The Magnet Man

A mixed crowd of people stood at the base of a small makeshift stage, looking up at the man in the spotlight. He wore a blue suit and a top hat, both covered with little yellow lightning bolts. His dark bald head gleamed in the spotlight as he beckoned the crowd forward, enticing people to step closer and see miracles in action.

"Step right up," he said, pointing into the crowd, apparently at random. "Yes, you two girls. You will be the subject of wonderful forces! You will witness the miracle... of electricity!"

"Gee. Okay."

"You do not seem impressed, girls," said the Magnet Man, as Bonnie and Susie stepped up onto the stage. "Do you not wish to witness the miracle of electricity?"

"I witness it every day. It's the twenty-first century, probably. We all have cell phones."

"And yet you do not appreciate it," said the Magnet Man, gesturing at the girls to take their places on two round circular metal platforms. They did so, Bonnie confident and rolling her eyes, Susie a little more nervous but basically not expecting anything that remarkable.

"Now," said the Magnet Man. "I start the dynamo." He pulled a big lever on a machine that was sitting next to him, which hummed to life, crackling and whirring and throwing off huge crackling gouts of lightning. "Is it not a marvel of science? The power of God himself, imprisoned by the hand of man?"

"It's a Tesla coil, yeah. They're cool."

"You modern girls! You know everything, hmm? But I have travelled far over Arabian sands and Caribbean seas, and I know the true power of the thunder! I have journeyed deep into its heart! Behold!" He snapped his fingers.

"Um," said Susie. "What am I beholding?"

"Try to leave the platforms."

The girls tried, and it couldn't. It was as if some invisible **** was holding them in place. They couldn't crouch down, either, or move their hands in front of their bodies, though Susie wasn't sure why the Magnet Man had asked them to do that.

She was getting a little bit more nervous than she was before. The crowd was looking at them expectantly. Who were all these people? She recognised some from town, Ben and Trixie Washington and Doc Topper, but some looked like they might be from New York, or even further afield.

Was that guy wearing a dashiki? Why was there a guy in a dashiki at a small-town carnival in middle America? It didn't make sense, unless the carnival transcended the space-time continuum to be in multiple places at once. And that idea was just pure science fiction.

"Are you not astounded, girls? Do you not feel yourself slaves to the fundamental forces?"

"Yes, fine, we're slaves, whatever," snapped Bonnie, a little annoyed. She didn't intend to be stuck here the rest of the night. "Can you let us go now?"

"Forgive me a moment. I must show you just one more of electricity's many secrets."