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‘Here,’ said Sheila, indicating the bungalow with her mottled hand. ‘This was my mum and dad’s place. Ooh, they were angry about all the things in the papers. And Brian couldn’t get a job. I got one. Office clerk. I didn’t like it. Brian missed the farm.’
‘How long were you away, Sheila, can you remember?’
‘Two years… three years… then Mazu wrote to us. She said it was all better and they had a good new community. Brian was good at the farming, see, that’s why she wanted him… so we went back.’
‘Can you remember who was there, when you returned?’
‘Don’t you want a cake?’
‘Thank you, I’d love one,’ lied Robin, reaching for a Bakewell slice. ‘Can I—?’
‘No, I got them for you,’ said Sheila. ‘What did you just ask me?’
‘About who was at Chapman Farm, when you went back there to live.’
‘I don’t know all the names. There was a couple of new families. Coates was still there. What did you ask me?’
‘Just about the people,’ said Robin, ‘who were there when you went back.’
‘Oh… Rust Andersen was still in his cabin. And the Graves boy – posh, skinny boy. He was new. He’d go up Rust’s place and smoke half the night. Pot. D’you know what pot is?’ she asked, again.
‘I do, yes,’ said Robin, smiling.
‘It doesn’t do some people any good,’ said Sheila wisely. ‘The Graves boy couldn’t handle it. He went funny. Some people shouldn’t smoke it.’
‘Was Jonathan Wace at the farm, when you went back?’ asked Robin.
‘That’s right, with his little girl, Abigail. And Mazu had a baby: Daiyu.’
‘What did you think of Jonathan Wace?’ asked Robin.
‘Charming. That’s what I thought, then. He took us all in. Charming,’ she repeated.
‘What made him come and live at the farm, d’you know?’
‘No, I don’t know why he came. I felt sorry for Abigail. Her mum died, then her dad brought her to the farm, and next minute she’s got a sister…’
‘And when did the whole idea of a church start up, can you remember?’
‘That was because Jonathan used to give us talks about his beliefs. He had us meditating and he started making us go out on the street and collect money. People would come and listen to him talk.’
‘Lots more people started coming to the farm, did they?’
‘Yeah, and they were paying. Some of them were posh. Then Jonathan started going on trips, giving his talks. He left Mazu in charge. She’d grown her hair down to her waist – long black hair – and she was telling everyone she was half-Chinese, but she was never Chinese,’ said Sheila scathingly. ‘Her mum was as white as you and me. There was no Chinese man, ever, at Chapman Farm. We never told her we knew she was lying, though. We were just happy to be back at the farm, me and Brian. What did you ask me?’
‘Just about the church, and how it began.’
‘Oh… Jonathan was running courses, with his meditation and all his Eastern religions and things, and then he started taking services, so we built a temple at the farm.’
‘And were you happy?’ asked Robin.
Sheila blinked a few times before saying,
‘It was happy sometimes. Sometimes it was. But bad things happened. Rust got hit by a car one night. Jonathan said it was a judgement, for all the lives Rust took in the war… and then the Graves boy’s family came and grabbed him off the street, when he was out in Norwich, and we heard he’d hanged himself. Jonathan told us that’s what would happen to all of us, if we left. He said Alex had got a glimpse of truth, but he couldn’t cope with the world outside. So that was a warning for us, Jonathan said.’
‘Did you believe him?’ asked Robin.
‘I did then,’ said Sheila. ‘I believed everything Jonathan said, back then. So did Brian. Jonathan had a way of making you believe… a way of making you want to make everything all right, for him. You wanted to look after him.’
