ascent was coming.’
‘But you weren’t convinced?’
‘No. Not by any of it. But I still can’t explain the vision.
Maybe it was suggested to us before, somehow. I don’t know.
But the plans for the relocation to France began right after that night.’
‘And you decided not to go with them to France?’
Susan shook her head. ‘The Gathering was paranoid and too poisoned with anger and jealousy by then. I didn’t want to be a part of it any more. It didn’t make sense to me.’
‘Did anyone else leave the group before they moved to France?’
‘A few. About ten of us, I think. But the divisions and the rivalries settled down for a while. The arrival of the “presences” seemed to make things better again. Gave people hope that we were important after all. That it had all been worth-while and that the Gathering would survive. And we were all shown a photo of the farm that Katherine had bought for us with the Gathering’s money. Our money. It was the very place we had seen in the vision. No doubt about it. And that was like a miracle in here. A lot of people forgave Katherine everything after that. But I couldn’t. Neither could Max. So we left on the same day. One week before the first diaspora.’
‘Sorry. Did you say Max? Our Max? Maximillian
Solomon?’
Susan looked at Kyle and winced. ‘Please don’t tell him I told you. But, yes. He was here from the beginning.’
‘She was freaky,’ Dan said. He kneeled before the monitor where Kyle had left him to show Susan out and hail her a 60
LAST DAYS
cab. In the street-facing room of the penthouse, Dan had stayed with the gear to label the last SDHD 8GB memory cards; all of the card boxes were labelled the same as their camera tapes used to be, by title and date, and were then backed up in a notebook so they’d know what footage was on which card. He’d not done this on his first film and wasted weeks logging each tape after the final shoot. Never again.
And once he had laid his rough cut, he would wipe the rushes from his laptop to make space for the next shoot.
Finger Mouse had the hard-disc space on the machines in his South London flat to take on all the rushes from a feature-length documentary. Finger Mouse would make two copies of the master reels as backup; Kyle would keep one, Dan another, Finger Mouse would keep the masters. The chance of all three flats burning down on the same night was un -
likely. They all lived like seagulls at their respective domestic landfills, but their organization of the footage had become flawless during the documentaries they’d made together.
Because, as Kyle often mused, nothing else mattered.
‘You don’t say. But not without good reason. An experience like that? She was great material.’ He wasn’t kidding himself either. But he still fidgeted with puzzlement and disappointment. Max not disclosing his involvement in the Gathering cast a shadow over the end of the interview. Kyle’s disenchantment was further augmented by Susan White’s eagerness to leave. ‘What’s the time? Seven! I never want to be here at night again. I’ll have to go. I’m tired.’
Recalling her life at the house in Clarendon Road had drained her. Watching her swing from elation to despair to grief to a final sad resignation had exhausted Kyle too. She’d 61
ADAM NEVILL
been a part of something extraordinary, no doubt, but the damage it had wreaked upon her was evidently permanent.
‘I thought we were going to have to blow this off,’ Dan said. ‘I mean, she shows up looking like Barbara Cartland fused with Mystic Meg, and then collapses outside. She was good though. Lot of colour in that woman. Literally.’
Kyle sat down and sniggered, looked around the chic shell of what would probably soon become a bedroom for an American financier and his impeccably courteous wife. ‘What did you make of it?’
Smiling, Dan shook his head. ‘Pretty incredible. This keeps up we might just get a good film out of
‘But you weren’t convinced?’
‘No. Not by any of it. But I still can’t explain the vision.
Maybe it was suggested to us before, somehow. I don’t know.
But the plans for the relocation to France began right after that night.’
‘And you decided not to go with them to France?’
Susan shook her head. ‘The Gathering was paranoid and too poisoned with anger and jealousy by then. I didn’t want to be a part of it any more. It didn’t make sense to me.’
‘Did anyone else leave the group before they moved to France?’
‘A few. About ten of us, I think. But the divisions and the rivalries settled down for a while. The arrival of the “presences” seemed to make things better again. Gave people hope that we were important after all. That it had all been worth-while and that the Gathering would survive. And we were all shown a photo of the farm that Katherine had bought for us with the Gathering’s money. Our money. It was the very place we had seen in the vision. No doubt about it. And that was like a miracle in here. A lot of people forgave Katherine everything after that. But I couldn’t. Neither could Max. So we left on the same day. One week before the first diaspora.’
‘Sorry. Did you say Max? Our Max? Maximillian
Solomon?’
Susan looked at Kyle and winced. ‘Please don’t tell him I told you. But, yes. He was here from the beginning.’
‘She was freaky,’ Dan said. He kneeled before the monitor where Kyle had left him to show Susan out and hail her a 60
LAST DAYS
cab. In the street-facing room of the penthouse, Dan had stayed with the gear to label the last SDHD 8GB memory cards; all of the card boxes were labelled the same as their camera tapes used to be, by title and date, and were then backed up in a notebook so they’d know what footage was on which card. He’d not done this on his first film and wasted weeks logging each tape after the final shoot. Never again.
And once he had laid his rough cut, he would wipe the rushes from his laptop to make space for the next shoot.
Finger Mouse had the hard-disc space on the machines in his South London flat to take on all the rushes from a feature-length documentary. Finger Mouse would make two copies of the master reels as backup; Kyle would keep one, Dan another, Finger Mouse would keep the masters. The chance of all three flats burning down on the same night was un -
likely. They all lived like seagulls at their respective domestic landfills, but their organization of the footage had become flawless during the documentaries they’d made together.
Because, as Kyle often mused, nothing else mattered.
‘You don’t say. But not without good reason. An experience like that? She was great material.’ He wasn’t kidding himself either. But he still fidgeted with puzzlement and disappointment. Max not disclosing his involvement in the Gathering cast a shadow over the end of the interview. Kyle’s disenchantment was further augmented by Susan White’s eagerness to leave. ‘What’s the time? Seven! I never want to be here at night again. I’ll have to go. I’m tired.’
Recalling her life at the house in Clarendon Road had drained her. Watching her swing from elation to despair to grief to a final sad resignation had exhausted Kyle too. She’d 61
ADAM NEVILL
been a part of something extraordinary, no doubt, but the damage it had wreaked upon her was evidently permanent.
‘I thought we were going to have to blow this off,’ Dan said. ‘I mean, she shows up looking like Barbara Cartland fused with Mystic Meg, and then collapses outside. She was good though. Lot of colour in that woman. Literally.’
Kyle sat down and sniggered, looked around the chic shell of what would probably soon become a bedroom for an American financier and his impeccably courteous wife. ‘What did you make of it?’
Smiling, Dan shook his head. ‘Pretty incredible. This keeps up we might just get a good film out of
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