Page 33 of The Society of Unknowable Objects
“I only used my artefact to escape from that man,” she said. “That man who had just killed James. If I hadn’t used it, I wouldn’t be here now to argue semantics with you.”
“It was just such a public display...” Frank complained, his voice almost a whine.
“Oh god,” Magda wailed to herself, shaking her head in disbelief. She stood up again and walked over to the fountain, the back of her throat burning as she tried to push down the sadness. She focussed on the water trickling and tumbling over itself.
What is wrong with him? Would he have preferred that you died rather than fly? Is that how much you mean to him?
It was drizzling again and pinpricks of rain punctured the surface of the pond. Beyond the fountain the nearby trees swayed gently, golden and green leaves shaking and susurrating. Some of the peoplecrisscrossing the park in the distance scurried beneath umbrellas, while others pulled up hoods and pulled faces at the sky in annoyance. Magda heard Frank stand up—a grunt, and then the scrape of his umbrella as he lifted it from the bench—but she refused to turn to face him even as he came to stand next to her at the fountain.
“I spoke to Henrietta last night,” Magda said, knowing now that she wanted to annoy Frank, knowing that she was being childish but not able to stop herself. “She told me some things.”
Frank gave her a sidelong look, his eyebrows high on his forehead. “Henrietta?”
“She visited me,” Magda said. “Because of the flying in Hong Kong. She’d seen it too.”
Frank nodded understanding. “I see,” he said, his tone flat.
“She told me some things,” she repeated.
“I don’t much care what things Henrietta said or didn’t say.”
“Henrietta said that everything you told us about the Society was wrong,” Magda said anyway. “She told me it was a lie.”
Frank shook his head slowly, denying the accusation. “The Society isn’t a lie.”
“She said the Clockwork Cabinet is empty.”
Frank jerked visibly in surprise, but he kept his gaze fixed ahead. He didn’t respond, but Magda saw his eyes flicking back and forth quickly.
“Frank, you have to tell me!” Magda ordered him, taking hold of his arm. “I was almost killed in Hong Kong! I deserve to know the truth!”
Frank faced her suddenly, eyes blazing and face tightening into an angry scowl, an expression that Magda had never before seen on his face. “Someone needs to be responsible for truths that can’t be shared,” he snapped. “Someone needs to be at the top of the tree. And that’s me until I die. It’s not Henrietta, it’s not you, no matter how much you don’t like it. Just because I love you, Magda, doesn’t mean you have a right to know everything. Some things are more important!”
Magda reeled, from his words and from his visible anger. She wanted to fire back at him, to strike out in revenge for his seeming indifference to all she had been through. Did she matter so little to him? Did he really care more for an artefact than for her?
Frank dug a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe his eyes and blow his nose.
“Does the Society actually have any artefacts or not?” Magda pressed, not willing to give up the subject. “I know we have the dice, but is that all? Is that the only thing we hold? If I asked the dice if the Clockwork Cabinet held any artefacts, what would it tell me, Frank?”
Frank stared straight ahead for a few seconds. “I want to show you something,” he said finally, still not looking at her. She watched him slip one hand into his pocket. Then he pointed, using the tip of the umbrella to lead Magda’s eyes to all of the activity in the park, the chasing dogs and the people walking. A group of five men crossed from south to north, one of them holding a football beneath his arm like they were going for a kickabout.
“Watch,” Frank said.
Magda watched. In the distance the group of men proceeded across the lawn, chatting easily, while beyond them two women strolled in the opposite direction beneath a shared umbrella. A jogger bounced across the grass and an older couple on a bench followed his progress, chatting to each other. Magda even saw the old woman pushing the wheelchair who had passed them earlier, heading away from the path.
And then it all stopped. Every person Magda could see was suddenly motionless, like a film paused.
Her breath caught in her throat in surprise. The group of men with the ball, and the two women, had halted in their tracks simultaneously. The jogger had stopped mid-stride and had fallen sideways onto the lawn, where he lay like a toy soldier tipped over, legs apart.
But the world wasn’t motionless; the leaves in the trees still rustled, and the fountain still trickled. The two dogs had stopped running, but they looked about at the suddenly still humans as if they were as shocked as Magda.
“Watch,” Frank said again.
The group of men with the ball turned around in unison and started walking back the way they had come, their movements oddly sluggish and unnatural. Beyond them, the umbrella the two women had been holding dropped to the ground and the two women faced each other,taking hold of each other’s hands and then beginning to slow dance on the path like a couple in love.
“Frank,” Magda said, her scalp prickling as she watched this performance. She flicked her eyes to him and saw the concentration on his face.
“Look,” Frank murmured again. “I stopped the world, Magda. I made people do my bidding.”
