Chapter Text
Clive was having an awful day. First, Nana woke everyone up before sunrise. She didn’t even warn him last night, so he could plan for it. Then, they all had to leave the house, without even having breakfast first. Clive wasn’t sure why, but the grown ups were all yelling, so he didn’t dare make a fuss. He just kept quiet and tried to follow orders. The orders were to start running, as fast as they could, and not look back. Clive hated running. His legs never ended up where he thought they would be, and he always fell face first in the mud. He tried his best, but after he almost knocked over Marley, no one let him try again. His dad just scooped him up and flung him over his shoulder like a sack of fertilizer. His head banged against his dad’s shoulder with every footstep. He used his hands to push himself up a little, trying to get more comfortable.
That was when he learned why they weren’t supposed to look back.
Clive couldn’t remember much after that. He knew they got on a wagon eventually, because he was sitting down. He was smushed on all sides, but he didn’t complain. He ended up holding baby Alex somehow. That part was nice. Alex was cranky for almost everyone, but he liked being held by Clive. It made Clive feel important. He wasn’t good at running, or at talking, but at least he was good at being a big brother. Holding Alex made him feel calm. He was warm, and heavy, and he breathed in a steady rhythm.
When it was time to get off the wagon, Clive had trouble again. His arms and legs were frozen, from being squished up for so long. He couldn’t remember how to make them move again. His mum tried taking Alex from him, and got cross when he didn’t let go. He got told off in front of everyone for being stubborn, even though it wasn’t on purpose. He tried to tell her, but the second he opened his mouth, he started crying. Not just regular crying, either. The big, loud, kind that squeezed his chest and made it hard to breathe. That was even more embarrassing than being yelled at. Everyone was watching him, and it made him cry even harder. He was angry at himself. They were staring because he was crying. If he stopped crying, they would stop staring. He knew that. He wanted them to stop staring. But he couldn’t ever make his body do what it was supposed to. He tried his best to avoid getting snot on his shirt. He was pretty sure it was his only shirt, now. He didn’t want it to be all snotty. He didn’t want to get any on baby Alex, either. Someone he didn’t know handed him a handkerchief. He wanted to take it, but his arms still weren’t doing what he wanted them to. He tilted his face back, to stop it from dripping, but then his throat got all clogged up and he couldn’t get any air. He didn’t know how to solve that problem. Everything burned, and the world got dark and spinny.
Then a hand cupped the back of his head and tilted him back forward. A cloth wiped his face, clearing his mouth and nose. He gasped in air, dizzy from the sudden change. He felt another tight squeeze around his chest, but this one was cozy. A hug. It came with the sound of loud, slow breathing right next to his ear. That was his mum’s breathing. He worked to match her pace, and eventually his chest stopped hurting. Slowly, the rest of the world came back into focus. His mum was saying words.
“It’s okay sweetie, I’ve got you.” Over and over again.
He remembered he was still holding baby Alex, and got worried. He looked down to check on him. He was still asleep, somehow. That was a relief. He tried moving his arms again. They listened to him, this time. He handed baby Alex to mum, like he was supposed to. She took him in one arm, and kept the other around Clive’s back.
“Thank you. You did such a good job keeping Alex calm for us. I’m sorry I yelled. It’s been a scary day for everyone, huh?”
Clive nodded.
“We need to get out of the wagon now, so it can go help more people. Do you need help, or are you able to walk?”
Clive tested it out. His leg wiggled when he moved it. He pressed his foot down, and he could tell where the floor was again.
“You abuh da bawk,” Clive echoed as best he could. He knew it wasn’t clear enough. He stood up to show her what he meant. She took his hand and together they walked down the steps off the wagon. On the last step, he hesitated. There was a giant crowd all around. Being apart from them was embarrassing, because it meant they all looked at him, but being in the crowd meant they would be touching him again. He started to back away, shaking his head.
His mother squeezed his hand, then let it go.
“It’s a lot of people, I know. Our family is right there, though. Can you see?”
Clive looked at where she pointed. He couldn’t see anyone. Or, he could see so many people that no one stood out. He shook his head.
“Your father is wearing his favorite blue shirt,” she told him. Clive looked again, this time searching for the bright blue shirt with all the pockets in front and a yellow patch on the shoulder. That was easier to find. Once he found his father, he was able to pick out the rest of his family. They were close by. He could make it that far. He took a deep breath, jumped down the last step, and hurried through. He bumped into a lot of people, but no one yelled at him anymore. He made it to the bright blue shirt, and grabbed the bottom of it in a tight fist. The rest of the family was all around him, which kept the strangers out. Clive could think a little better, again. He remembered what he saw earlier, and checked to see if everyone was there. They were. Only two people were missing, and Clive already knew where they were. He looked over at Marley. Marley was holding Uncle Luke’s hand and standing on tiptoes, like he was searching for something. He wasn’t crying. That meant he followed directions. He didn’t look back. Clive was pretty sure he would be crying if he knew he didn’t have parents anymore.
They all stood in the big crowd for a long time. Clive knew the grown ups were doing something important. A man with a fancy hat and badge was going around with a notebook, talking to each person in turn. After he left, the people would walk towards a bunch of square buildings, and go inside one. His hat had a glowstone in it to help the man see. Clive had seen glowstones before, in the main building in town. Those ones were big, though, and stayed in the ceiling. He never knew they could be small enough to wear. It was such a smart idea! Candles were a lot of trouble, even in a lantern. Clive wasn’t allowed to use candles, on account of how much he fell down. A glowstone hat wouldn’t burn him or set the house on fire. He would be allowed to wear it. Eventually, the man came to his family. He couldn’t tell what the man was saying, with all the other sounds in the room, but he knew the words his father replied with. It was their names. That made sense. The man was finding out who was in the big crowd.
After the man walked away, his father spoke slow and clear enough that everyone could hear him over the noise.
“Everyone follow me,” he said. “Hold hands so no one gets lost.”
Clive switched his grip from his father’s shirt to his hand, and reached his other hand towards his big sister. Kelly took it, and reached out to Marley with her other hand. Marley didn’t take it, though.
“We can’t go yet!” He shouted. “Mum and dad didn’t find us yet!”
Clive felt squirmy in his heart. His hand started shaking. He didn’t want to watch Marley find out. He also didn’t want to keep pretending. It felt mean, like lying. For the first time, he was glad no one expected him to say anything important.
“Let’s get out of the crowd, first,” his dad said, after a long pause. “One step at a time.”
Marley looked like he wanted to argue, but he took Kelly’s hand. When everyone was linked, they went to the square buildings. There were rows and rows full of them. They all looked the same to Clive, but his dad stopped at one and herded them all inside. On his way in, Clive saw a number 27 on a tiny sign next to the door. So that was how he could tell the buildings apart.
Inside was one big room. It was lit with glowstones, just like the main building in town, and the man’s hat. The room was filled with rows and rows of beds. Three rows, five across, two high. Thirty beds. There were ladders to get to the higher beds. Each one was tiny. Only big enough for one person. Clive had never seen anything like it before. He guessed this was their home, now. Building Number 27. He didn’t care for it. He wondered if everyone in the big crowd also lived here now, in the buildings. He wondered if they would have to share Building Number 27. There were thirty beds, and only twenty Standishes, including baby Alex and the twins.
Eighteen Standishes.
That left twelve beds empty. Fifteen, if the babies didn’t count. They would probably have to live with strangers. Clive hoped they were quiet strangers.
He walked around the big room, and found a door at the other end. He opened it up. It was a bright, shiny white room. It was filled with a bunch of fancy toilets, like the kind in town next to the market. Their new house had a BATHROOM! Clive grinned, and rushed over to examine a sink. This one had two handles. The sink in town only had one. There were runes etched into the handles. Clive knew all about runes. They were how people used magic without essences. Each one meant something different, and putting them in the correct order made a ritual circle that told the magic what to do.
He recognized all the symbols on the first handle. They matched the ones on the sink in town. He was there when the workers were fixing it one day. He asked them what they all meant, and one of them had shown Clive a paper with all the basic runes on it. He pointed out the one that made things move, the one that showed direction, the one that meant water, and the central rune that pulled in magic from the air. They all had names, but the worker didn’t know them. He’d let Clive take the paper home with him. Clive hung it up on the wall in the kids bedroom, and studied it every day before he got dressed. He didn’t have the paper now. It was probably destroyed. He wished he could check it to make sure he got them all right.
Clive investigated the other handle. It had almost all the same runes, but with one extra. Clive had never seen that rune before. Using what he already knew, he guessed it changed the type of water in some way. His first theory was that it added soap. That couldn’t be right, though. He could see a bar of soap next to each sink. Maybe it cleaned the dirt out of the water?
Before he found out, he had to make sure he remembered the rest correctly. He turned the first handle, and water came rushing out. It looked perfectly clean! He put his hand underneath, letting it splash his face, and screamed with delight. He cupped some into his hand, and tasted it. It tasted just like boiled water! Maybe it came from a big pool where the water was all boiled ahead of time, the way their pitcher had always been full of boiled water. Maybe living here wouldn’t be so bad. He could share with strangers if it meant he got a sink with clean water!
He turned the water off, then back on again. And off. And on. It kept coming out clean. Kelly and Harriet followed him in, and made their own excited shouts. Clive ignored them. He was ready to find out what the second handle did, now that he knew his first two guesses were wrong. He turned it, and the water that came out was HOT!
“Ow!” He shouted. He pulled his hand back. There was a dark spot on it. As he watched, the spot faded back to brown.
“Are you okay?” Shouted his sister, rushing over to him. She grabbed his hand to examine it.
“You okay!” He assured her. “Caful, it HOT!”
Kelly looked suspiciously at the stream of water, then dipped one finger into it.
“Ow!” She shouted. “Harriet, look! We have hot water!”
“We have a shower, too!” Harriet called. Clive looked over and saw she was soaked from head to toe. On the wall behind her were handles with the same runes etched onto them. Clive spotted the new one that meant Hot. Water was pouring out from a spout in the ceiling, and draining into a hole at the floor. It was like a giant sink for people! This was the cleanest place he’d ever seen! The water was falling faster than the drain took it away, so there was a big puddle that covered her toes. He started to rush over, then stopped. He only had one set of clothes now. He carefully took them off and set them on a shelf before getting under the water. Kelly followed his example. Harriet looked down at her own soggy clothes, like she only just realized the problem. She pulled them off and hung them on some little hooks on the wall. Then she jumped back in, landing in the big puddle and splashing them all. Clive usually hated it when he got splashed by surprise. This time, he laughed. He didn’t know why.
“Marley, come LOOK!” Kelly called. Marley peered around the door. His eyes were red. Clive remembered everything again. He started shivering. He wondered if the grown ups told him yet.
Then Marley broke into a grin. He hurried to get his clothes on the shelf and ran into the shower, too. He kicked his foot through the puddle, spraying a big arc of water into the air. Clive laughed some more. His body was still shivering, but he felt happy again. He and Marley and Harriet and Kelly all took turns splashing each other. They turned it into a game, where one person stood under the water, and everyone else went in a circle around the edge. The person under the stream cupped their hands together until they were full of water, then threw it at someone. Whoever got hit was next to be in the water. It was a lot like the game they played in the lake, back when they lived on a lake.
Thinking about the lake made Clive remember the eels. He didn’t know who would feed them, now. He felt bad for whoever it was. Eels were slimy and gross. They made the whole lake feel slimy and gross, too. The water in their new home was so much nicer!
They still deserved to be fed, though. Papa would probably make sure someone did. He loved the eels. Clive didn’t love them. He didn’t even like them, but he still wanted them to be okay.
Marley hit him in the face with a handful of water, and Clive went back to the game.
“What in the name of the gods are you four doing in there?” Shouted uncle Manny. They all froze still as he rounded the corner. Uncle Manny stared at the mess they had made. Clive didn’t look at Uncle Manny. He looked at the sink, where he left water running until it spilled over the edge and onto the floor. He looked at the shelf, where the clothes they put up to stay dry were all splashed anway. He looked at Kelly, who was making the face she made right before she talked fast enough to get them out of trouble.
She didn’t need to, though. After that awful silence, Uncle Manny gave a big, deep laugh, and ran into the water with them. He chased them around, stomping his giant feet in even bigger splashes. Clive couldn’t stop giggling as he slipped and slid around on the smooth floor. He knocked into Kelly, who knocked into Harriet, who knocked into Marley, and they all tumbled to the ground in a tangle. They didn’t bother getting back up. Instead, they all used their hands to splash Uncle Manny as much as they could.
“I need backup!” Uncle Manny called out. A few seconds later, Uncle Luke, Nana, and mum joined in. They left their clothes outside, at least. That was smart. Clive was pretty sure there weren’t any dry spots left in the bathroom. He wasn’t looking forward to putting wet clothes back on. Maybe he wouldn’t need to. Maybe they would let him wait for them to dry. The beds had blankets. Maybe he could just wear one of those for a little. He wasn’t usually allowed to wear blankets as clothes, but he also wasn’t usually allowed to make a huge water mess indoors. Maybe their new house had new rules.
Eventually, the adults did make them turn off the water. His dad came in with towels for everyone, and helped Clive dry off. Clive noticed that the entire room was tilted just a little bit, so all the water they had splashed rolled down to the hole in the floor. Even the shelf was slanted just enough that the water all rolled off. That was a clever way to build a room. Maybe it was meant for splashing in.
He wondered where his dad had found towels. He got his answer when he went back to the main room. The shelf that had been empty when they arrived was now filled with neatly folded towels, sheets, and clothes. Counting the sheets already on the beds and the towels already on the bodies, there was enough for everyone to have two of everything. The babies did count, apparently. Clive wasn’t sure how they would like sleeping in their own bed. He wasn’t even sure how he would like it. Maybe, if no one else came to share their house, they could all just sleep on the floor together.
The towels and blankets were all the same boring white, but the clothes were all different shapes and colors. Some had patches, or little stains. They were hand-me-downs. Clive knew all about those. Most of his clothes were hand-me-downs from his uncles. Nana was good at patching things up, so clothes could go through a lot of owners. He wondered who used to own these, and how they had gotten here. Probably the man with the notebook. He had written down who would be staying here, then he brought laundry for everyone. Clive tried to remember what the man looked like, so he could say thank you. All he could remember was the glowstone hat, though.
He put on the clothes Aunt Helen gave him. He liked them. There weren’t any big seams or itchy fabric. He could move his arms and legs as much as he wanted. There was a big purple splotch on the side of his shirt, like someone had spilled star cherry jam all over it. That was alright with Clive. He liked the color of star cherry jam.
After everyone was dressed, Aunt Helen told them they were going to a place called the cafeteria. She said it was like a big kitchen they would share with all their new neighbors while they stayed here, and it was where they would be eating every meal.
“Not our house?” Clive asked.
“I know it’s not, sweetie, but it’s only for a little bit,” Aunt Helen replied.
Clive frowned. Aunt Helen never understood what he was trying to say. He tugged on Kelly’s sleeve twice, their sign for “please explain for me.”
“He wants to know if this is our house, now,” Kelly said.
“No, Clive, we don’t live here now,” Aunt Helen told him. “We’re only staying here for a little bit. We’ll get to go back home after the monster surge.”
“But… mah-stuh…” Clive trailed off, looking at Marley. He still didn’t know if the adults told him, yet.
His dad understood what he was asking, at least.
“We’ll fix what we can, and rebuild what we can’t,” he said. “It’s not fun, but we’ve done it before.”
Clive nodded. That was good. He enjoyed having glowstones and a bathroom, but he did not like the sound of this “cafeteria” business. He didn’t want to have to be back in the big crowd of strangers every time he was hungry. He also still didn’t know what was going to happen with the other twelve beds. And if they had to rebuild the house anyways, maybe they could make some changes. Maybe they could build their own bathroom. He knew some of the steps already. Maybe he could figure out the rest while they were here.