‘Hi there,’ he said, with no curiosity whatsoever.
‘Hey, man,’ said Oke. ‘I have sisters too.’
They passed a look of mutual understanding, and finally Jack nodded and dashed back into the maze ahead of them.
‘Phoebs! Keep yelling and I’ll find you.’
In response, Phoebe made a high-pitched yowling noise not unlike a cat’s, or a fire alarm.
‘Nice boy,’ said Oke.
‘He is!’ said Carmen. ‘They’re great.’
She looked at him as they walked on, the maze seemingly endless, their paths possibly in circles.
‘How did you get so into trees?’
He shrugged. ‘I always … I just always found it so amazing. That you would plant seeds and they would grow – where I live there are a lot of trees. They talk to each other.’
‘What?’ said Carmen suspiciously as they dodged a large party of drunk teenagers who were hollering at each other. ‘What do they say? “Nice leaves”?’
‘Sometimes, yes. They warn each other about diseases.’
‘That can’t be true.’
‘Sure is. They share water. They can even divert water to one another if they have too much in supply.’
‘Do theyreally?’
‘Yes,’ said Oke. ‘Trees are astonishing communicators.’
‘When they rustle?’
‘It’s more like a kind of bubbly noise. If they’re thirsty. Like trying to get the last bits out of a straw.’
‘Why isn’t everyone absolutely freaking out about this?’ said Carmen.
‘Well, dendrologists are. For years, it was considered absolutely ridiculous to think it. Then studies came along and proved it.’
‘Bloody hell.’
She looked at the trees looming above them in the maze.
‘Oh goodness,’ she said. ‘Does that mean we shouldn’t be cutting them down to make Christmas trees? Do theyscream?’
He diverted her attention.
‘Uh, would you like some of the pink sticky stuff? It seems popular.’
He pointed out of the front gate to a candyfloss stall.
‘It comes on a stick!’ said Carmen.
‘Okay.’
Fortunately at that moment Pippa arrived and informed them she had filled in her entire card, collected her prize of a small chocolate bar and could they leave now as Skylar was picking them up and wouldn’t be able to stop because of Scary Traffic Men.
‘Okay,’ said Carmen. A massive leaving tantrum was narrowly avoided when Jack came round the corner with Phoebe and two small bars of chocolate and Carmen couldn’t avoid feeling slightly smug delivering the children perfectly on time to the agreed meeting place beneath the huge Bank of Scotland.
