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.I turned from the field to lay a hand urgently on the arm of the man beside me.“Please help me!” I began, “I shouldn’t be here!” And recoiled in horror as my hand went straight through his arm.Was he a ghost, then? Or, in this time band, was I? Certainly he hadn’t even turned his head to look at me.I stumbled away, swerving out of the path of the crowd and shutting my mind to the knowledge that I could if I wished go straight through them.And now they had started to sing and the insistent beat, thé compulsory words branded themselves on my brain so that I found myself singing with them:‘Robin-y-Ree! Robin-y-Ree! Ridlan abooabban fal dy ridlan, Robin-y-Ree! ’The green grass of the meadow came rushing up to meet me and I felt the hardness of it against my face and heard Ray’s voice, sharp with fear.“Chloe! Chloe, for God’s sake what happened?”I forced my eyes open to find myself lying amid the wreckage of the picnic lunch while Ray, kneeling beside me, was rubbing my hands between his own and the roughness of the bandage scratched my skin.Behind the fear in his eyes was a feverish excitement.“What happened?” he demanded again.“What was it you were saying, can you remember?”The memory was becoming blurred and my tongue stumbled over the unfamiliar words.“‘Abban fal dy ridlan, Robin-y-Ree!’”He drew a deep breath and sat back.“Tell me everything!” he commanded, and I had no will to withstand him.Mechanically I described the field and the crowds while his eyes remained fixed almost hypnotically on my face.At last, because the words ran out, I stumbled to a halt.“What was it?” I asked after a moment.His voice shook with excitement.“It seems to have been one of the old traditions, the battle of Summer and Winter.The chorus of that song, ‘Topknots of scarlet and ribbons of green’ – hell, Chloe, you must actually have been there How else – unless Uncle Tom – but even so, the power that would have been needed –”Dizzily I sat up, a hand to my head.“Has it happened before? Anything like this?” And again, as I hesitated, the imperious “Tell me!” So I told him, about Illiam Dhone and then about the strange, snake-like dance on the hard sand near Kirk Michael.“The Flitterdaunsey,” he muttered almost to himself.“I remember Uncle telling me about it.It used to be held on Good Friday, when people went to the shore to gather flitters – limpets.Iron and steel couldn’t be used on Good Friday so the barley bread was moulded by hand, and after the picnic any remaining food was thrown into the sea with the words He stopped, his eyes burning into me.“ ‘Gow show as bannee ornn’”, I supplied dully, though I wasn’t aware of having heard the words before.“That’s right: ‘Take this and bless us’.Chloe, why didn’t you tell me all this before?”“I was afraid,” I said in a low voice.“Of what?”Of admitting the extent of my involvement.I hadn’t answered but I think he understood because he didn’t press the point.“Take me with you next time!” he said softly.“How can I?” I burst out.“If I’d any control at all over it I wouldn’t let it happen!” I scrambled unsteadily to my feet.“I don’t want to talk about it any more.Please will you take me home?”He rose to his feet.“Very well, we’ll go now, but not home.We’re going to Granny Clegg’s, remember.Perhaps she can tell us more about May Day and the Flitterdaunsey.Now –” as I started to protest – “go and see if you approve of the way your portrait’s coming along.”Obediently I walked over to look at the picture.Although the details were still vague the figure now had an almost uncanny resemblance to myself, with a depth about it that suggested he had been looking into as well as at me.I was reminded of the portrait of his grandmother, with its yearning sense of loneliness.“Well?”“It makes me a little uncomfortable.”“Good.So it should.Now help me pack the hamper, will you? This infernal bandage keeps getting in the way.”We drove straight down the coast road to Peel and gradually, as Ray kept the conversation carefully inconsequential, my tension began to ease.The harbour was throbbing with boats of all descriptions and he pointed out Peel Island with the old ruined church of St German humped against the skyline
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