A Blink of the Screen

see him, can you?’
    Well, no. But …
    … since he mentioned it …
    … I could see the space.
    There was this patch of floor around the middle of the hall which everyone was keeping clear of. Except that they weren’t avoiding it, you see, they just didn’t happen to be moving into it. It was just sort of accidentally there. And it stayed there. It moved around a bit, but it never disappeared.
    All right, I know a patch of floor can’t move around. Just take my word for it, this one did.
    The record was ending but Wayne was still in control enough to have another one spinning. He faded it up, a bit of an oldie that they’d all know.
    ‘Is it still there?’ he said, staring down at the deck.
    ‘It’s a bit closer,’ I said. ‘Perhaps it’s after a spot prize.’
    …
I wanna live forever
…
    ‘That’s right, be a great help.’
    …
people will see me and cry …
    There were quite a few more people down there now, but the empty patch was still moving around – all right, was being avoided – among the dancers.
    I went and stood in it.
    It was cold. It said: G OOD E VENING .
    The voice came from all around me, and everything seemed to slow down. The dancers were just statues in a kind of black fog, the music a low rumble.
    ‘Where are you?’
    B EHIND Y OU .
    Now, at a time like this the impulse is to turn around, but you’d be amazed at how good I was at resisting it.
    ‘You’ve been frightening my friend,’ I said.
    I DID NOT INTEND TO .
    ‘Push off.’
    T HAT DOESN’T WORK , I AM AFRAID .
    I did turn around then. He was about seven feet tall in his, yes, his platform soles. And, yes, he wore flares, but somehow you’d expect that. Wayne had said they were black but that wasn’t true. They weren’t any colour at all, they were simply clothes-shaped holes into Somewhere Else. Black would have looked blinding white by comparison. He did look a bit like John Travolta from the waist down, but only if you buried John Travolta for about three months.
    It really was a skull mask. You could see the string.
    ‘Come here often, do you?’
    I AM ALWAYS AROUND .
    ‘Can’t say I’ve noticed you.’ And I would have done. You don’t meet many seven-foot, seven-stone people every day, especially ones that walked as though they had to think about every muscle movement in advance and acted as though they were alive and dead at the same time, like Cliff Richard.
    Y OUR FRIEND HAS AN INTERESTING CHOICE OF MUSIC .
    ‘Yes. He’s a collector, you know.’
    I KNOW . C OULD YOU PLEASE INTRODUCE ME TO HIM?
    ‘Could I stop you?’
    I DOUBT IT .
    All right, perhaps four cups. But the lady serving said there was hardly anything in it at all except orange squash and home-made wine, and she looked a dear old soul. Apart from the Wolfman mask, that is.
    But I know all the dancers were standing like statues and the music was just a faint buzz and there were these, all these blue and purple shadows around everything. I mean, drink doesn’t do that.
    Wayne wasn’t affected. He stood with his mouth open, watching us.
    ‘Wayne,’ I said, ‘this is—’
    A FRIEND .
    ‘Whose?’ I said, and you could tell I didn’t take to the person, because his flares were huge and he wore one of those silver identity bracelets on his wrist, the sort you could moor a battleship with, and they look so posey; the fact that his wrist was solid bone wasn’t doing anything to help, either. I kept thinking there was a conclusion I ought to be jumping to, but I couldn’t quite get a running start. My head seemed to be full of wool.
    E VERYONE’S , he said, SOONER OR LATER . I UNDERSTAND YOU’RE SOMETHING OF A COLLECTOR .
    ‘Well, in a small—’ said Wayne.
    I GATHER YOU’RE ALMOST AS KEEN AS I AM , W AYNE .
    Wayne’s face lit up. That was Wayne, all right. I’ll swear if you shot him he’d come alive again if it meant a chance to talk about his hobby, sorry, his lifetime’s work.
    ‘Gosh,’ he said. ‘Are you a collector?’
    A BSOLUTELY .
    Wayne peered at him. ‘We haven’t met before, have we?’ he said. ‘I go to most of the collectors’ meetings. Were you at the Blenheim Record Fest and Auction?’
    I DON’T RECALL . I GO TO SO MANY THINGS .
    ‘That was the one where the auctioneer had a heart attack.’
    O H . Y ES . I SEEM TO REMEMBER POPPING IN, JUST FOR A FEW MINUTES .
    ‘Very few bargains there, I thought.’
    O H . I DON’T KNOW . H E WAS ONLY FORTY-THREE .
    All right, inspector. Maybe six