Calvin: Sir, why were you on Camazotz at all? Was there a particular reason for going there?
Her father, with a frigid laugh: Going to Camazotz was a complete accident. I never intended even to leave our own solar system. I was heading for Mars.Tessering is even more complicated than we had expected.
Calvin: Sir, how was IT able to get Charles Wallace before it got Meg and me?
Her father: From what youve told me its because Charles Wallace thought he could deliberately go into IT and return. He trusted too much to his own strength listen! I think the heartbeat is getting stronger!
His words no longer sounded to her quite as frozen. Was it his words that were ice, or her ears? Why did she hear only her father and Calvin? Why didnt Charles Wallace speak?
Silence. A long silence. Then Calvins voice again: Cant we do anything? Cant we look for help? Do we just have to go on waiting?
Her father:We cant leave her. And we must stay together. We must not be afraid to take time.
Calvin: You mean we were? We rushed into things on Camazotz too fast, and Charles Wallace rushed in too fast, and thats why he got caught?
Maybe. Im not sure. I dont know enough yet. Time is different on Camazotz, anyhow. Our time, inadequate though it is, at least is straightforward. It may not be even fully one-dimensional, because it cant move back and forth on its line, only ahead; but at least its consistent in its direction. Time on Camazotz seems to be inverted, turned in on itself. So I have no idea whether I was imprisoned in that column for centuries or only for minutes. Silence for a moment. Then her fathers voice again. I think I feel a pulse in her wrist now.
Meg could not feel his fingers against her wrist. She could not feel her wrist at all. Her body was still stone, but her mind was beginning to be capable of movement. She tried desperately to make some kind of a sound, a signal to them, but nothing happened.
Their voices started again. Calvin: About your project, sir. Were you on it alone?
Her father: Oh, no. There were half a dozen of us working on it and I daresay a number of others we dont know about. Certainly we werent the only nation to investigate along that line. Its not really a new idea. But we did try very hard not to let it be known abroad that we were trying to make it practicable.
Did you come to Camazotz alone? Or were there others with you?
I came alone. You see, Calvin, there was no way to try it out ahead with rats or monkeys or dogs. And we had no idea whether it would really work or whether it would be complete bodily disintegration. Playing with time and space is a dangerous game.
But why you, sir?
I wasnt the first. We drew straws, and I was second.
What happened to the first man?
We dont look! Did her eyelids move? Silence. Then: No. It was only a shadow.
But I did blink, Meg tried to tell them. Im sure I did. And I can hear you! Do something!
But there was only another long silence, during which perhaps they were looking at her, watching for another shadow, another nicker. Then she heard her fathers voice again, quiet, a little warmer, more like his own voice. We drew straws, and I was second. We know Hank went.We saw him go. We saw him vanish right in front of the rest of us. He was there and then he wasnt.We were to wait for a year for his return or for some message. We waited. Nothing.
Calvin, his voice cracking: Jeepers, sir. You must have been in sort of a flap.
Her father: Yes. Its a frightening as well as an exciting thing to discover that matter and energy are the same thing, that size is an illusion, and that time is a material substance. We can know this, but its far more than we can understand with our puny little brains. I think you will be able to comprehend far more than I. And Charles Wallace even more than you.
Yes, but what happened, please, sir, after the first man?
Meg could hear her father sigh. Then it was my turn. I went. And here I am. A wiser and humbler man. Im sure I havent been gone two years. Now that youve come I have some hope that I may be able to return in time. One thing I have to tell the others is that we know nothing.
Calvin: What do you mean, sir?
Her father: Just what I say. Were children playing with dynamite. In our mad rush weve plunged into this before
With a desperate effort Meg made a sound. It wasnt a very loud sound, but it was a sound. Mr Murry stopped. Hush. Listen.
Meg made a strange, croaking noise. She found that she could pull open her eyelids. They felt heavier than marble but she managed to raise them. Her father and Calvin were hovering over her. She did not see Charles Wallace. Where was he?
She was lying in an open field of what looked like rusty, stubbly grass. She blinked, slowly, and with difficulty.
Meg, her father said. Meg. Are you all right?
Her tongue felt like a stone tongue in her mouth, but she managed to croak, I cant move.
Try, Calvin urged. He sounded now as though he were very angry with her. Wiggle your toes. Wiggle your fingers.
I cant. Wheres Charles Wallace? Her words were blunted by the stone tongue. Perhaps they could not understand her, for there was no answer.
We were knocked out for a minute, too, Calvin was saying. Youll be all right, Meg. Dont get panicky. He was crouched over her, and though his voice continued to sound cross he was peering at her with anxious eyes. She knew that she must still have her glasses on because she could see him clearly, his freckles, his stubby black lashes, the bright blue of his eyes.
Her father was kneeling on her other side. The round lenses of Mrs Whos glasses still blurred his eyes. He took one of her hands and rubbed it between his. Can you feel my fingers? He sounded quite calm, as though there were nothing extraordinary in having her completely paralysed. At the quiet of his voice she felt calmer. Then she saw that there were great drops of sweat standing out on his forehead, and she noticed vaguely that the gentle breeze that touched her cheeks was cool. At first his words had been frozen and now the wind was mild: was it icy cold here or warm? Can you feel my fingers? he asked again.
Yes, now she could feel a pressure against her wrist, but she could not nod. Wheres Charles Wallace? Her words were a little less blurred. Her tongue, her lips were beginning to feel cold and numb, as though she had been given a massive injection at the dentists. She realized with a start that her body and limbs were cold, that not only was she not warm, she was frozen from head to toe, and it was this that had made her fathers words seem like ice, that had paralysed her.
Im frozen she said faintly. Camazotz hadnt been this cold, a cold that cut deeper than the wind on the bitterest of winter days at home. She was away from IT, but this unexplained iciness was almost as bad. Her father had not saved her.
Now she was able to look around a little, and everything she could see was rusty and grey. There were trees edging the field in which she lay, and their leaves were the same brown as the grass. There were plants that might have been flowers, except that they were dull and grey. In contrast to the drabness of colour, to the cold that numbed her, the air was filled with a delicate, springlike fragrance, almost imperceptible as it blew softly against her face. She looked at her father and Calvin. They were both in their shirt sleeves and they looked perfectly comfortable. It was she, wrapped in their clothes, who was frozen too solid even to shiver.
Why am I so cold? she asked. Wheres Charles Wallace? They did not answer. Father, where are we?
Mr Murry looked at her soberly. I dont know, Meg. I dont tesser very well. I must have overshot, somehow. Were not on Camazotz. I dont know where we are. I think youre so cold because we went through the Black Thing, and I thought for a moment it was going to tear you away from me.