Sunday, 29 June 1930
They take Sunday fairly easy too: the papers show no sign of trouble last night (indeed, this is worthy of editorial comment). Bessie gets hold of five sets of clothes and equipment to let the group look plausibly like house-cleaners. She also looks through the cinematic trades in the hopes of finding out about other attacks on film distributors; this takes a bit of digging, and it doesn’t seem as though there have been any others.
The group goes out in the evening, and they’re surprised to see many Marias, standing around on the streets, translucent (flickering at 18 frames a second, thinks Lin Tan) and apparently visible only with the Sight. They’re haranguing the few people who are around on a Sunday evening, and the group find they’re hearing things specifically addressed to them: Gertrude about the treatment of people who don’t have fixed addresses, Audrey about women’s education, and so on. While the passers-by apparently can’t hear the rabble-rousing, they do seem more irritable and angry than usual, snarling rather than apologising if they jostle each other, and so on.
Thinking about distraction, Bessie moves away while Gertrude engages one of the Marias in conversation; Bessie comes back with a paper bag, and pops it without warning Gertrude, who jumps; but this doesn’t disrupt Maria.
Thinking of nitrate film stock, Bessie lights a match and pushes it into Maria; twice she feels she’s almost achieving something, but can’t quite get the feel of what she’s missing. Gertrude attempts the same thing, and is able to twist the match to where it causes Maria to catch light: she’s not apparently in pain, though she tries to extinguish the flames, and she burns to nothing and fades away. The others burn at the same time.