by Stan Mason
‘So what do I do? I mean how can I find out more about it?’
‘I’ve no idea. Your only hope is to return to the place where you bought it and start asking questions. They must have got it from somewhere although where it came from really baffles me. It’s the only thing I can think of.’
Gina thought about the problem all evening without coming to any conclusion. ‘If only it was possible to go back there,’ she cried when talking to some of the other members of staff in the canteen on the following day. She placed the lantern on one of the dining tables to show them all how it glowed. ‘It took me almost two years to save up for the holiday to Hong Kong. How can I possibly afford to go back to see whether I can find out more about this thing... even for just one weekned?’
‘There is a way,’ suggested Sylvia sagely, putting her mind into gear. ‘If you can find out the source where these things are made, we could start a business in the UK and sell these lanterns at a really fancy price. As Darren told you, we’d be rich in no time.’
‘That’s true,’ returned Gina. ‘I hear what you’re saying but how c an I resolve the immediate financial problem?’
‘Well if we all chip in a few bob, you’ll be able to buy a cheap return flight ticket to Hong Kong for a weekend. We could all be partners in the business then, couldn’t we? In fact I already have a great name for the company. How about ‘Lights Out!’
Gena blew out her cheeks at the idea. ‘Everyone would have to put a fair amount in the pot, wouldn’ they?’
‘How much would it cost? Six hundred quid for a return ticket and the price of a three-day stay at a hotel,’ stated Sylvia acutely. ‘What’s a hundred quid from each of us to invest in a new lucrative business? It’s a cheap way in, don’t you think?’
’I suppose so,’ responded Gina, ’if everyone’s willing to put a hundred pounds in.’
A buzz went around the staff and soon she had the agreement of five of the others willing to invest in the venture... all keen to become partners in a scheme that would make them a great deal of money. And they were all true to their word, with greed searing through their brains. Consequently, a week later, Gina found herself on an aircraft on her way back to Hong Kong. Taking the lantern with her, she booked into a hotel and, without delay, went back to the emporium where she had bought it the next morning. She found the shop eventually and entered eagerly looking around to see whether she could find any similar lanterns. However she was to be sorely disappointed. The old man who had served her previously wasn’t there. His place had been taken by another Chinaman who sat calmly behind the wooden counter with an inscrutable expression on his face. There was something about him which made the hackles rise at the back of her neck but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Nonetheless, his aura made her feel extremely uncomfortable.
‘Do you speak English,’s she asked hopefully.
‘Yes,’ he replied smoothly. ‘I speak English. Is there any way I can help you?’
‘There was an old man service here the last time I came. Is he still around?’
The man’s eyes stared at her sombrely. ‘I’m afraid I have some bad news to tell you,’ he told her, with no expression of emotion showing on his face. ‘He died two days ago from a fatal heart attack.’
‘That’s a shame,’ she said sadly. ‘I’ve flown all the way from England to see him.’
He gazed at her enigmatically. ‘I have taken his place. If there is anything I can do to help you, please ask me.’
‘I’m not sure,’ continued Gina unhappily. ‘I bougth an item here a short time ago and I wondered if there were any more for sale.’
‘What sort of item?’ he enquired solemnly.
‘A lantern,’ she replied readily. ‘I’ve brought it with me to show you.’ She removed it from the plastic bag that she carried and held it up to the man’s face. ‘I’m looking for more of them. Do you happen to have any, or can you tell me where I can buy them?’
He stared at the lantern for a few moments and time seemed to stand still. Then his eyes began to glow brightly before turning red as though they had been set alight. He had killed the old man two days earlier in order to take control of the emporium in the hope that someone might bring along the lantern... and his actions had been successful! It was an item that he had been seeking for a very long time. As he lowered it slowly to the counter, the light from his eyes projected directly into those of Gina and the blaze which emerged from them created a mind-set which caused her to go into a trance. Suddenly, she found herself transfixed, unable to move, suspended in space and time. His eyes stayed connected to hers unblinking for what seemed to be an eternity, and he used the moment to issue a command.
‘You will forget that you have ever seen this lantern. You will also forget that you ever saw me. Return directly to your hotel. Pack your suitcase, take the next aircraft back to your country. Once there, you will fall asleep for eight hours and then wake up to lead a normal life without remembering anything at all about the lantern or this place or about me!’
She stumbled out of the emporium leaving the lantern behind and made her way back to her hotel, obeying every instruction he had give her to the letter.
The man watched her go with an element of satisfaction. He was a security officer from a planet in a distant galaxy many light years away in the celestial firmament. He was part of a team of six security officers who had spread themselves throughout the world seeking for another aline who had stolen a spaceship which had been identified as an Unidentifed Flying Object... a UFO. Although they had found the spaceship and returned it to their planet, the renegade had removed parts of it which he had sold to antique dealers using the money to continue his life on Earth. There had been sixteen of these lanterns fixed to the outside of the spacecraft and he had sold all of them. The security team had now recovered thirteen of them..there were only three more to be found. Then the team could concentrate their efforts on finding the rogue alien who was still at large, to take him back to their planet for lifetime incarceration for his misdeeds.
After returning home, still in a trance, Gina slept for eight hours and then returned to work, testing drugs on the animals at the laboratory, completely innocuous of the anguish she caused her colleagues. Not surprisingly the became furious when she persistently denied all knowledge of a weekend trip to Hong Kong to search for lanterns. What were they talking about? They were obviously playing a joke on her yet they all seemed so angry at her reticence. And they were very explicit, to the point of fury, explaining that they had given her money to buy an airline ticket and the price of a hotel. However their comments had no effect on her memory. The journey and its reason had been wiped clean by the alien from her mind. Why did everyone keep talking about lanterns? And why should anyone at the base pool any money for her to take a weekend trip to Hong Kong? It didn’t make sense... it was totally irrational! They seemed to want to talk about nothing more than to start a new company and sell lanterns! Lanterns! They had to be kidding! One which remained alight without any power source! ‘Huh!’ she thought to herself. ‘The next thing they’ll tell me is that it came from outer space!’
A Case Of Proposals
It was 1937. The Court was packed to the rafters, mostly with women who howled for blood and demanded their pound of flesh from a man who was clearly a lustful rogue. Who else would have the cruel audacity... the blatant cheek... the unmitigated nerve to propose marriage to five different women in turn in a relatively short space of time. They had already pre-judged the case. He was obviously a philanderer who waltzed from one woman to another, leaving a trail of broken hearts and himan misery in his wake as he abandoned them. The crowd was delighted to note than not just one woman, but five of them, had mustered sufficient courage to put a stop to this man’s wilfulness in the hope that they would make an exampled of him. After all, the law stated that if a man proposed marriage, it was his
duty to fulfil his commitment.
The Plaintiff was Phoebe Starlight, a young attractive widow who attended the Court wearing a delightful black dress. In her Petition, she had attached the names of four other women to whom Tanner had proposed, to reinforce her case. It looked cut and dried against the Defendant from the start. The evidence, together with the witnesses weighed very heavily against him. However, before the proceedings began, Tannel approached his solicitor with a serious expression on his face.
‘Look,’ he began dryly. ‘I haven’t a hope in Hell! It would be helpful if you could fight to keep the amount of compensation down. That’s all I ask.’
‘Mr. Tanner,’ returned Grade valiantly. ‘It’s common knowledge that there are three stories in every law suit... the Plaintiff’s, the Defendant’s and the truth! On paper, you haven’t got a dog’s chance but in a Court of law anything can happen.’
Tanner smiled easily. ‘A friend of mine told me that if the facts are on your side, hammer the facts... if the law is on your side, hammer the law... and if neither is on your side, hammer the table.’
The minutes ticked by and, in a full Court, the case began with both Counsels presenting their opening arguments. Grade deliberately kept his oration short, estimating that he would do more damage than good with the jury if he tried to develop his case too broadly at the start. He viewed the gallery as hostile and breathed a sigh of relief when he realised when he saw that the jury was comprise of nine men and only three women. In Breach of Promises cases, emotion ran very high at times; fairness and reason were often sacrificed by female juror sympathetic to an offended woman, regardless whether or not she had been the cause of the breach herself. The Plaintiff’s Counsel called the first witness, a young woman by the name of Carol Ferguson. She entered the witness box, swore an oath with her hand on a Bible to face a volley of gentle questions. She seemed to be a very confident woman. Her answers reflected that Tanner had asked her to marry him and, shortly afterwards, he became involved with another young woman. It was ostensibly all very simple to relate, being heavily weighted against the Defendant. When his turn came to cross-examine her, Grade scanned her face and stared directly at the witnesses eyes which made her tremble slightly with fear. She was a short person with a plump face and short black hair. However she lacked finesses and offered a very down-to-earth manner. Her problem was that she had an awful nervous habit of grinning broadly after answering each question.
‘Miss Ferguson,’ began Grade calmly. ‘How long ago was it when Mr. Tanner actually proposed to you?
‘Nearly two years ago. We were in a hotel in Devon.’ Her face broke into a broad grin..
‘Why haven’t you married him? I mean so much time has passed since he proposed. Was this a long-term engagement arranged by both of you?’
‘Because he left me to go off with other women! I couldn’t stand for that, could I?’
‘Other women? Don’t you mean ‘another woman’?’
‘If you say so.’
‘You objected strongly to that, of course.’
‘Yes I did. I gave him a good piece of my mind!’
There was never any doubt at this point by the jury that she was telling the truth.
‘How did you do that, Miss Ferguson?’ continued the lawyer. ‘Please tell the Court!’
‘What do you mean? What do I have to tell the Court?’
‘You said that you gave him a good piece of your mind. Did you visit him to tell him how you felt, face to face, that he was a bounder? Did you send him letters condemning his actions? Did you contact him by any other means complaining about his conduct?’
‘I telephoned him about his conduct. That’s what I did.’
‘How many times did you telephone him?’
‘Once... I rang him once.’
‘Just once. No face-to-face meetings. No letters.’
‘I rang him once. That was enough.’
‘And what did you say to him?’
‘I told him I wasn’t going to be treated in that way. I told him I was breaking off the engagement because he couldn’t keep his hands off other women and I didn’t want to be married to a flirtatious husband.’ She grinned broadly again.
‘Did you ever see him with another woman... or other women?’
‘No I did not. It’s just as well! I’d have given them a piece of my mind as well!’
‘Then how did you know that he was romancing another woman if you didn’t see the Defendant and another woman?
‘Other people told me he was seeing someone else.’
‘Other people! What other people?’
‘Friends of mine told me about him and his philandering.’
‘So it was the gossip of other people which led you to believe that the Defendant was being unfaithful.’
‘I can trust my friends. I couldn’t trust Mr. Tanner. And there’s five of us here today with the same story. He proposed to all of us in the last two years.’
Grade snorted angrily. ‘Just answer the questions, Miss Ferguson!’ he snapped. ‘What did the Defendant say when you telephoned him and ‘gave him a piece of your mind’?’
‘He didn’t say much. Kept denying it.’
‘But you refused to believe him and, in fact, you did all the talking, didn’t you?’
‘I did all the talking.’ The grin returned to her face.
‘In your opinion, was he shocked by your tirade?’
‘He was by the time I’d finished with him!’
‘Would it surprise you to know that at the time you telephoned him, the Defendant was not seeing another woman?’
‘I can’t believe that.’ She became slightly shaken at the comment and shrugged her shoulders aimlessly.
‘It’s not that you can’t believe it, Miss Ferguson, it’s that you prefer not to believe it. It was you who broke off the engagement, wasn’t it? You did so because you changed your mind about marrying the Defendant, didn’t you?’
The grin suddenly disappeared from her face as Grade moved in for the kill. ‘That’s not true,’s he uttered feebly. ‘I know what my friends told me.’
‘But it is true! The Defendant wasn’t seeing another woman. He even denied it when you telephone him! But you were no longer interested in anything he had to say... that is the truth, isn’t it! The facts were that you finished with him of your own accord. He proposed to you, of that he admits, but you can hardly accuse him of Breach of Promise when you yourself broke off the engagement, can you? With no evidence of any misconduct by him, you concocted a story to let yourself off the hook. You say that you listened to the gossip of your friends without making any attempt to check whether they were telling the truth. All you wanted to do was to end your association with him. In truth, you had changed your mind. You didn’t want to marry him. He was involved with no other woman at the time. These friends who allegedly told you that he was being unfaithful are simply a figment of your imagination, aren’t they?’ She failed to answer so he pressed on further, driving the nail into the coffin. ‘There’s one final matter to dwell on,’ he continued relentlessly. ‘When a marriage proposal is made and accepted, it is unusal at the time to determine a specific date when the marriage should take place. The law treats the engagement as one for marriage within a reasonable time. In such cases it’s a question of fact for the jury to decide, whether in all the circumstances, a reasonable time has elapsed. You refused to make yourself available for marriage for two years. Do you not consider that period too long in terms of waiting to get married? The witness failed to answer the question and Grade sat down. ‘No further questions!’ he growled at the Judge.
Carol Ferguson stood rigidly in the witness box. This time there was no grin on her face. It was clear to the jury that Grade had put his finger on the pulse of the truth. The challenge by the witness against Roland
Tanner was quickly laid to rest.
Melanie Hines was a different kettle of fish altogether. She was tall and skinny, with long hair, bright beady eyes and a bubbly personality. Grade had no information about the woman at all. He knew just by looking at her that she would never break down on th witness stand or end her evidence in the sane wat as Caroi Ferguson. All he could do was to hope and pray for some tid-bit of information he could latch on to during cross-examination.
‘Miss Hines,’ he began solemnly. ‘Did you know that the Defendant had proposed to Miss Ferguson not long before he started going out with you?’
‘Yes, he told me all about her.’
‘Did he allege that he had been jilted by her.?
‘That’s the story he told me. I felt sorry for him.’
‘Now that’s a strange remark. I would have fancied that you would say something like ‘it didn’t matter because I was in love with him’. Didn’t you feel any emotion for him... such as love?’
‘Of course,’ she replied carelessly. ‘Otherwise I wouldn’t have agreed to marry him.’
Grade paused before continuing. ‘What attracted you to the Defendant?’
At that point, the Plaintiff’s Cousel got to his feet to object to the question. The Judge stared at Grade coldly, his lined face showing under his white wig as he scrutinised the young lawyer in front of him.
‘Where do you intend to go with this line of questioning, Mr. Grade?’ he asked in stentorian tones.
‘I want to find out why all these women find the Defendant so attractive, your Honour,’ he replied calmly. ‘It may help us get to the truth.’
‘I doubt it!’ uttered the Judge. ‘Objection sustained!’
Grade pulled a wry face and turned back to the witness. ‘You told the Court that the Defendant left you for another woman. What evidence did you have for assuming that to be the case?’
‘I saw him walking with Eleanour Jones. The were arm in arm only three months after he proposed to me.’