by Chris Hawley
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
ANOTHER SURPRISE VISITOR
That Sunday at number 16, Dover Street was like a mortuary on the day of a funeral. My mum and dad went around the house like mice, except that mice squeak sometimes. Occasionally they would look out of the window, expecting to see droves of journalists flocking to our front door. Nobody went out. Sonia and I sat reading, or at least trying to read. Ben rang to say how sorry they both were to read the local newspaper. I told them not to worry: everything would be back to normal after a day or two.
When in the afternoon the doorbell sounded, Mum and Dad were in the kitchen drinking tea and Sonia and I were in the sitting room. They both came in nervously and I was the one selected to look through the curtain.
‘It’s alright, it’s Priam,’ I said.
Dad asked, ‘And who’s Priam?’
‘He’s the man who called here last Sunday,’ I said, turning to Mum for support.
‘Is he alone?’ He asked.
‘He has someone with him, a strange looking man. But he’s not a reporter, I’m sure of that.’
‘What can they want?’ said Mum. ‘It’s not really a time for visitors.’
‘I’ll have to ask them in,’ I said. ‘I will soon find out what they want. You go back to the kitchen and finish your tea. I’ll handle it.’
My parents were glad to escape the stress of conversations with strangers at that time. They went back to the kitchen and closed the door behind them.
I let in the visitors and made them comfortable in the sitting room. When we were all seated, Priam spoke.
‘I am happy you have made it home, young lady,’ he said, bowing slightly. ‘I hope the journey was not too frightening for you.’
‘No. It was exciting Sir,’ she replied. ‘I’m grateful for your help. Did you fly over to Canada just to give me the bubble?’
‘Think nothing of it,’ said Priam warmly. ‘We flit about like butterflies on a sunny afternoon. No distance is too great for us.’
Priam turned to me. ‘Bill, I want you to meet Hermann.’
‘Good afternoon, Sir,’ I said politely to the strange man.
He did not reply and I had the chance to study him. He was a small man, plump, with a fringe of grey hair round his bald head. I could not see the colour of his eyes: they appeared to be like a mole’s, almost closed. He wore thick glasses, through which he peered myopically. He wore a thick, grey moustache above a mouth that he screwed up. He wore a faded dark suit over a grey shirt with a blue bow tie. A more odd looking character I had never had the opportunity of meeting.
‘Hermann was the one who actually wanted to meet you,’ said Priam. ‘Hermann and I have worked together on some scientific projects that our council of elders believes are beneficial to both Earth and Mars.’
‘Why would he want to meet me?’ I was nonplussed.
‘He has read this morning’s newspaper, or should I say, I read it to him.’
‘So soon?’ I was amazed.
‘Of course,’ said Priam with a laugh. ‘I have a special responsibility here and that is to keep an eye on you. I report every day to the Council. As part of my job I read the newspapers. When I read the article this morning I got in my fastest bubble and came straight here.’
‘How is it nobody sees you landing in the bubble?’ I asked him.
‘But surely you know the bubble can be made invisible.’
‘Yes, I had forgotten,’ I said.
‘Very occasionally things go wrong but fortunately not too often,’ he said, looking at Sonia.
Sonia had been studying Hermann and was not following the conversation. Now she looked at Priam.
‘I have to say, young lady that your landing in the cemetery yesterday was not programmed and you and the bubble were clearly visible. I’m not quite sure how it happened: it must have been a programming error. We shall have to investigate it. These things should not happen.’ He shook his head from side to side.
‘How do you know the bubble was visible?’ Sonia asked.
‘Because I was right behind you.’
We both looked at Priam in surprise.
‘Did anyone see me?’ asked Sonia, with a worried expression.
‘If there was anyone around at the time, it is possible, but I hope not.’
‘And my Aunt?’ she asked. ‘Do you think she saw me getting into the bubble?’
Priam smiled and said to Sonia. ‘You don’t have to worry your head about your Aunt: she won’t say a word to your father about your escape.’
Sonia and I looked confused. ‘How is that?’ she asked.
He gave a chuckle. ‘Because I bundled her off after you left.’
‘Bundled her off! Where to?’
‘St. Helena. She won’t bother anyone for a while.’
‘St. Helena! That’s where they sent Napoleon after his defeat at Waterloo!’ I exclaimed. We had studied Napoleon at school. He had escaped from his first exile on the island of Elba and had returned triumphantly to Paris to the cheers of the French people. After his defeat at Waterloo Britain and Prussia decided to send him somewhere he couldn’t escape from.
‘Yes,’ said Priam happily. ‘A pleasant little island in the middle of the South Atlantic. She is bound to enjoy her holiday.’
Sonia and I looked at each other and tried not to laugh.
‘Poor Aunt!’ she said, hardly able to disguise her enjoyment at the prospect of her aunt, bewildered at finding herself on a far away island.
‘But that’s one problem less for us, Sonia,’ I said. ‘Your father will think you are safely hidden away in Toronto and won’t come looking for you.’
‘Now as I was saying, Hermann and I have been working together on some interesting projects, haven’t we Hermann?’
Hermann looked over the top of his thick glasses, screwed up his nose and spoke for the first time.
‘Ramjets and scramjets are old hat, mark my vords,’ he said emphatically. ‘Zhe future is electromagnetism, attraction and repulsion.’
Priam explained. ‘Hermann is a brilliant man, but like most of his kind, he is totally focused on one set of ideas. He has no interest in money or comforts, only his ideas. He would gladly tell the world everything he knows and all sorts of people could cash in on his knowledge and inventions and it wouldn’t bother him in the least. Fortunately everyone in the scientific community thinks he is completely cuckoo. He has only to speak and he is instantly ridiculed. No-one takes a blind bit of notice of what he has to say.’
I looked at Hermann and I could understand why.
‘So how is magnetism going to help the problems faced by Similaria?’ I asked.
‘That’s what we are working on, Bill,’ said Priam excitedly. ‘It’s not only Similaria that’s in trouble but all the peaceful clans on Mars.’
‘So, just as you are helping us with our problems on Earth, we can also help you.’
‘That’s the beauty of inter-planetary cooperation, isn’t it? But there is a long way to go, Bill. And time is running out.’
I remembered Zeris’ face very well as he had explained the situation to me at that meeting before I left Mars. Time was short, for Mars and for Earth too.
Hermann sat up straight and peered at me. ‘Zhey zhink I’m crackers, but I’ll show zhem. You don’t zhink I’m crackers, do you?’
‘Of course not!’ I said quickly, turning a little red in the face.
‘Electromagnetism!’ he repeated. ‘Zhe most powerful force, it can be used for inter-planetary travel, defense, deflecting missiles and asteroids. It’s all possible. I’m almost zhere!’ Then he started mumbling to himself, reeling off a string of scientific jargon that no-one in the room could follow.
Priam continued, ‘Hermann said he had to meet the boy who had just come from Mars. We have invited him to experience conditions on Mars, to help him solve the remaining problems. We have great hopes of frustrating the power-hungry Zeronerans and the Zoggs.’
‘So he knows all about
my trip to Mars,’ I said.
‘As much as he needs to know, yes,’ said Priam.
‘Electromagnetism is zhe answer,’ repeated Hermann. He peered at me through his thick glasses. ‘Believe me, young man, ve can do great zhings, but ve need access to sophisticated scientific apparatus.’ He paused. ‘No-vone believes in me. Zhey all say I’m stark-staring crazy, a raving lunatic, bonkers, round zhe bend, and…..’ he stopped and looked from Priam to Sonia and then back to me.
‘You don’t zhink I’m a raving lunatic, do you young man?’
‘Of course not Sir,’ I said, a little less confidently this time.
‘You see,’ explained Priam,’ those with the necessary facilities have no confidence in Hermann’s theories. In a way that is good but in another way it makes it hard for him to finalise his work. We can hardly ask the Zoggs to help, can we?’
‘I see the problem,’ I said.
We sat talking for sometime and Sonia got to know the full extent of the dangers facing my Martian friends. Hermann didn’t say much: he was in his own world of attraction and repulsion. But I was happy to have had the chance to meet one of the world’s greatest scientists, even though he was extremely odd.
Finally they left. Sonia and I had another good laugh about her aunt holidaying in St. Helena and wondered, in the excitement of leaving in a bubble, whether she had thought of packing her swimsuit and sun cream!
