I send this message with all brotherly love and fellowship, my very dear General.
The Great Man Who Loved the People read this message aloud a few times to make sure it was sufficiently filled with love and justice. Then he reached out to place the letter in the shaking hands of the now pale-faced messenger.
Perhaps to delay his departure for what would be certain death, the messenger asked, ‘Why, oh Glorious Leader, is there a golden snake wound around the railing of your balcony?’
The Great Man Who Loved the People laughed at such a suggestion, but he did turn to study the railing and, strangely, did notice that a beautiful snake he had never seen before was resting there. The snake was twitching the end of his tail and watching him with deeply red eyes. Those eyes disturbed the Great Man Who Loved the People. (We will call him GMWLtP from now on, because his name is too long and he won’t be needing it soon.) They reminded him of the light from the first city he had burned, many years before.
‘Good morning,’ said the snake.
This made the GMWLtP drop his letter and not even notice the messenger running from the balcony. The messenger kept running from the ballroom beyond it and down the stairs and across the courtyard with its lush and extravagant gardens and on and on across battlefields and ruined villages and through burned orchards until he was back in his family’s village. Two of his cousins and his mother were still alive there and he stayed with them and never, ever talked about his time with the GMWLtP.
While all that began to happen, the GMWLtP simply stood on the spot and swallowed.
‘Over the years you have saved me a great deal of busyness,’ said the snake, in his most charming voice. ‘You have been determined to do my work for me.’ His words fell delicately through the air like silk. ‘I do not find that I can like you.’ The snake flickered his tongue into the air and tasted the GMWLtP’s bewilderment. ‘In the past I generally formed no personal opinions about the people I met while I did what I must do. Lately, however, I have been taught to take more interest in the lives of humans and I . . .’ He paused for a moment and frowned, although it was difficult to see this because he had no eyebrows and not really any forehead. ‘I truly do not like you. Today I am very happy that we have met.’
‘But I am the Great Man Who Loves the People,’ blustered the GMWLtP.
‘No.’ The snake blinked and then let his stare sink and burrow and peer all the way into the soul and heart and thinking of the GMWLtP. ‘No, you are just Nigel Simon Beech. And I shall enjoy this.’
And the snake opened his mouth and let his teeth shine in the dawn light, as white as bones. Just for a moment.
When Mary awoke, Lanmo was back on her pillow, looking very contentedly at her. There was no sign on even the tiniest of the snake’s scales that he had travelled thousands of miles since she last faced him.
‘Hello, Mary. Shall we go to school?’
‘No, silly – today is a Sunday. So first I will go to the cornershop and sweep up and help to stack the shelves – which is my job. Then after lunch we can walk along the Grand Avenue and eat ice cream. I’m allowed to eat one ice cream paid for out of my wages. My parents need the rest of the money since things have become so difficult in so many ways. And sometimes I get to take home dented tins or broken packets.’
‘I don’t think I would be very interested in sweeping and stacking,’ said the snake. ‘I will stay here with your mother and father until you are done.’
‘It is a bit boring sweeping,’ agreed Mary. ‘And since rationing there isn’t very much to stack any more. I mostly just move the tins around. We really need the money I earn, but I think in a few weeks Mr Paphos will say he can’t pay me any more.’
Mary looked so sad while she said this that Lanmo felt himself chill all along his spine. Although this taught him a little more about love, it also made him become sad himself and he had the idea that his head hurt and that his eyes stung. To cheer Mary, he rattled his scales so that they sounded like golden feathers on beautiful birds with good hearts and he danced back and forth across her blanket until he was only a shimmer and a glisten of heat and wonder.
This did indeed allow Mary to forget her troubles. Generally, she tried not to be downhearted and was inclined to be a mostly happy person. And, of course, as the snake could taste, she was in love with Paul, and this lit and warmed a space in her through and through in a manner which kept everything but the cloudiest of thoughts at bay.
So, after a breakfast of porridge made with water and some tea without milk, Mary went off to Mr Paphos’s shop. Lanmo stayed in the cramped living-room, resting along the top of a skirting board and pretending to be a length of spectacularly lovely wiring. Mary’s mother and father cleaned up after breakfast and then sat in silence on their couch. They didn’t notice the snake at all, partly because they were grown-ups and partly because they were both staring straight ahead at something they thought they could see in their future, something which they didn’t like. After a while Mary’s father held his wife’s hand and Mary’s mother leaned her head on her husband’s shoulder.
‘It will be all right,’ said her mother.
‘In the end. Maybe,’ said her father.
Neither of them sounded as if they believed this was true.
The snake found that he wanted to stand up as tall as he could and to become awe-inspiring and to announce, ‘You must go at once to the Land of Perditi where I know you can be safe for as long as you live! You must listen and go today, or maybe tomorrow morning, and you must take with you only what you can carry for a long, long time without getting tired! Your city is too sad now. Your kites hardly fly. Can’t you see that everything has changed? You must leave behind whatever else you have before sad times make you watch it being taken from you! The sad times will do you harm! You must be safe and keep on being alive because Mary loves you and I do . . . I also . . . I have in my heart this thing which is love for Mary!’
But he knew that Mary’s parents would not be able to hear or even see him. They would not want him to be there, and really would not want to understand what he said. Humans very often do not want to leave what they have in one place, or go to another place, not until it is too late for them to keep safe.
So Lanmo winked at the kitten, which was resting on Mary’s mother’s lap and trying to make her feel warm and comfortable. The kitten jumped down – pompompompom – onto its soft, pink little feet and followed the tempting flicker and wriggle of Lanmo’s tail. And they played together in the tiny garden until both of them were not thinking of anything at all apart from having fun. Sometimes when there is nothing else to do, or nothing that can be done yet, it is best to be happy with friends and to let this strengthen your spirit.
When Mary arrived back from work she was rather dusty and tired, but she was holding a package of broken spaghetti, which made almost everyone delighted. (Lanmo was not fond of spaghetti because it allowed humans to look as if they were eating tiny snakes.) Father hugged Mary and Mother, and Mother hugged Mary and Father, and secretly all the while Lanmo had looped himself around Mary’s throat like a necklace so that he could also share in the so many hugs and so much smiling about a small amount of broken pasta. He found it remarkable that humans could persuade themselves to keep going under almost any circumstances and that they were very willing to be joyful and courageous. It was a shame so many of them were so stupid.