‘Where else am I going to be,
genius?’ I say. ‘You’re a bad influence,’ I continue, looking at Elle.
‘You have learned well,
grasshopper,’ she replies. ‘How does that device detect us?’
‘A lot of people think ghosts
emit an electromagnetic field,’ I say. ‘I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing
that as we leave our bodies behind, our body’s natural electrical force gets
released somehow so it becomes easier to detect.’
Graham’s eyes light up.
‘What are you thinking?’ I say,
wishing we were telepathically connected.
He starts rummaging around
again, finally extracting a box that looks like a car battery. Tripping over
his feet as he goes, he finds a plug in the wall.
‘Oh, that’s brilliant,’ I state.
‘That’s an ionizer, it changes the static charge of air particles. At the
moment, the air’s masking us, stopping us from appearing. But if Graham changes
the charge in the air…’
‘We can appear,’ Elle finishes,
her face lighting up. ‘See why don’t they teach you this kind of stuff in
school?’
Graham takes a breath as though
ionizing the air will feel like being plunged under the water.
The machine whirs to life and
then emits a short squeal. The change is instantaneous. First it feels like a
static shock, the same prickle I feel when I close my eyes and see the Edge world
around me. Then the air feels more free, like I’ve been buried alive and I’ve
just clawed my way to the surface.
‘Easton,’ Graham gasps.
‘You can see us!’ It feels as though
someone has had their hand clenched around my heart for the past two days. Now
I’m seen again by a living friend, the hand releases.
‘You sound like you’re behind
glass,’ Graham says.
‘The air must be un—ionizing,’ I
say. ‘Zap it again.’
‘There’s no way ‘un-ionizing’ is
a word,’ Elle says.
The machine squeals again.
‘Keep it going every 30 seconds
or so,’ I say. ‘The air around this room will change the charge back and we’ll
disappear.’
‘Hold on,’ he says. He opens his
laptop a little too violently, sending a beaker crashing to the floor. He plugs
the ionizer in by USB and starts tapping away.
I turn and jump out of my no
skin. A man, the wild haired man in a moleskin coat, is standing in the room,
in the spot where the Starbright Man disappeared.
‘Find the book,’ he says. His
words are strangled, like there are hands clasped around his windpipe. ‘Find
the book.’
Elle jumps seeing him there.
‘Who are you?’ I demand.
He looks at me, squinting his
eyes from some kind of pain. He opens his mouth, two words straining to be heard: ‘Robin Thacker.’
No comments:
Post a Comment