning I wouldn’t bother landing Don’t want to waste your time Usually that would have been enough and those Cloud Hunters would have kept going But not today We’re going to have to dock Peggy the man at the helm called over and I knew him then as I’d bought 4
alex shearer water from him a few times His name was Kaleir or something they all have weird names like you never heard before I think they spend the long empty evenings making them up and he had all the usual arm bracelets and face scars and tattoos and three unnecessary earrings where one would have done But then Cloud Hunters were never ones for understatement You got problems I asked as I watched the sky boat sail in and prepared to throw him a rope Not more than the usual he said I’ve got something for you though And what’s that But he didn’t answer They drifted in and he closed the sails and we tied the boat up at the jetty As well as Kaleir there was a woman on board plus their own two children as well as the other two who were pale as sheets in comparison Last time I’d seen anything so wan-looking it had been living under a boulder So where you headed I asked more for the sake of something to say than out of real interest Wherever the clouds are Peggy Kaleir said Well they’re not around here No not yet but the tracker says they’re coming And he gesticulated with his thumb to a third individual who was sitting on the deck eating a plate of sky-shrimp with fast-moving chopsticks and who had the distinction of being the only fat Cloud Hunter I had ever seen Usually they tend towards slim and athletic but he was the exception to the rule He had 5
sky run the bracelets he had the scars he had the tattoos But he also had about forty pounds too much blubber But maybe eating was his hobby So what can I do for you I said as they started coming down the walkway Tanuk bring the children Kaleir said and the fat one stuck his chopsticks behind his ear along with the toothpick already there and shooed the two pasty-looking kids along helping them gather up their belongings of which there weren’t many Hold on I said Just hold it there I don’t know who gave you the idea that I was in the market for kids but they told you wrong I’m one hundred and twelve years old and bringing kids up is one thing I’m done with for good So thanks but no thanks No option Peggy Kaleir said I’ve been charged with delivering them to you and here they are Then you can put them right back on that cloud-hunting boat of yours and take them away again By this time the two kids were walking up the jetty with the fat tracker waddling behind them They looked a bit lost and apprehensive and I couldn’t blame them If I’d been six years old and I’d suddenly met me I’d be feeling apprehensive as well That’s far enough I said And I stood there blocking the way Well Kaleir said these two are for you Peggy Just told you I said I don’t want them He didn’t listen Cloud Hunters don’t Not when they’re averse to what they’re hearing 6
