Clockwork Dolls - FF by R. W. Whitefield - FF Read Free Book Online

Quick.”
    Dave looked down.
    “What is this? Magic hour?”
    Maggie held her hand out again.
    “We don’t have time for twenty questions. It’s coming. And don’t ask what. You’ve already experienced it. Are you going to give me grief over this?”
    Dave took her hand and stepped into the circle. He motioned at the crystals at their feet.
    “OK I’m here. Now, please, tell me what this is for?”
    Now that she had Dave where she wanted him, Maggie seemed to relax slightly.
    “The crystals act to focus my mind, to give us protection against whatever that was that nearly got us in the alley.”
    They stood there side-by-side in the quiet semi-darkness.
    “I’ve been meaning to ask you about that,” Dave said.
    Maggie squeezed Dave’s hand, gently.
    “I told you on the night this all started. I don’t know a lot about how the Ask the Cosmos principle is supposed to work.”
    Dave squeezed back.
    “Smart move that, getting your excuses in early.”
    Maggie gave him a weak smile back.
    “But I believe it’s happened because of the strong emotions around the table that night,” she said.
    “Emotions can’t affect reality.”
    “Why not? Yours have been affecting your reality for years.”
    That hit home, and Dave came to the realization that maybe, just maybe, the fault had been his all along.
    “That’s different,” he said. But in his heart, he knew she had got straight to the nub of the matter.
    “Is it Dave? Is it really?” Maggie said. She held his hand tighter. “Looks like we’re not going anywhere in a hurry. Let’s see if we can get to the bottom of what really happened that night at the dinner party. Tell me about the accident, Dave.”
    “How do you know about that?”
    “I only know the fact that you had one. And that it’s important.”
    “Oh, it’s important all right. But maybe not in the way you think. Before it, I was in charge of my own destiny. I was a smart medical student, on the way to a good degree.”
    “And Jane? Where does she come in to this story?”
    “She doesn’t. Jane and I had already split up by then. There’s a whole other tale to be told there, of friends lost, and jealousy causing me to push away the only good thing that had ever happened to me. But that’s not what you need to hear tonight.”
    Dave looked Maggie in the eye.
    How much do I tell her? How open do I want the wound to be?
    “I was drinking, but I had it under control, mostly, except for when I had to see Jim and Jane together. Then they invited me out for a beer.” Dave stopped, and had to brush away sudden tears. “I spent a long, miserable afternoon, watching them together. I so wanted her to be happy. But I wanted her to be happy with me, not him. So I drank, more than I should have. Then they made me stay for another beer, after I was ready to go.”
    Maggie looked about ready to say something, then changed her mind. She saw that Dave was lost in a time far away.
    “It wasn’t the beer anyway, it was an accident waiting to happen,” he said. “It was a bad night. The wind howled like a banshee. Then the snow came down. I never even saw what I hit.”
    He stopped talking. Fresh tears ran down his cheeks. Maggie gripped his hand tight, but kept quiet. Dave was about to say something when she put a finger to his lips.
    “It’s starting,” she said, quietly.
    A wash of light ran across the ceiling.
    Dave whispered. “I’m not sure I like this very much.”
    A cold wind blew through the room. An engine revved, twice, then fell silent. Dave remembered to breathe. They stood there holding hands for several minutes, neither of them speaking.
    Eventually, Dave whispered again.
    “Is that it?”
    As if in answer, the temperature plummeted. A web of frost crawled across the inside of the windows with an audible crackle. Maggie’s hair blew in Dave’s face as a wind gusted out of nowhere. The engine noise revved louder, an impatient driver just waiting for the signal to