Read Frozen in Time for Free Online Page A

glances.
    ‘Yes—it’s beastly, isn’t it?’ said Polly. ‘That’s what you get when your father’s a genius. You might think we’d get two motorcars, a twelve inch television set, and a trip in an aeroplane, but oh no—we get to be suspended for days on end, just to help out. I’m jolly sick and tired of it. I’m not ever doing this again. Not even for a ten shilling note!’
    ‘Your dad—he was a genius?’ asked Ben and inside him the fear and amazement were beginning to mix with the most awful sense of pity. Something really terrible had happened to these two children and they had absolutely no idea.
    ‘Oh yes—he is,’ said Polly, rubbing her ankles through her short grey socks, to warm them up. Her buckle-up sandals were navy and polished. ‘He built all this stuff. It’s all terribly hush-hush, of course, but now that you’ve seen it there’s not much point in fibbing, is there? He’s a genius and he knows how to make your heart freeze … and then just start up again! Whenever you like. Isn’t that fantastic?’
    ‘Oh yes—jolly fab-oh,’ muttered Freddy, who was also fully out of the torpedo by now and gingerly walking around to his sister, on very shaky legs. ‘I think he should go back to using rats. I’m sick of waking up feeling all queer and then finding out I’ve missed Journey Into Space .’
    ‘So—so you’ve had your heart stopped … and then just started again?’ said Ben. ‘You’ve just been frozen in time? I mean—that’s cryonic suspension, isn’t it?’ He liked sci-fi stuff and stored up these kinds of phrases. The brother and sister looked at him in surprise. And then at each other.
    ‘Gosh—Father must have told you quite a lot,’ said Polly, a new respect creeping into her high, elegant voice.
    ‘Um … no. Not really,’ said Ben. ‘Look—there’s something you two should know—but … look, have you got any sweet drinks or anything?’ He looked wretchedly at Rachel and she returned his expression. How on earth would a bit of sugar help a shock this big?
    ‘Heaps!’ said Polly, proudly. ‘Tizer! We’ll get some from the refrigerator as soon as the door opens.’
    ‘ What should we know?’ asked Freddy, and he was looking hard at Ben. Man to man , thought Ben. ‘What’s going on?’
    Ben shuffled his feet. His fear was quite gone now, but he found his stammer was back, all the same. ‘When d-did your d-dad put you under?’ he asked.
    ‘Wednesday,’ said Freddy. ‘Why?’
    ‘What date ?’
    ‘The sixth. Of June. What are you driving at?’
    Ben closed his eyes and it was Rachel who said, gently, her voice full of sadness for them. ‘What … year ?’
    Freddy gulped and Polly paled. ‘1956, of course,’ said the boy. His eyes glittered and he stood up straight and then shouted ‘1956! 1956!’ And he watched their faces and his eyes skittered around the room while he chewed on his lower lip, and he finally said, ‘When … what … is the date now?’
    The door hissed and clunked and the mechanism reversed. Rachel pulled it open. ‘You stay here—with them—I’ll find the Tizer. Don’t let them out … not yet.’
    ‘What the heck do you mean?’ shouted Freddy, and he tried to stride angrily across to the door but his legs gave way under him. He sank down next to his sister and she grasped his hand tightly and bit her lip.
    ‘Oh, Freddy,’ she said. ‘What has he done?’
    Rachel ran through the bathroom and into the kitchen. The fridge was still working although its light didn’t switch on. It was still full of tins and boxes. There were bottles of Tizer in its door—and they looked OK. She hoped the lids wouldn’t have gone rusty or something on the inside. She ran to the drawer, looking for a bottle opener—these weren’t the kind that unscrewed—and found one, quickly. Awkwardly she fumbled with it until at last the cap shot off and danced across the Formica worktop. She did a second bottle and ran quickly back