“I did,” said the voice. Just then a man appeared from out of nothing sitting at the table. He was a dignified looking man who appeared to be middle-aged or later. He had streaks of gray in his slicked-back hair. He wore a button-down shirt and a bow tie, and also a lab coat. He looked like a science professor.
“You said you would not interfere with my story, Allan,” said Victoria.
“Forgive me, my dear, but I felt it only right to let the young man know I was here the whole time,” the man said. He stood up and extended his hand to me. “Dr. Allan Tolliver,” he said. I shook his hand and told him my name. “Pleased to meet you, Joe. Please sit down. I’ll try not to interrupt again.”
“Thank you, Allan,” Victoria said bitterly. “Moving on, Joe. So Allan here walks up to me and introduces himself. He explains to me that he caused everything to stop. He shows me his ring and tells me a story of how he received his.”
“Only, it was a girl of about your age, Joe, who gave me my ring,” Allan interrupted again. “Sorry, Victoria, I thought he should know that.”
Victoria nodded. “In fact he should, and I would have forgotten to say it,” she said. “So you see, Joe, we each have a ring that grants wishes and we received them from very different people.”
Allan asked, “Did I hear you say it was an old woman who gave yours to you, Joe?” I nodded. “Ah. It’s been some time since I heard that.”
Victoria resumed her story. “So after a few minutes of questions much like you asked me, Allan brought me here. He explained to me about P.H.A.N.T.O.M. and what it is and what it is not. Now I need to explain that to you. I told you what P.H.A.N.T.O.M. means, but nothing else. P.H.A.N.T.O.M. is a group of secretive, highly skilled and particularly selected people whose mission it is to combat evil wherever it can.”
She stopped talking so I took the opportunity to ask, “Do you mean like a group of superheroes?”
“I suppose you could say that,” she said. “But tell me, Joe, have you ever heard of P.H.A.N.T.O.M. before?” I shook my head. “Have you ever heard real stories of real superheroes? Have you ever seen a news report where such activities happened?” Again I shook my head. “That is because P.H.A.N.T.O.M. does not exist. No one knows about us, no one has ever heard of us, and no one can ever know about us. We do not seek glory or notoriety. We exist simply to do the right thing.”
“That sounds very noble,” I said. Not that nobility had ever mattered much to me, mind you, but she did make it sound noble. “But even if no one knows about you, shouldn’t there be traces of your actions?”
Victoria smiled knowingly. “Joe, do you remember how time stopped around you? Do you remember how the policeman did not remember arresting you? Why do you suppose those things happened?”
I thought for a few seconds and said, “I guess you made them happen.”
“Right,” she said. “Or rather, the ring and its power made them happen. They have the ability to alter the perceptions of others. I wished for you to have never actually been arrested and for everyone but you and me to forget it ever happened. So that policeman never saw you until you tried to apologize to him.”
“I need to interrupt again, I’m sorry,” said Allan. “Victoria said she wished for all but you and her to forget about your arrest. That’s not entirely true.” He looked at Victoria to continue the explanation.
She nodded and said, “That is correct. Other members of P.H.A.N.T.O.M., of which Allan obviously is one, are immune to such perception-altering wishes. They may not have even known about your arrest, but they would not forget it, either. Just keep that in mind because we will come back to it.”
“So am I being asked to join P.H.A.N.T.O.M.?” I asked both of them.