16.
"Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!" cried Jacob dancing round the car as the Field family and Hyoga got out, "Welcome at Crow's Hall! Hurrah! Girls! They're here at last!!!"
"At last?" growled Queer, unfolding his stork's legs from the middle back seat, "We hit the road this morning at eight, an hour and a half's drive to Zeebrugge, one hour waiting for the ferry, four hours crossing and keeping Hyoga from jumping overboard - did you know he is scared of sailing? - half an hour to Canterbury to have tea and visit the Cathedral- nobody in his right mind takes the coastal road west, it's awful- and then two hours more to get here…at last, he says!"
"Oh!"
Jacob's enthusiasm was much dampened by Queer's grumpyness and revelation about his friend.
"Hyoga, you weren't…you didn't…are you all right?"
The former Saint smiled weakly. " More or less. I didn't know either…I kept reliving the shipwreck that cost me my mother! Vimi and Cap talked me through it, and Queer sang: that soothed my mind somewhat."
"I would have plied you with alcohol like we do with Pal when she has to take a plane." said Queer, flashing his wicked, lopsided grin, " Sea shanties seemed to do the trick as well, though I might have to explain about the Holy Ground*…"
"Quirinalis." admonished mrs. Field in her gently stern voice. She put an arm around Hyoga. " Being terrified of flying I know exactly how he feels. And so should you, with your vertigo. Don't tease him."
"Now then," said her husband, opening the booth of his car "Everyone sort out their luggage. Hello there, Ben, Pauline, all." That last was addressed at the three Asiatic girls coming up behind the farmer and his wife. They smiled shyly at the family.
"I'll take your suitcases." said Uncle Ben, a small, wiry paleblond man with a weather-beaten face.
"We'll help!" offered Sunrei eagerly, " Please go in and warm yourselves! Auntie Pauline has prepared a lovely supper!"
"Steak and kidney pie!" shouted Jacob, " Come one, Hyoga, let me show you around, you'll be sleeping with me in the attic!"
"Er...shouldn't I first…ahem…Mr. And Mrs. Field, it's very kind of you…"
"Ah, be off with you lads!" laughed the farmer's wife in a pleasant Sussex brogue, " And I be Auntie Pauline to you, mush**, same as to the others. Helena! Let 'em girls carry the bags, and come on in! You're staying in the Sun Room, as usual."
"Pauline!" smiled the other mrs. Field warmly, "It's good to see you. Oh!" she turned to Seika who had taken hold of a large blue suitcase, " That one contains the Christmas presents, dear, leave that for under the tree…is it already up, Ben?"
"Aye, and I nearly broke me back carrying it in an' all." chuckled the farmer, " We be decorating it tomorrow when Esk comes down from Cambridge with his wife."
"It's huge! Come see, Hyoga! "cried Jacob, dragging his friend inside, carrying on about the farm, school, his friend Dave and what did he think he was going to get for Christmas? Hyoga did his best to follow the flood of broken English with some Russian thrown in and laughed at the boy's excitement.
"Whoa! Mistletoe! Stay here, Hyoga!" Jacob said, halfway down the hall.
"Why must I stop?" wondered the elder Russian, uncomprehendingly eyeing the green bough with its pale berries suspended over his head. Someone bumped into him.
"Miho! She's under the mistletoe, you must kiss her now!" answered Jacob with a toothy grin from ear to ear at having tricked his friend, " Go on, it's a Christmas tradition over here."
Both the Japanese girl and the Russian went scarlet. Quickly Hyoga pecked Miho's cheek. It glowed under his lips.
"Call that a kiss? " chuckled Queer, entering the hall in turn, " Let me show you how it's done…"
"Oh no you don't!" cried Vimi who had followed her brother in, " Girls, beware! Don't allow your heads to be turned by my brother. He is not to be trusted."
"Vile slander! My own flesh and blood! I'm always the perfect gentleman…"protesting Queer and to illustrate he gave Seika an elaborately courteous bow and equally courteously kissed her hand.
"That is what I meant." said Vimi dryly." My little brother has bundles of charm but is never serious. A regular heartbreaker. You've been warned!"
Seika did not look as if she minded. Queer winked at her.
"What are you blocking up the passage for?" came mr. Fields deep voice, " Move along, do, I'm dying for a drink and a pipe. I've been driving all day."
"You'll have to telephone Nick first, dear, to tell him we've arrived." said his wife, " It's very good of him to mind the animals over Christmas."
"I strongly suspect he only offered so that he could feed Sibylla the parrot to the cats and blame it all on the dog! You know how he hates the bird." laughed Queer. "The feeling is probably mutual. By the way, I'd quite like to have a drink myself. I haven't been in the torture seat since Esk went away. Really, Cap, that car is not built for more than two people in the back."
"You'll have your pint of bitter with your supper, I'll be putting it on the table now." said Auntie Pauline, bustling towards the kitchen and mrs. Field called after her: "Half a pint for my son, only!"
Soon they were all settled in and tucked into a steaming pie.
Hyoga had duly admired the typical Sussex timberframe brick-and-flint and thatch roofed main building ("Dates back to the fifteenth century, it does!")and the large brick barn (transformed into a very comfortable guesthouse with 4 separate rooms and an attic) which could be reached via a newly build narrow corridor.
"The real farm lies at the back of the house." Uncle Ben explained to Hyoga, "We keep sheep and chickens and grow wheat and luzerne. We've been at Crow's Hall for generations, and there've been Fields farming in West Sussex since Saxon times…as my historian cousin will probably have told you already."
"And two cows for our own milk and a horse! We can ride him in the paddock!" enthused Jacob further, " And Uncle Ben lets me sit on the tractor with him sometimes! Have you seen the rafters? I put planks up there to make a hidey-hole, I'll be sleeping there tonight, while you and Queer can have the beds…"
Only food stopped him from chattering.
Auntie Pauline was every bit as good a cook as Jacob had said she was. They ate and talked, Mr. Field and his cousin exchanging views on the recent election ("Four more years, drat the woman***!") and European Farming Policy ("How will the third world countries ever be able to compete with that damned protectionism? It's a crying shame that 2 per cent of Europe's population gets 60 per cent of its subsidies!**** " "Perhaps, but as long as they pays me to keep phantom cows, I'm not complaining.*****"), mrs. Field asking about the family and the farm, and Queer flirting outrageously with the girls which cost him baleful stares from his sister.
Cats were slinking around their legs ("They keep the mice out of the thatch!") and an old sheepdog on retirement was peacefully snoring in front of the fireplace. A roaring fire blazed in the hearth; from its mantelpiece dangled a row of long grey woollen stockings waiting to be filled.
Hyoga had never felt so contented.
Much of that was due to a generous helping of pie (with seconds) and apple crumble which Auntie Pauline richly dolloped with thick clotted cream ("You be needing some good Sussex fare inside of you, mush, you still look a bit pale-like.") to follow. His former terror had gone completely. He truly had not known that it would happen. Since the shipwreck he had often been in the sea and even under it, but never on it. Driving into the big belly of the RORO-ship****** had not troubled him, nor had sailing out of the harbour. Once at sea it had hit him, starting with a trembling of the hands so violent that he had to ball them into fists to stop shaking all over. He had clenched his teeth till his jaw hurt, and his throat constricted till he thought he'd suffocate. Vimi had been the first to notice something was wrong with him. She recognised the symptoms, for irrational fear was part of her own illness.
"You can not fight it, really, nor reason it away…pills and therapy only help so much, once it has you in its grip. It's different for you, it must be your childhood trauma that's causing the anguish, it will disappear back on land. "
He had felt ashamed then that he had ever been scared of Vimi. She had walked with him up and down the decks, talking, taking great care to shield him from the railing and the sea below. The greenblue foamtipped waters churned and boiled as the ship ploughed through the waves and they had called out to him, telling him they would come, rise, grab, crush, pull under filling mouths, ears, lungs, choking and death, death, death. …
Was this how the young woman felt in her 'black-dog' days as the Fields sometimes referred to her condition?
She had had a good day, then, but it wouldn't last.
Queer had expressly forbidden him to talk about the possibility of healing with the aid of a Gold Saint. And yet, now that he had had a taste of what depression felt like, he could not stand by and do nothing. Turning to Shaka would be no good; the Virgo Saint 's solution to suffering was death.
Perhaps Mu, with his great psychokenetic powers had also come back from the dead, like Shaka. Although Ailolia was the healer among the Goldies, Mu had greater compassion. No one could be afraid of Mu…
He hoped with all his heart that Aries Saint, if he had returned, would help, for, so he promised himself, if it were the last thing he'd do he'd see Vimi cured. He knew no better way to thank the Fields for all they had done for him. Even Vimi, in her condition, had not hesitated. He would never forget her solicitude during the crossing.
But in the end it had been Mr. Field who had helped the most. He had taken Hyoga to the prow, where he had pointed ahead and said: "Watch, son. It's out there."
"What is?" he had asked, straining his eyes, vaguely discerning a thin, white line on the horizon.
"England! The white cliffs of Dover! The most beautiful sight in the world. Home!"
As the cliffs grew larger, glowing in the midday sun, his fear had abated. The sight had reassured him, and so did mr. Field's quiet voice telling him how he, a boy of 12 at the time, had first seen them rising up from England's mists, after a month-long journey from sun-drenched tropics, leaving all he knew and loved behind and knowing he'd be abandoned for long school years in that cold, rainy country foreign to him.
"I never went back to Malaysia." Mr. Field had said, " My father had decided to pull out, for he had no illusions about the Japanese intentions in the Far East after the Nankin affair *******, but he did not wish to impose life in England on his German wife, not with Hitler menacing peace in Europe. So they settled in Singapore in 1940, for the duration, believing that the city would never fall into enemy hands. Dad died in its defence as a civilian volunteer during the siege. It was better that way: I doubt he would have survived the Jap concentration camps, or the Burma Railway. Mutti, being German, was interned in a special camp for Japan-friendly nationals, in Serangan, Java ********. "
"That must have been terrible!"
'More so because she was anti-nazi, surrounded by sympathisers who cheered at news of every English loss and defeat, knowing that her only child might be among the fallen. Nor had she any news of her deported brother, or of her other brother in terror-bombed Germany. As for me, I knew not whether any of them were alive or dead!"
"Then you were as good as an orphan, like me."
"Not knowing is a terrible thing, Hyoga. The certainty of a loved one's death, the reassurance that he or she is out of reach from pain, is a comforting thought, somehow. At least that was how it felt when the lists of Singapore's casualty's were published. I was lucky, in a way: I could give it back to the Jap, I was given the choice. I could never fight my German cousin. Paul did not have that choice. "
Paul was Paul Schiller, some three years mr. Field's elder, whose photograph stood prominently on the Field's grand piano. Not until he had studied the history of World War Two somewhat had Hyoga realised that the young man with the unhappy face wore a German Wehrmacht uniform.
"People who see that photograph think we are ex-collaborators or neo-nazi's, " mrs. Field had told him, " But can you imagine the anguish of someone whose family is divided over two enemy camps? It had been so even for his parents. My father-in-law studied in Germany for a year, and befriended a German, Karl Schiller. He often visited his friend's family, for the sake of Karl's sister Liselotte, and in 1913 they married…and a year later, another wedding would take place, between Karl and Hilda Field, my father-in-law's sister…on August the fifth. On the fourth, Germany invaded Belgium and for four years of war Hilda anguished over marrying her love, an enemy now…Yet she bravely did so, in 1919, leaving England for a devastated and humiliated Germany. You know what they say: 'If I have to choose between my friend or my country, I hope I have the courage to betray my country.' When you love someone, you see things in a different light. My father-in-law and my husband had the good fortune to live in a country that never forced them into the army. Poor cousin Paul had to join the Wehrmacht. He was posted in occupied territory in my hometown on the Belgian coast when he was told they were going to invade his mother's country. He wrote a farewell letter and shot himself." She had wiped away a few tears and continued: " They pretended he was shot in action during an air-raid, but the undertaker knew better. He found the letter in Paul's pocket and gave it to my father in safekeeping. Five years later, when Hubert came looking for his cousin's grave, we were able to hand it over. That is how I first met my husband: in a churchyard, over the grave of a young man buried far from home because he would not fight the people he loved."
Now that he knew their family history, Hyoga understood better why the Fields acted as they did. It was in their blood. Their experiences had given them the wisdom to see past Honour and Duty and Sworn Oaths, Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, words that meant nothing for none were absolutes. They had learned the lessons in understanding and passed them on to their children. More than teaching languages, geography and history, the Fields were teaching Hyoga the true meaning of life and how to live it. And whenever doubt and guilt crept over him on having abandoned Athena's cause, he thought of the young man in the photograph with the sad, sad eyes. It took courage to fight, but he knew now that it took even greater courage not to fight.
"True: settling a dispute with one's fists is the easy way out. It's what children do in a schoolyard brawl. Turning your back on one who challenges you, walk away: that is bravery. Better yet: meeting the other halfway. Trying to see his point of view."
"Not something Saints excel at. Unless you count shouting 'Prepare to die!' at the top of your voice before attacking as 'meeting the other halfway'. "
"Now I understand why Saints are always children or adolescents. Catch them young, indoctrinate them, make sure they don't develop a mind of their own, fill them with crap about fighting for Love and Justice and never, ever let them experience ordinary life, for fear of them discovering the Other side of the Hill, and find there is much to be said for the view from there…"
Looking around at the joyful faces of his new friends and family, Hyoga knew that the perfect moment he had felt that first morning at the Field's place had returned, and that there would be many more such moments from now on.
Christmas at Crow's Hall followed age-old traditions.
Auntie Pauline, occasionally flanked by Queer who was the cook in the family ("With both parents working, you have to do it yourself if you want to eat well.") spent the better part of next day in the kitchen. Lovely smells of mince pie and stuffing wafted through he house.
At eleven, a rickety old Morris Minor drove into the courtyard and out came a tall, handsome, black-haired and bearded man followed by a tiny, dark-skinned heavily pregnant woman.
Queer greeted his elder brother with his customary irreverence.
"Hello, Esk, what's with the new beard? You look like Che Guevara. Want to give Cap a heart attack? Sing after me: 'El Pu-eblo, Uni-iiido, ja-mas se-ra Venci-iiido!'"********
"Idiot." said Esk amiably, and clapped his younger brother on the back. Unabashed, Queer grabbed the pregnant woman by the waist, and whirled her about: "'Skippy, skippy, skippy, the bush kangaroo…' How's my Australian aboriginal sister-in-law doing? How's little Roo?"
"Half-aboriginal and if you don't want me to drop the baby here and now, don't go 'a-waltzing Mathilda' with me! I'm not a marsupial, thank you!" answered the woman laughingly.
"Did you bring your didgereedo along for midwinter blowing? It will sound lovely over the downs; deep Sussex won't know what's hit it."
"Idiot!" repeated Esk, " You never change, don't you? Hello there. You must be Hyoga."
He greeted the young Russian with a firm handshake.
"I'm Esquilinus, and this is my wife Laura, whom my irreverent brother insists on calling 'Skippy', after a television animal from when we were kids…anyway, the nickname has stuck. So you are a…Saint, eh?"
"I was a Saint."
"The past tense is noted." said Esk with a grin just as lopsided as his brother's (but not so wicked) , " To tell you the truth, if Cap hadn't told me about you I'd have thought this was one of Queer's more elaborate pranks. Can you really teleport? God, if I could work out the mathematics of it…"
"Kick him someone, quick, he's going 'physicky' again!" cried Queer, "Esk, don't bother with the calculations, just accept it as the truth."
"But it upsets our whole idea of the Universe!" protested Esk, " Transforming mass into energy and reassembling it back again without loss is every physicists' dream. Stevie would give what's left of his body if he could formulate…"
"Who's the idiot now? The greatest scientific discovery since Einstein and you want to hand it to your professor?
Stephen Hawking *********is already world famous, let the Student surpass the Master."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, brother, but it takes a bigger brain than mine. Of course, a scientific cavedweller who can't even solve the simplest of equations like yourself can not imagine the variables involved…"
"Oh, be quiet, you two! " cried 'Skippy', "Esk, you promised, no 'physicking' over Christmas. Let's go in! Little Roo wants a rest from the bumpy ride…and so does Kanga!"
Esk sniffed the air.
"'Are those mince pies I smell before me'?"
"That's my brother!" laughed Queer, " Shakespeare and Science. Yes, there are, and you'll have to sing for them, we are off carolling after lunch!"
The singing of Christmas Carols was another firmly upheld Field tradition.
"We've got a regular choir now." said Uncle Ben, " Miho and Seika are both soprano's and Sunrei has a very nice alto. They have been practising on 'Silent Night' and 'Oh, Come All Ye Faithful', and little Jacob here does a lovely solo with 'Good King Wenceslas'. With Esk's, Hubert's and my baritones as backing and your tenors Queer and Hyoga ("Contra-tenor in my case, actually" corrected Queer) we can do a grand 'Holly and the Ivy' and 'God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen'. Since the others can't sing to save their lives, we'll leave them to preparing the feast. Let's go!"
They went from door to door to all the neighbouring farms, ending with the Manor and then the village of Chilgrove, carolling. Filled up with mince-pies in recompense ("Not as good as Auntie's" whispered Jacob, stuffing himself nonetheless) they finished their tour at the Royal Oak Inn at the foot of Chilgrove Hill, where mr. Field decided it was time for a drink.
"Old Alf Anger the landlord draws the best ale in Sussex, straight from the cask" Queer told Hyoga, "Very nice though of course it can't hold a candle to our Belgian Beers."
"No underage drinking over here! This is England, remember. Alf could lose his licence." admonished his father.
'Oh God, do they still stick to that old rule that under sixteen's can't enter a pub? Remember the time when I had to sit on the doorstep next to the doggy-bowl…"
"Nah, it be alright now. By the way, Alf has just renewed his license, he'll be telling ye all about it, he'll love a new audience." chuckled Uncle Ben.
The pub was full of rosy-faced Sussex men and women, chatting and chaffing ale and having a jolly good time drinking in the Christmas atmosphere along with their pints. The landlord set great glasses of the frothy stuff and lemonade and fruitjuice in front of them and true to Uncle Ben's prediction began telling about his little 'court affair'.
" So they asks me have I improved my toilet facilities mr. Anger? ' an' I tells them 'I don't need to, I got fifteen acres out the back!'"
Roars of laughter greeted the story, even from those who had heard it several times before.
" This is how it is.' thought Hyoga," How it should be. Ordinary people sharing a laugh. This is what we were deprived of."
" Penny for your thoughts?" came the voice of Queer, noticing his friend's pensive mood.
Hyoga smiled back .
" They aren't worth a Ruble.' he laughed ," I was thinking of how much I've missed out on. Christmas in Russia was never such a big feast because we were poor and not really allowed to be religious, but I remember Mamotsjka always managed to turn it into a special day. There was an old Pope in our village who secretly held Mass, and he didn't mind us being catholic. Funny how I never found it odd that we used to cross ourselves the other way round, but then, I was too young. We did keep an icon in the house though, of the Bogoroditsa, the Holy Mother of God…that is, the Madonna. I wonder what happened to it….I suppose it's at the bottom of the sea…"**********
" You'll have a chance of saying a prayer for your mother tonight." said Queer gently, " We are going to Midnight Mass in Midhurst, it's the nearest Catholic Church. Mind you, the Vicar would let us in just like your Pope did, but Omi, my German grandmother from Cologne, which is extremely Catholic country, would never set foot in an Anglican one, she was that religious. She even walked the way! Which is what we'll be doing, it's a family tradition. Six miles over Linch Down, along Bepton road and through Midhurst Common, lucky Christmas is only once a year! I know, it sounds pretty hypocritical, us unbelievers going to Church. It's the community spirit we do it for. Besides, the religious members of the family have never given up hope for our conversion, one likes to please. We go to Arundel Cathedral Easter mornings, and that's too far a walk, we take the horse and cart then. So will the 'oldies' now."
" Will Trotter be able to pull you all?" asked Jacob
" Not a problem." answered Uncle Ben, " He be a Shire horse, he'll pull a barn if he has to. It would have been nice though if there'd been snow, you could have taken the sleighs along, it'd been that quicker down hill."
Hyoga grinned to himself. The farmer had just given him a good idea.
Dusk was settling in as they walked back to Crow's Hall, following their noses the last half mile or so for the lovely smell of roast goose.
A gorgeous Christmas dinner awaited them. For starters creamy soup, then the stuffed goose and they all cheered as the flaming Christmas Pudding was brought in. For full five minutes they all played 'witches', spooning the eerily burning alcohol over and over the giant pudding.
" Who'll find the thimble this time I wonder?" joked mrs. Field, " It always seems to be me, after thirty years of marriage too!"
'There are things hidden in the pudding!" explained Jacob to a bemused Hyoga, "Auntie prepared it a month a go. We all got to stir the bowl as they were put in and make a wish. There's the wishing-bone and the ring, that means you are getting married in the coming year, and the crown…"
" I aim for the silver six-pence." said Queer, 'Now then, where's the custard? Let's eat!"
As they ate and laughed over their finds ( Queer had the thimble and wailed: I am going to be an old maid!!!" while flashing a Dom Juanesque smile at the girls who giggled and blushed) Hyoga quietly slipped out.
It was a frosty night, full of stars. Ideal for what he was about to do.
He started concentrating. Yes, it was still there, his Cosmos. He felt it flare up and burn, surrounding him.
" Come, clouds, come to me from Siberia, shed your white treasure…let it snow!"
Slowly, softly, silently the first flakes fell.
"Hyoga?'
Sunrei had followed him.
" It is a generous gift and I know why you do it but is it wise? What if Athena or Shaka sensed it…you are the only Ice Saint…"
" Bah, it took them awhile to realise that the rains were Poseidon's doing…besides I think it's worth the risk.
Look at the Downs! England's beautiful."
Sunrei nodded.
"It is, because we belong now. I love China still, but it was never home: for that, you need a family, and however kind Old Master was, in the end I was just his servant, no? Do you know that Uncle and Auntie have asked us if they could adopt us?"
" They are wonderful people. Cap said he'd have me for a son, too, but that I first need to know if I have family still in Russia, and meet them. I do have a British passport now, though, I needed it to come over, but Cap kept it; he is being rather mysterious about it."
" Maybe it's part of your Christmas present."
" Probably. I feel as if my life with the Fields is one giant present…and I fear the moment when I…"
'Hyoga, Sunrei, come in quick! There is something about Graad on the telly!' called Seika, coming out in search of them white-faced and worried.
They rushed in.
" I was just turning it on for the weatherforecast and they announced it" said Auntie Pauline pointing at the lighted television screen.
A woman reporter came into view.
'The evidence of a large paedophile network at the heart of one of Asia's major import-export companies, the Graad Foundation, has hit Tokyo like an earthquake.' she was telling the viewers, ' Already Graad has been in the news last year at the start of a megalomaniac sporting event instigated by the Foundation. Seven years ago Mitsumasa Kido, then head of Graad, began this project as a giant mix of Astrology, Greek myth and traditional oriental Martial Arts. Deceased before he could see his dream take form, his adopted granddaughter, Saori Kido, took over. Funded by the Foundation, a stadium was build reminiscent of the Coliseum in Rome, where, in the past, similar gladiatorial fights were held. No costs were spared and it was equipped with state of the art modern technology. The ten contestants, 'Saints' as they were called, some as young as twelve and none over sixteen, all dressed up in so-called Cloths, armour vaguely resembling the Star-signs they were named after and reportedly protected by. They were to participate in merciless combat, Marquis of Queensberry Rules not applying. However, of the one hundred boys sent out to various training camps for this purpose six years previously, only ten came back and there was no word of the others.
What happened to them was only one of the many questions I asked the Graad Foundation's spokesman.
First, however, some images of the tournament…Some of these may shock sensitive viewers…'
Extracts from the combats between Seiya and Geki, Hyoga and Ichi, Jabu and Ban, and Seiya against Shiryu were shown. The camera had caught all the details, down to the last splatters of blood, and did not spare them.
' The competition was ended prematurely." continued the reporter, " When one of the contestants made off with the prize, the so-called Gold Cloth. No explanations were given nor was the public reimbursed. Since then Graad has fallen under severe scrutiny. Recently, the Foundation has finally seen fit to respond…"
The Kido Mansion was shown. Hyoga suppressed a shudder. Then his mouth fell open: the Kido spokesman was not Tatsumi, as he had expected, but Jabu!
" He's been send to answer their questions? He's a tail that will wag without the dog! They must be scraping the barrel if they think he's a fit spokesman." the Russian cried.
' Sir, a year ago it was claimed that the contestants in the Galactic Tournament possessed supernatural powers…'
Jabu gave a little laugh.
' Surely you do not believe that! Hitting at the speed of sound, meteor-like impacts? A schoolboy will tell you that that is scientifically impossible. This is real life, not a comic. Everything that was shown was a carefully set up act. Even our first press conference on the matter, in which I as one of the participants challenged another and showed off my skill was publicity stunts, with concealed explosives…'
'It was claimed at that conference that the so-called Saints had in the past been responsible for sudden, inexplicable twists in history…'
Again Jabu laughed.
' I assure you even Japanese history books will tell you that it was the Russian winter and your own Wellington and his brave soldiers and allies that defeated Napoleon!'
" When did he ever open a history book?' said Hyoga venomously, " I didn't know he could read!"
" Obviously, he has come well-prepared for this interview." said mr. Field, " Buttering up to the British won't help though. That's one of the BBC's star reporters, he shouldn't underestimate her because she's a woman."
"' You are yourself a Saint, are you not?'
'I have that honour.'
'Trained along with ninety-nine others, ninety of whom have disappeared without trace…'
'On the contrary, we know perfectly well where they are, only to protect their privacy it is not made public: most of them never completed the training and thus never made the tournament…we wish for them to lead normal lives and they do…'
" That's a wicked lie!" shouted Hyoga.
'How old are you?'
The sudden question seemed to rattle Jabu for the first time.
'I am fifteen.'
" Silly twit, you should have lied better about that." said mr. Field, " She 's going to pin you down on it now."
'That would have made you about eight when you started your training…'
" There, what did I say?"
'Did you parents agree to your participation?'
Jabu reddened.
'I am an orphan. I was extremely fortunate to be chosen by the great Mitsumasa Kido…'
'You were an orphan at the Children of the Star orphanage founded and financed by Graad seemingly expressly for the purpose of turning you into Martial Arts experts, and of the one hundred of the first generation only ten succeeded. What is more, they all but for you have vanished, as have the younger children that until recently lived at the Orphanage. Tell me, were they too collected to become Saints?'
Jabu was losing his cool, Hyoga could tell.
' My…Kido San was a great and noble man. His generosity offered us poor orphans a future…'
'But to some, it meant torture.' interrupted the reporter, 'For not only was the training harsh and the combats gruesome, there is now evidence that the late Mitsumasa Kido left his project into the hands of a paedophile.'
'Most unfortunate, yes.'
'Unfortunate is not the word many would use. Tokumaru Tatsumi was Kido's right-hand man in his later years and effectively ran Graad after his death, Saori Kido as heiress to the Kido fortune and the Foundation being still a minor.'
'That is correct.'
'And until his arrest this morning he continued to do so?'
'Yes.'
'Pornographic pictures were discovered it his rooms of very young children. Tell me, did he ever touch you?'
Jabu was thoroughly shaken now.
'How dare you suggest…I… I…no.'
'Do you know of anyone among your fellows who was?'
'Not at the time, but now that I think of it…perhaps…'
'Would any or all of the missing children be among those?'
'Perhaps.'
'So it is true that for five years a practising paedophile was head the largest Asian Import-export Company with regular access to an entire orphanage full of children?'
'…Yes…'
'Will Graad continue to train children as Saints?'
Jabu hesitated.
'I am sorry, this is the end of the interview. I thank you for coming.'
The Unicorn made to go, but the reporter had one last parting shot: ' All the participants of your Galactic Tournament were of Asiatic origins save one. Can you tell us more about him?'
Hyoga started as much as Jabu did.
'You are mistaken, they were all Japanese.'
A picture was shown of the Cygnus Saint during his combat with the Hydra. The camera zoomed in on his face.
'A blond, blue-eyed, pale-skinned Japanese boy?'
'I…his father was Japanese, he takes after his mother.'
' Is he also an orphan? What happened to his parents? Did any of the one hundred orphans have any other family at all, however far removed? Have you?'
The dark-bespectacled men in black of the Graad security team kicked the camera aside and the interview was rudely broken off. Outside of the Kido closed gates, a close-up was taken of the barbed wire electrified fence that had at one time almost cost Ikki his life when trying to save Shun from being taken to Andromeda island, and the reporter resumed:' As you have heard, the questions answered have raised even more questions. How can it be that a fourteen year old girl had been left the Foundation that is such an important economic factor in the whole of south-east Asia with only one man in charge and no other wards or outside control? What will the reaction of the Japanese government be to these revelations and more importantly, the shareholders? And where are the missing children? This is Kate Adie for the Nine O'clock News, from Japan.'
Mr. Field turned off the television.
"Good old Katie, she's set the dogs on them.'
"Hubert, did you know of this?" asked his wife with a concerned glance at Hyoga who had gone very pale.
"Freddie Mountjoy gave me a call yesterday. Graad hopes to throw us off the scent with this. They don't know how much we know yet, thanks to the floppies Miss Marini passed onto our services, and Hyoga's evidence."
" Any news from Fletcher-Parks?"
"He's on his way to England even now. Apparently he's fallen victim to a rather nasty mugging, lost a couple of teeth…still, I expect him to pay us a visit around Boxing Day." Mr. Field smiled at Miho, " a chance for you to see Miss Asatani again."
Miho gave a little cry of joy. " Minako! So they are getting married? Oh, I am glad!"
Queer took a look at his watch.
" Hey, everybody, if we want to be in Church on time the walkers had better set out now!
"Don't forget your gloves and caps." counselled Auntie Pauline, " Look, it's been snowing!"
Jacob whooped for joy.
"Snow! Snow! Hurrah! Hyoga, that has been your doing, hasn't it?"
The former Cygnus Saint smiled fondly at the exited boy.
" I haven't lost my touch yet. Call it an early Christmas present."
He grinned in Esk's direction as the man was shaking his head and muttering "Impossible!"
" I can't tell you the mathematics of how I did it, only that I can."
The elder Field brother groaned.
" I don't even want to know. Off with you lot! Enjoy the sleighing."
They did. Trampling through the freshly fallen snow was difficult at first, but then Hyoga froze a path for them, and off they went. The former Saint pulled one sledge uphill with Vimi and Miho, Queer the other with Sunrei and Jacob, Seika lighting the way with an old-fashioned haw-lantern. From Linch Down they could see Bepton and Midhurst twinkling ahead, and amidst squalls and shouts of laughter they sailed down, three to a sleigh. On the snow-covered Bepton road they heard the sounds of jingling bells, and though it was not, as Jacob thought for a moment, Father Christmas coming, it proved to be the next best thing: the Field 'Oldies' in the farm cart, wrapped in blankets and hot-water bottles, pulled along by the faithful Trotter.
" Want a lift?' called Uncle Ben, " Bind yourself to the back!"
They sang all the way to Church.
Hyoga felt as if his heart would burst. This was the most perfect moment he could imagine.
The Church was ablaze with candlelight, the Priest spoke gently of the Love of God – the real God to Hyoga, the one who became Man to suffer along with men, not to quarrel with his fellow Gods over the dominance of Earth and have others do the fighting- and the joy at the birth of the Child.
" Children are our Hope for the Future." he said ," They must be cherished. As we see the little Child in the Manger, Dearly Beloved, we also see his Parents watching over him, we see his friends the Ox and the Ass keeping him warm, we see the Shepherds and the Three Wise Men rejoicing. Thus it should be for all children. May they be kept safe. This is the Christmas Message I wish to impart on you: each and everyone of you is part of the Holy Family; love each other as the Lord Jesus Christ has loved us all."
They sang Silent Night together, and Hyoga wept openly when they came to the part about 'Mother and Child, Sleep in Heavenly Peace'.
At the parting, Queer was called to sing. He gave the congregation an impish look.
" Christmas is the Children's and the Family feast, but let's not forget the mums. We're in the Church of the Divine Motherhood after all. So this one's for the Holy Mother of God, and all mothers everywhere."
And he sang the Ave Maria in a voice that, Hyoga thought surely must be like an Angel's.
" Some Angel!"
"You were my Guardian Angel, sort of, and if not, He must have guided you to me!'
" Careful Hyoga, you've just escaped the service of a Goddess, don't go rushing out of one Church to go rushing into another."
" Would you say that our meeting was coincidence then?"
" We met, because I missed the tram into town and decided to walk to the next stop where I'd have a chance of catching two going in the same direction. If I hadn't, I would have been on the one that would have crushed you, failing someone to pull you back. If that's God's work, his Mysterious Ways seem pretty mundane to me."
" Perhaps, but following that coincidences kept cropping up…what with Cap being what he is, and…"
" Please, Hyoga, I don't like the idea of God using me as his instrument. We didn't fight the Greek Pantheon to find them replaced by yet one more Puppeteer."
As they came out of the Church, Hyoga saw mr. Field put a hand on Queer's shoulder and heard him say: "Well done, son."
" To remain in an Ecclesiastical, even Biblical mood, Praise from you is like Manna from Heaven." said the young man. He returned the gesture, a brief father and son moment rare among the Fields who true to their English nature were not given to great effusion of sentiment.
Hyoga felt a small pang of jealousy.
" Mitsumasa Kido, you were my father but all I ever received from you was pain. Were you present tonight you would not have known what the Priest was talking about. Family? Parental love? Warmth? Mamma believed in those and you murdered her for it."
Jacob had fallen asleep and lay cradled in Auntie Pauline's arms as they drove back to Crow's Hall.
The bells on Trotter's harness jingled.
"Father Christmas." murmured the little Russian.
" Yes dear, in the morning."
Needless to say, Jacob was the first to rise on Christmas Day waking the entire household with squeals of delight at finding a huge package under the Tree with his name on.
The farmer and his wife and the girls had bought him his very own mountain bike. Imitating the boy they all rushed to open their own packages. Gaudy wrappingpaper was torn apart and colourful ribbons flew through the air and were chased by the old sheepdog and the cats. There were hand-knitted socks ("Can't ever have enough of those!") and jumpers ("Wool from our own sheep!") for everyone, handkerchiefs for mr. Field who was a martyr to sneezes ("Twenty-seven in one go is the record!")a watch for mrs. Field who was forever losing hers, books and records. Hyoga received Russian literature, a book on the Siege of Leningrad and the Shostakovich Symphony ( "It was written and performed during the siege, I though you might want to listen to it while reading, it really brings the agony of those days to life") and there was Tibetan jewellery and white silk prayer shawls for Seika, Miho and Sunrei.
" The stones are turquoises, my brother-in-law Tsarong send them to me; he is with the Khampa's who fight for the freedom of Tibet, while his brother, Lama Dorje prays for it; the shawls come from him, they are a symbol of Faith and Friendship: it means you are part of the family now." explained mr. Field. The girls glowed with happiness.
Queer's gift reflected his nature, half-serious, half-joke. Unwrapping his present, Hyoga found a T-shirt with the Russian word 'svobody' printed on the front and its translation, 'freedom' on the back. Jacob and the girls received similar shirts in their own language. They loved it.
Finally, mr. Field handed Hyoga a small flat package.
" You know what this is, but there is a story attached to it that is part of the gift.'
It was a British Passport, it's shining blue cover embossed in Gold with the Lion and the Unicorn holding the Coat of Arms and the motto 'Honni Soit Qui Mal Y Pense' As Hyoga opened it, he saw his own face looking back from the small identifying photograph next to a name…
" Ilya Sjevtsjenko, born in Yakutsk , U.S.S.R., on February the fifth 1972? But that's neither my name nor my birthday!'
" It is, too." replied mr. Field gravely, " It is a long tale, and a sad one, Hyoga, or rather, Ilya, for that is indeed your name. It all began in Lvov, in 1968, when seventeen-year old Nastassia Fjodorovna Minckiewics left for Kiev to join the National Ballet of the Ukraine. Yes, your mother was a dancer. A good one, for she was soon promoted out of the Corps the Ballet to become a Prima ballerina. Her first Star Role was that of the little bird in a stage adaptation Prokoviev's Peter and the Wolf that went on a nationwide tour ending in Moscow. The Kiev born and bred flutist who played the musical part of the bird and with whom she practised continually was called Vladimir Jaroslavich Sjevtsjenko. They fell in love and married…'
" Married! No! Mama was not married…not to an another man, when Mitsumasa…' Hyoga choked.
"Peace, son. Let me finish. Vladimir Jaroslavich was a descendant of a famous nineteenth century Ukrainian artist and author, Taras Sjevtsjenko, a freed serf who was banished to Siberia for a period for voicing his ideas of Liberty and Equality in Tsarist Russia. True to his ancestor, Vladimir did the same in Brezjnev's Soviet Russia, and was duly sent to the Gulag for it. Nastassia was desperate. However, as a Prima Ballerina of great popularity, she enjoyed privileges the common Russian did not have. One of them was that she could meet westerners staying in Moscow, among them a Japanese businessman who adulated her. She went to him for counsel, hoping that he would help her escape to the West, which had always been her Vladimir's dream, and there work towards his freedom, like was being done for Sakharov, the banished scientist. Mitsumasa Kido, for it was he, agreed on one condition.'
'And we all know what that was." spat Hyoga, "The bastard! The filthy bastard!!!"
" It was a very cruel thing Kido did, taking advantage of Nastassia's despair and leave, forgetting her as he had the other women that had shared his bed. She kept hoping for word from Japan, and when none came, had a letter smuggled out that proved fatal."
" I suppose she told him she was expecting me. He didn't care at the time, but later when he needed his sons for Athena's service, he had her come over and then killed so that I could join his collection. The bastard." Hyoga repeated. "Why did mama never speak of her husband? Was she too ashamed? How could she trust Kido still? She must have known him for what he was, yet she made me believe that my father was a good man with great ideas of peace and justice, and wanted me to promise that I'd help him later, when I was older. Mama…mama lied to me!"
Mrs. Field took Hyoga's hand and pressed it.
"No dear, she never lied to you about your father. But you see, what mothers most want for their children is a happy, carefree childhood. Therefore she bend the truth a little, and probably planned to tell you later…that Vladimir is your true father!"
Hyoga gasped, stunned at the revelation.
" We can only guess what went through the poor girl's head when she found out she was pregnant shortly after her husband's arrest, blitz-trial and subsequent exile. She did not say you were Mitsumasa's son in the first letter she wrote to Japan, or he might have got you out sooner. No, that was later, after she had herself been sent to Siberia for 'consorting with the enemy'. The KGB has its eyes everywhere, and knew of her liaison with Kido. Thus you were born in Yakutsk, Siberia, and then send further east into exile. Some time later your mother had news that Vladimir had died in the Gulag. From then on all she could think of was getting you out, to freedom, and was prepared to do anything for that. Even lying. Hence, the second letter announcing Kido that he had a son in Russia. It was then that she started calling you by a Japanese name – probably out of a dictionary- in order to turn the lie into a good one. For Kido to believe you were his son, you had to, too. What father, she reasoned, would abandon his own flesh and blood?"
" Blood is what put us on the right track." said Queer, " Or rather, Nick. The scientific cavedweller that I am did not make the connection when we talked about bloodgroups, but apparently an AB parent can never have an O child…the gene for O is regressive, and both parents need to have it, which is impossible with AB. As for your birth-date, your mother must have written to Kido giving the Russian date, January 23, to put on the false passport he was to procure for her so that you could travel*********** from the town where you lived at the time to the place where his yacht would pick you up. We follow a different calendar, and you were actually born two weeks later! So you are full-blooded Russian, Ilya, and you can be proud of both your parents. They were very brave people."
Hyoga's head reeled. It had become too much for him to take in.
"Hubert, I think he is going to faint."
"The lie…the lie my mother twisted into truth so that…so that I could live in the freedom my real father died for only gave me a worse kind of imprisonment, and slavery!"
"She did not know, son. She loved you."
" I…I…am sorry, I need to be alone for a moment…"
He went in a hurry.
Outside in the yard he fell on his knees in the snow. Scooping it up in handfuls, he pressed his flaming face into it.
" I am not Kido! I am not Japanese! I am Russian!"
Vladimir Jaroslavich Sjevtsjenko. His father, His poor, courageous father, Russian, Freedom Fighter, Hero.
He sprang to his feet, eyes closed against the morning sun, tears mingling with the melting snow streaking down his cheeks.
" I am not tainted with Kido blood! I am all-Russian, not Japanese! Not Kido!"
" A pity, it was the only good thing about you."
The blow sent him rocketing backwards through the wall.
To be continued.
Author's Notes:
Well, at least he's had a good Christmas…
I felt Hyoga deserved better parents than a hopelessly naïve girl who got herself pregnant by an ageing Japanese with multiple mistresses and little scruples. Far be it from me to say that all businessmen are ruthless bastards, but he would not have become so rich and at the head of Graad by being nice. Even in the anime, where he is less abject than in the manga, he has no problem employing a sadist like Tatsumi.
* Holy Ground: Reference to a very naughty sea-shanty. Do I need to draw a picture?
** Sussex term of endearment, not to be confounded with the same Canadian word used to spur on sleigh dogs. Note that as I never mastered the Sussex dialect, I can only give an approximation of it. My apologies to offended Sussex readers.
***Margaret Thatcher and the Tory party won the elections in 1987 for the third consecutive time.
**** Absolutely true, though the figures may have changed since
*****'Phantom cows' is only one of Europe's protectionist measures. Subsidies are given for not cultivating the land and also for not keeping cows. The idea is that small-time farmers with few cows can remain competitive on their subsidies.
******RORO = Roll On Roll Off drive-through ferry
******* Nankin; the Japanese invaders of China massacred the civilian population of that city in December 1937
******** Authentic. For more information on the Siege of Singapore, Japanese Concentration Camps and the Burma Railway, and World War Two in general, please refer to the appropriate literature, available in every good library near you.
********* El Pueblo Unido jamas sera Vencido = The People United will never be Defeated. Communist song popular in Cuba and the '60s and 70's.
********** Stephen Hawking –Theoretical Physicist suffering from severe Multiple Sclerosis
*********** A Pope in Orthodox countries is a priest. The Orthodox cross themselves from right to left, not left to right as Catholics do, and Mamotsjka is a term of endearment, meaning little mother.
*********** In the Soviet Union one needed travel permits to go from one town to another
The tragic story of the Schiller family is absolutely true.
Kate Adie is truly a reporter for the BBC
There is a Crow's Hall Farm near Chilgrove, however it is not as described in my story, nor is it a bed and breakfast
There is a large Catholic community in Sussex due to the influence of the powerful Dukes of Norfolk who remained Catholic even after the conversion to Anglicanism of the Kingdom. Similarly, southern Germany too has remained Catholic.
For those who think I am in the pay of the British Tourist Board or the Roman Catholic Church, note that I am neither British nor religious. However, England is beautiful, feel free to pay it a visit.