Page 11 of The Society of Unknowable Objects
“Mmm.” He gazed ahead, towards the end of the path. “It wasn’t all bad. I played a lot of chess. Watched TV when my father allowed it. Read a lot of books and comics. Superhero comics, Japanese manga. AndTintin.”
Magda looked at him in surprise, stopping him with a hand on his arm. “I lovedTintin!” she exclaimed. “I read them all!”
“Ha!” James exclaimed. “Me too! They were my favourite. All the places, all the adventures!”
“Captain Haddock!” Magda offered, delighting in this shared love.
“And Snowy,” James added. “I always wanted—”
“A dog like Snowy!” Magda finished, her hand going to her mouth.
They held each other’s gaze. “So you love food, and you loveTintin,” she reflected, shaking her head. “It’s like I’ve met the perfect man!”
She laughed, meaning to signify that this was a joke, but as soon as the words came out of her mouth, as soon as sheheardthem with her own ears, she felt her cheeks redden with embarrassment. James kept smiling at her, his eyes sparkling with what she hoped was amusement. “Oh god, that’s awful,” Magda said, looking away to hide her embarrassment. “So sorry, I was joking.”
James laughed it off, a warm, unhurried chuckle, and the awkwardness seemed to evaporate in the thick evening air. “It’s fine,” he said. “Don’t give it a second thought.”
They started walking again and Magda kicked herself mentally.What are you doing? You’re behaving like a silly schoolgirl!
She cringed at the thought of what Frank would say if he’d been there observing her behaviour.
“I’ve never been called the perfect man before,” James reflected, giving her a crooked smile. “It’s really very nice of you.”
“Shut up,” she scolded, unable to suppress her grin. They shared a glance and then Magda looked away just as quickly, suddenly awkward when their eyes met. She cleared her throat, trying to think of safer topics for discussion.
“Tell me about your father,” she said. “How did he know about the Society?”
She watched the smile fall away from his face as he thought aboutthe question. He slipped one hand into his trouser pocket, his suit jacket bunching up around his arm. “My father was much older than me,” he said, which wasn’t an answer to the question, but perhaps the start of one. He glanced at her and Magda nodded, encouraging him to continue. “Probably too old to be a father. He was almost in his fifties when I was born. My mother was much younger. Too young for him, probably, and the marriage didn’t last.” His shoulders bounced in a shrug. “But it was a different time, I suppose.”
“Mmm-hmm,” Magda agreed.
“He was ill later in life, and he always thought he was going to die.I’ll be dead soon, James.That was what he always said.” James laughed and turned his face away from Magda, to gaze off into the distance for a moment. He seemed affected by these memories, Magda thought; they seemed to have saddened him, damping down his previous effervescence. “But in the end, he lived much longer than he ever expected. It was in the last few days of his life, when he really knew death was coming, that’s when he told me about it.” He looked at her directly. “About the Society, and his friend from England.”
Magda nodded. The leaves rustled above her, and she kicked a twig out of her path, sending it skittering away. Somewhere a bird called out of the darkness, a rapid series of tweets like Morse code cutting through the clicking of insects.
“Dr.Pinn?” Magda guessed.
“Yes, Ellery Pinn,” James affirmed. He ran a hand through his hair, narrowing his eyes slightly. “They became good friends when Dr.Pinn was here. I remember him. I was unwell at the time, so I didn’t see it myself, but they were close.” He nodded slowly. “Close enough that Ellery eventually told my father about the unknowable objects, the ordinary things that did strange, wonderful things.”
Unknowable things,Magda thought. He knows what we call them. He’s not lying.
This little reveal cheered Magda immensely. She hadn’t really thought James was a threat but upon hearing him use that phrase she felt herself relax, her shoulders dropping slightly as tension that she hadn’t even realised she was holding left her body.
“When did Ellery tell him this?” she asked, as they passed a swimming pool off to their right, and an amphitheatre, quiet and empty in the dark evening. There were plenty of other people in this part of the park, young couples walking hand in hand, a group of children skateboarding. A pair of young girls walked by, and Magda saw how both of them gazed at James in silent awe, how they giggled to each other once they were past.
That’s what you were behaving like,she scolded herself.I bet they think he’s the perfect man as well.
James seemed entirely unaware of the attention he was receiving, his gaze on the ground as he thought about Magda’s question. “I don’t know. Like I said, I was unwell. I didn’t really spend time with them.” He looked up, peering along the path to the exit from the park a little way ahead.
“Well they must have been really close,” Magda reflected. “For Ellery to tell him these things, about the Society and everything else.”
James pursed his lips but didn’t respond to that comment directly. They emerged from the park, back out into the noisy, crowded world again. “We go this way,” James said, directing her diagonally across the road to a narrow alley one block west. “That’s Temple Street.”
They scurried between the traffic and onto the narrow pavement on the far side, passing a 7-Eleven that was bustling with customers and the entrance to a restaurant that spilled the smells of fried ginger and garlic out into the night air, and then they turned onto Temple Street. It was a narrow path out of the bright lights, with shadows on all sides.
“Just the next block up,” James said. “I’m sorry if the walk is too far.”
“Oh, it’s fine,” Magda replied, pretending the humidity wasn’t killing her. “I’m sturdier than I look.”
