‘Our incarceration here is not of our doing,’ the priest whispered. ‘We cannot be blamed for our predicament. But we have the right to save ourselves from oblivion. Oblivion, you see, is our only alternative.’
‘Who are you?’ Ada asked him. ‘What are you?’
The priest pressed his fingertip against his scabby lips. ‘Shh, my dear, some of us are still in the land of nod.’ He pointed down to the heap of dirty blankets at the end of the room. Out from under the blankets a man’s hand was protruding, like a dead crab.
‘I’ll talk as loud as I like, thank you! In fact, I’m going to shout out for help.’
‘It will be futile, I’m afraid. The pilgrims won’t hear you.’
‘Pilgrims? What are you talking about? What pilgrims? All I want to know is who you are and how you managed to get me in here. And why.’
‘The pilgrims are those outside this chamber – those who are free to continue their journey through one year after another until they finally reach the end of their days. Unlike us.’
He gave her a small, regretful smile.
‘My name is Thomas. I have been here the longest. I was alone for so long that I believed I would remain alone for all eternity. But eventually my companions appeared. Bartram first. Then – after many more tiresome years had rolled past us – all of these others. And here we are. Exactly where we were, going nowhere.’
The other six men had now crossed the room and were gathered in a semicircle with their arms folded, staring down at her. Apart from the bearded man in his knee breeches, Ada had rarely seen such hard-looking characters since her brother had taken her down to visit his body-building gym. Their necks were thickly corded and their biceps bulged, so they had obviously been taking steroids and regularly working out. The man with the shark’s-fin hair had a snake tattoo on his neck that curled up to his left ear.
‘Blimey, you’re a gift from God and no fucking mistake,’ he said, grinning at her. ‘What’s your name, love? Mine’s Ron but you can call me Jaws. Everybody else does.’
Ada said nothing, but drew up her knees and squeezed her thighs defensively together, making herself as small as she could.
‘So what was you and them two geezers and that other bint all doing in here? You was trying to catch a sneaky butcher’s at us in that mirror thing, wasn’t you? Don’t say you wasn’t. And then chucking all that fucking dust all over us. What was that all about?’
Ada still said nothing, but Thomas leaned close to her again. ‘I quite understand your reticence, my dear, but I think you fail to understand the transformation that you have undergone. Most of all, its permanence.’
‘What are you talking about? What transformation? All I know is that one second you were all dragging me down the room and the next I hit the wall and then I woke up here. What time is it?’
‘Time is no longer of any consequence. Not for any of us here in this chamber, and that includes you.’
Jaws hunkered down close beside her, so that she could strongly smell his Old Spice aftershave. He was handsome in a dark, untrustworthy way, with a permanent look of self-satisfaction, as if he knew something that nobody else could guess at, but was never going to say what it was.
He cupped one hand over Ada’s left knee and said, ‘Let’s put it this way, darlin.’ There’s no point in you asking what the time is, because it’s the same time as when we pulled you through the wall and always will be. You want to know what the time is? Look at your watch.’
‘Take your hand off me,’ Ada told him.
He grinned again, and said, ‘Make me.’
‘The police are coming back here soon. I can have you arrested for indecent assault. Not to mention threatening behaviour.’
‘No you can’t, love. Look at your watch. You’re still stuck in that second when we fetched you in here but those coppers are hours ahead of you already. Tomorrow they’ll be a day ahead of you and next week they’ll be a week ahead of you. Then they’ll retire and then they’ll die and you’ll still be here. There’s no way they can come back in time to find you and there’s no way you can go forward in time to whinge that I’ve been touching you up. Which I’m not, am I? Only being friendly.’
Ada looked at Thomas for support and for some kind of rational explanation, but all Thomas could do was give her a beatific smile.
‘I don’t believe you,’ she said. She lifted up her right hand and squeezed her wrist between the fingers of her left. ‘There – look! I’m solid. I can feel myself. I’m not stuck in time. I’m real. Now, whoever you are, if you’ll just take your hand off me and get back out of my way, I’m leaving.’
‘Look at your fucking watch,’ said Jaws.
‘I don’t have to look at my watch. Maybe my watch has stopped. I’m getting out of here and that’s all there is to it.’
Jaws lifted his hand from her knee and stood up, still giving her that knowing, secretive look.
‘Go ahead, love. Try. I’ve done a whole lot of things in my life that I’m less than proud of, but if there’s one thing I’m not, it’s a pork pie merchant.’
The seven men all stood back and watched Ada as she climbed to her feet. She went over to the panel in the dado that had opened to let her in, along with Francis and Rob and Vicky. It was closed now, and there seemed to be no lever on this side to open it. No crucifix, nor any other kind of switch.
She
