Paris: If It Wasn't You

It had been partly good news about one egg of the Bristlebirds surviving.

But now things have changed.

Paris is in lockdown.

In the hotel room in Montmartre:

Mai-Mai and her mother are camping on a duvet, under a sheet draped between two hotel chairs.

Gaius and Carl Linnaeus are talking, in low whispers.

Have you ever taken a life? whispers Carl.

Once or twice in Germania inferior, whispers Gaius. I was a praefectus alae. And we Romans were justified.

I have led a peaceable life, says Carl Linnaeus.

A phone rings. Hui Zhong's phone. She answers.

Zhen! Yes, we're all right. I know. This would never happen in China. Mai-Mai, it's daddy.

Mai-Mai: Hello daddy. We're camping.

Zhen Zhong: Is it fun?

Mai-Mai: Yes. As long as nobody kills us.

Zhen Zhong: Of course nobody will kill you.

Mai-Mai: Have you seen the news, daddy?

Zhen Zhong: Yes, dear. But you are safe, aren't you.

Mai-Mai: Yes, I wish you were here.

Zhen Zhong: Me too, Mai-Mai.

Mai-Mai: I've got a red moustache.

Zhen Zhong: Get mummy to send me a photo.

Mai-Mai: Okay. Bye daddy.

Zhen Zhong: Bye bye, Mai-Mai.

Ten minutes pass. The streets are quiet, except for police and ambulance sirens, far away........

Gaius is trying to sleep. His eyes are shut but his mind is still open. Should he call someone? Who though? The thought strikes him that someone might try to call him. A further thought strikes him that no one yet has.

Carl is trying to sleep. This is terrible. All those people, what a waste. And the killers dead too, what another waste, and what is the point of continuing to lobby for two degrees of global whatnot, and why hasn't his son called, the lazy young scoundrel....

Hui Zhong is trying to sleep. The duvet is uncomfortable. But camping is good for the spirit. She remembers the night on Mentougou mountain, with Xui Li, Sikong Shu, Arthur and Richie Porte. They ate savoury jelly. Dear China. Bad events don't happen there.......

Mai-Mai is thinking, as she stares up at the sheet. Imagine (she likes to imagine). Imagine you knew. Imagine it was like spirit wandering. Like knowing the man who got out of bed and put on his pants (hee hee) and went downstairs to open the box would find an egg in it even before he had done it.
Except finding an egg was good. Knowing that someone would shoot you for no reason was bad. And if it wasn't you, it was someone. Daddy forgot that.