The Friday Society by Adrienne Kress

escorting her to the kitchen table while Nellie drew up a chair for her. As Michiko sat, Cora explained. “We found you on the street. On the street? Yes?”
    Michiko looked at her with what seemed to be great apprehension. “Street. Yes.”
    “We”—Cora gestured to herself and Nellie—“found you.” She pointed to Michiko. “You were . . . God, ‘unconscious’ is such a complicated word.” She looked at Nellie for help.
    “Asleep?” suggested Nellie. She looked at Michiko, closed her eyes, and cocked her head to the side.
    “Yes. You were . . . sleeping,” Cora said.
    “No,” replied Michiko, shaking her head.
    “Yes; yes, that’s what happened.”
    “No. Not sleeping. I . . .” She looked frustrated with herself and clenched her fists. Then she touched the back of her head tenderly. She apparently found what she was looking for because she turned around to show Cora what she was touching. She pulled at her hair so that Cora could have a closer look.
    Nellie came over to look, too.
    “A bump,” said Cora, examining her. “Dried blood, too. Someone attacked you? That’s why you were . . . asleep.”
    “Not asleep!” Michiko was obviously getting angry.
    “No, not asleep. You were unconscious. Hit on the head. Hit. And then you . . . black. Everything went black. Not asleep. Unconscious.”
    Michiko appeared to calm down then. “Not asleep. Un . . . con . . . shus.”
    Cora glanced up at Nellie and Nellie gave a small smile. They were on the same page at last.
    “Who did it?” Nellie asked. “Who hit you . . .?”
    Michiko looked at Nellie, and Nellie was pretty sure that in that moment she recognized her from the show. Michiko shook her head. “Fog. Thick. Don’t . . . don’t . . .”
    “Don’t?” asked Cora. “Don’t remember? Don’t know, is that it?”
    “Don’t know.” Michiko nodded. “I fight him. Lost.” She touched her cheek again.
    “Uh, yes, I did that. Hope that’s okay. Here.” Cora reached into her purse and pulled out the small piece of metal she’d extracted from Michiko’s cheek. She handed it to Michiko.
    Michiko shook her head. “No, thank you.”
    “You fought him?” interjected Nellie.
    Michiko nodded.
    “Wow. And you lost to him? You? He must be good.”
    Michiko sighed hard. “Good yes. Katana bad.”
    “What’s ‘ katana ’?” Nellie asked Cora, who shrugged in response.
    Michiko sighed again.
    “This is all so odd,” said Cora, leaning back in her chair. “Why would this mysterious man in the fog kill Dr. Welland? And why would he leave her alive?”
    “Dr. Welland? You knew him?” Nellie sat down next to Cora quickly. Well, this was news!
    “Not personally, not really. He was the one who went onstage before you, with the cavorite bird.”
    “Yes! Now I remember. What kind of bird?”
    “The one that flew around; the one fueled by cavorite.”
    “What’s cavorite?”
    “It was only discovered last year. A glowing green metal that defies gravity. It can be used as an energy source to lift something otherwise not able to fly up off the ground, or you can melt it and cover an object with it and make the entire object lighter than air. Of course, doing that means you have to have a way to tether whatever the object is to the ground or it will just keep flying up and up. So most people just use the metal as an energy source. The air force has made a rather large order for it, and they’ve started outfitting their ships. It’s a much more reliable means of lifting something into the air, you see, than, say, the hydrogen used in dirigibles, and it seems to sustain itself infinitely. Though, of course, that’s not really possible.”
    “So that’s what that glowing green business was.”
    “Indeed. In any event, Dr. Welland was one of the men who helped isolate and refine it. I say. That could be meaningful, I suppose.”
    “You mean like rivalry, or something. Jealousy?” Nellie was all too familiar