The Fallings

Danny- 'the little boy who lied'

There were not many trees or gardens left on Earth, but Danny's family had one. They were extremely lucky, in addition to being extremely rich.

The garden was the only green thing in the neighbourhood. There were some flowers round the edges, planted by the Barlock's own Ood servant. A high-tech swing was in one corner, and at the back there was a big tree.

Ten-year-old Danny Barlock was a fairly adventurous kid- so long as things never became too frightening or out of control- and he climbed the tree many times. He also invited his friends round to climb it, because none of them had trees of their own. He was the only one.

That was where the trouble started.

At school- he went to a school that levitated high above the city city slums, he was that well-off - he met a boy called Ike. Ike was just a kid and easily awestruck, and he was awestruck by Danny and the Ood he brought to school with him and his descriptions of trees and just him in general. Ike wasn't particularly rich, that was the problem- he was descended from space travellers and his parents had saved for years so he could attend a good school. Danny loved the attention, and invited him round to see the tree.

Danny and Ike had tea with Danny's parents. Danny's father frowned at Ike, but then again Danny's father frowned at anything.

"Your grandparents were spacers, eh, boy?"

"My great-grandparents," Ike answered quickly.

"Ha! Are there Martians in your family, boy? Hmmm?" He laughed. "Perhaps you're desended from Danny's Ood."

Danny's Ood (Danny called it Martin) merely blinked at this statement, and asked Danny's father if he wanted more potatoes.

Ike blinked more.

They went out into the garden after tea, but Danny's mother stopped them.

"Have you done your extra-curricular studies? Your ethics lessons?"

"Yeah, course," Danny lied.

They ran through the garden like kids on olden-day Earth did, and Ike climbed the tree. Danny had to give him a leg-up, because he was so short, and then he went to find Martin to tell him to get the trampoline out for him to play on later. But he found his dad instead, shouting at Martin for something. He was always shouting.

"Dad, I want Martin. He's mine, you always said he was mine."

"Go with the boy," Danny's father told the Ood, and then he turned to Danny himself. "That boy out there- I don't know why on Earth you invited him. I don't want him here again."

"No, Dad."

"I hope you're not his friend."

"No, Dad." He wasn't sure if that was the truth or not. "I mean, he's weird and I think he smells, you know, because his lot were spacers, but he's not mean."

"You don't know the meaning of mean. Take your Ood and go and play."

Danny scrambled up the tree to meet Ike- he could climb in five seconds what Ike had climbed in five minutes. They sat on a branch. They talked for maybe five minutes about school and girls, and then Ike said "Danny, I don't like your dad."

Danny was surprised, and perhaps a bit annoyed. Everyone liked everything about his family. "What? Why?"

"He's mean. He looked at me like I was an Ood or something."

"No," Danny corrected him, "he said you were related to one."

Ike frowned and looked, for a second, somewhat hateful. "I don't want to talk to him again."

"Alright," said Danny, also frowning. "C'mon- let's keep climbing."

So they did. And halfway to the top Ike said. "Um. Danny. You are my friend, aren't you?"

Danny thought about what he'd just said about his dad. It wasn't right. Everyone was always supposed to be nice about everyone in their family. "Yeah," he lied. "You're my friend."

"Good."

They reached the top, and Danny inched out along a branch. They were quite a long way up.

Ike looked down.

"Oh-" He swallowed. "I want to go back down."

"Don't be a wimp! Sit down!"

Ike sat down, clinging to the tree with whitening knuckles. Danny held on with one hand, to show he wasn't a wimp. "Don't you want to talk?" he demanded. And he found a subject right away- he said idly, "How'd your parents get enough money to get you into my school?"

"They worked like hell."

"Don't say hell!"

"Why not?"

"It's bad."

Ike rolled his eyes a bit, and Danny decided he didn't like him at all, really. "I can say whatever I want," he snapped at him. "No-one cares."

"I want to go back down," Ike demanded.

"Well, go back down then. Wimp."

"I'm not a wimp! You are!"

"I am not!"

It was a stupid fight between two small boys- that was all it was. And it shouldn't have turned out the way it did. But Danny shoved Ike- just a bit- and Ike, furious, actually took his hands off the branch to hit Danny. Danny screamed loudly to attract his parents, and pushed Ike again.

Ike fell off.

It was a long way down- he screamed all the way and Danny never forgot that scream. The Ood might have been able to catch him, possibly, but he was still dragging Danny's trampoline out to the garden. (quite a hard job, for one single Ood.) So no-one could do anything- and Ike hit the ground with a crunch.

Danny screamed again- properly, this time.

"Danny."

Danny looked up. It was his mother. His father was nowhere in sight, and just for one second that he'd never admit to, Danny was glad about it.

"Danny, you have to tell us what happened. For the police, and for Ike's parents."

Danny felt like crying. He wanted to throw up.

"Danny? Please tell me the truth."

But he couldn't, because some kid he didn't like had fallen to his death and it was all Danny's fault. Danny had pushed him. He was a murderer, like the people with laser guns he saw on the news, dragging people out of the bad part of town. A killer. They would lock him up. They would lock him up for the rest of his life, and his parents might not visit, they'd be too ashamed, he'd die in a prison...

He lied.

"He fell off. That was all, he just fell off." He sobbed, and his mother hugged him. "He just took his hands off and he slipped. I couldn't do anything." He cried and cried and cried, and the world blurred out.

The next day it occured to him that he must be not only a murderer but a liar as well, and he cried some more.

Two days afterwards he was hungry- he hadn't eaten much since what had happened happened. He went to the kitchen and called Martin to make him some breakfast.

"Martin isn't here anymore, dear," his mother said, sticking her head around the door. "Your father sold him."

"Why?"

"Because he failed to prevent...um...failed to prevent...the tragedy. Ood are supposed to look after humans at all costs, and he didn't. He was lucky your father didn't shoot him."

Danny had horrible visions of his father shooting him. "Alright," he muttered. "I'll make my own breakfast."

He thought no more about the Ood. He didn't even care much when he heard it's new master had shot it through the head for a simple mistake. All he cared about were the images and words flashing through his head each day, bringing him down.

Murderer. Liar.

Before he left home he cut down the tree. The world was now down one more natural thing, but it made him feel slightly better.

And he tried his hardest to never lie again. The one he had told was enough for a lifetime.

"...alpha 50, deceased, with honours." Zach finished. He sat back in exhaustion for almost a minute, then he turned around to the others.

"Well," he said flatly. "It's over."

Ida nodded fiercely, and ran a hand over her face. Danny sighed.

"I should have done a better job."

"Danny, if we start talking like that-"

"No, I mean...I was in charge of the Ood. Ethics officer, for god's sake, and it didn't even...I didn't /I care I ."

"None of us did," Zach said. "We'll know better next time. Get it, next time."

"I suppose we will," Danny said, and he hoped it was the truth.