Ruth Rendell - An Unkindness of Ravens

An Unkindness of Ravens

Wexford, Book 13

Ruth Rendell

1985

Youve been reading Graves!

No. Smiths Classical Dictionary. The girl called Nicky laughed. But I dont know what the letters stand for, he said.

Action for the Radical Reform of Intersexual Attitudes.

A case of making the nym fit the acronym? Or is it a deliberate obscuration?

Perhaps it is.

How many schools are involved?

It was Eve who answered him. Kingsmarkham High, Haldon Finch, St Catherines ... but Caroline Peters interrupted her.

I teach at Haldon Finch. ARRIA had its inception just over a year ago at St Catherines. We admitted as members only those women over sixteen, those in fact in the sixth and seventh years. Im glad to say it had an immediate appealhow could an organization designed expressly for women, designed to give men no quarterbe otherwise? She turned on him a glacial look of distaste and it gave him a most unpleasant feeling. He didnt belong to a minority, there was no way he could be categorized into a minority, yet the sensation she gave him was of doing so and of an oppressed one at that. Our very well-organized propaganda machine, she said, spread the good news through the other schools in the area and we soon had considerable cells at Pomfret College of Further Education and Kingsmark ham High. The good news, he thought, the gospel no less. She astonished him by saying, We now have a membership of just over five hundred women.

He suppressed the whistle he wanted to give. What must the local population of seventeenand eighteen-year-old girls be? All of them, including those who had left school, could surely hardly amount to more than a couple of thousand and that meant 25 per cent in ARRIA. Why, they could almost start a revolution!

All right, youve got badges, youve had tee-shirts printed, you hold meetings, but what do you Jo?

Caroline Peters answered readily. Basically, have as little contact with men as possible. Defy men by intellectual and also by physical means.

He pricked up his ears at that. She wasnt carrying a bag but she had pockets. Most of the other girls had bags. He hadnt got a warrant and, almost more to the point, hadnt a woman with him to carry out a search.

We have a constitution and manifesto, she said. I expect theres a copy about and I see no objection to your having one. Would you women agree to that? There was a murmur of assent, some of it amused. But I must point out that our aim isnt to meet men on equal terms. It isnt to come to a truce or compromise with them nor to reach that uneasy detente which in past revolutions has some tunes come into being between a proletariat and a bourgeoisie. As Marx said in another context: Philosophers have tried to explain the world. The point surely is to change it. Good night, everyone. She went out of the room, closing the door with a somewhat sinister quietness behind her.

Silence. The black girl, Donella, cast up her eyes, rolling sloe-brown pupils in moon-white whites. Eve said, By physical means, she only meant self-defence stuff. Its compulsory when you join to take a self-defence course, karate or judo or tai chi or whatever.

Personally, said Donella, I think thats one of the things that attracts peoplethe sport, you know.

You may have noticed, thereve been three times as many evening courses in martial arts started since ARRIA began. Thats in response to increased demand, thats ARRIA.

Nicky had spoken with pride, not aggressively. She made a swift chopping movement with one arm. Wexford, a large man over six feet tall, felt relieved he wasnt on the receiving end of that blow. It was true about the judo and karate courses, he had remarked on it himself to Burden, pleased that women were at last taking steps to defend themselves against the muggings and rapes which in the past few years had so disproportionately increased.

All right, he said, thats for self-defence. How about aggression? I dont suppose anyones going to admit to carrying an offensive weapon?

Nobody was. They didnt look scared or guilty or even alert. He fancied he saw wariness in one or two faces.

Til give you a copy of the constitution, Eve said. Theres nothing private about it. Everyones welcome to know what we do, men as well as women. Do you have daughters?

Theyre a lot older than you.

She looked at him in a not unkindly way, assessing. Well, they would be, wouldnt they? You cant be too old for ARRIA, though.

The constitution was typed and photocopied. He noted that there were no flaws in the apexes of the capital As or the ascenders of the lower-case ts. It went into his pocket to be read at leisure. Sara Williams, he observed, was watching his every movement. The big fair girl called Helen he now realized had been Eves partner in the tennis match. He said to Eve, If everyone is in fact going Id like to talk to you alone for five minutes.

The brisk policemans tone replacing the one of easy jocularity seemed to jolt her. She pushed fingers through the purple crest of hair.

OK, if thats the way you want it. Everybody out, right? She gave a hiccuping giggle. Home, women!

Amy said, Well, I think Ill just ... and drifted vaguely towards the door.

They all began to take their leave in ways peculiar to young girls, whether feminists or reactionaries. Helen and Donella closed in upon each other with a tight bear hug which ended in giggles and heads subsiding on each others shoulders. Sara wrapped her arms round herself and moved across the floor with vague dancing steps. Jane humped her bag, filled with ARRIA constitution sheets, as if it weighed a ton, making agony faces. Nicky was lost in a dream that seemed to turn her into a sleepwalker so that she neither paused in her exit nor spoke but merely raised a languid flapping hand in farewell as she passed through the doorway.

Alone with Eve, Wexford said, Youve been telling me lies.

I have not!

Why did you tell me your boyfriend couldnt come here because you had to share a bedroom with your sister? This is an enormous house and as far as I can see your parents mostly arent here anyway. But you told me lack of space and you implied lack of privacystopped him coming here.

Well, she said, a sly look in her eyes, I can explain that. Youll see the answer in our constitution actually. Rule 4.

He pulled the constitution out of his pocket. Here it was, Rule 4. Womennot ARRIA members, he saw, but always women as if the society contained the worlds entire female populationWomen shall avoid the company of men wherever possible but should their presence be required for sexual, biological, business or career purposes, it is expedient and desirable for women to go to them rather than permit them to come to us.

But why?

Caroline and Edwinashes the classical one whos at Oxfordthey said it smacked of the sultan visiting his harem. Youve got to think it through, you know. When you do you can see what they mean.

So thats why you went to your boyfriend in Arnold Road? You required his presence for sexual or even biological purposes?

Isnt that why women usually require men?

There are other ways of putting it. More aesthetic ways, Id say. Maybe more civilized.

Oh, civilized. Men made civilization and its not up to much, is it? Its no big deal.

He left it. Did you know Sara Williams was the daughter of the murdered man whose car you saw in Arnold Road?

Not then I didnt. I do now. Look, I only know her through ARRIA and I didnt know her father. For all I knew, she mightnt have had a father.

He accepted that. Miss Peters didnt tell me much about this society of yours, did she? Only that its a wildfire movement, its caught on in all the local schools. How about thewhat shall I call it?esoteric stuff? How do you join? Do you pay a subscription? Is there any sort of rituallike freemasons, say?