ACTIVATING THE RED CORD DANCE STUDIO The dance studio is quite large. It occurs to you that Martin's mother may have used this room to give dance lessons years ago. The north wall is completely covered by a huge mirror. The floor is magnificent, with beautifully grained wood squares arranged in a parquet pattern. The wood of the floor has many different shades, both light and dark. In the center of the floor you see a large square hole. Stairs lead downward. Near the west wall you see two indentations in the floor. A hook is on the west wall. A long shelf runs along the south wall. To the east you see the back half of the living room. You see a coat rack here. >d TUNNEL (south end) >n TUNNEL (north end) >open door The trapdoor is now open. >u GAZEBO There is something very unusual about the east wall of the garden. The center of the wall appears to be missing. You see a swirling mist there. You see a desk chair and a pot of gardenias here. The trapdoor slams shut. >wave fan You wave the fan. As the fan flutters in front of your face, you feel yourself being somewhat hypnotized by the rippled reflection of the rising sun on the dark water. Holding the fan near to your face you inhale deeply. Your nose tingles, and you feel as if your sense of smell is being enhanced by the fan. Filtered through the fan, the smell of the roses in the garden plunges you into a memory. But the memory is not your own! The memory revealed by the rising sun belongs to Martin's mother Raina. ------------- Press space bar to continue ----------------- Raina drops her suitcase as soon as she walks in the front door. The house smells like flowers, and looking around she can see why -- her husband has placed a crystal vase of roses on the piano and sprinkled rose petals all over the living room floor. She looks so young, you think, probably in her late twenties. Viktor enters the room and strides over to greet Raina with a kiss. "Welcome home, sweetie," he tells her. "I have a surprise for you." Viktor goes over to the piano and sits down. He begins to play, an original composition that he has written especially for her. The music is hot and jazzy, accompanied by a display of colored lighting dancing across the walls of the living room. A newly installed model train enters the room bringing a tray with two glasses of champagne. Raina grabs a rose and begins to dance, holding the rose in her teeth. As the song ends, Raina throws the rose across the floor and pulls Viktor to his feet. They dance together while Viktor whistles a variation on the music that he had been playing at the piano. ------------- Press space bar to continue ----------------- After a time Viktor leads their dancing into the front half of the living room. Laughing and holding on to each other, they fall onto the sofa. But suddenly Raina stops laughing, her face serious. "Viktor, I've decided not to go to any more out-of-town auditions." He looks concerned. "That bad? What happened this time?" "Just the usual. I'm too short for Vegas dancing leads and I was born in the wrong generation to be in the chorus of a Fred Astaire movie. Hollywood doesn't do many musicals anymore. And nobody wants a song-and-dance girl with a face that's too authentically native American." "Maybe I could call up Walt Disney and talk him into doing a stage version of the Pochahontas story. I love your face," he tells her, kissing her nose. "Disney and live stage theatre! That's certainly a contradiction in terms, it's as ridiculous as Time Square without porno shops. If you make suggestions like that they'll think you're a raving lunatic!" Raina protests, but Viktor privately resolves to write a letter suggesting it anyway. It wouldn't be the first time that people thought he was a crackpot. "And by the way, Viktor, I love YOUR face too. And that brings me to the most important reason as to why I want to stop looking for a paying gig that takes me out of town. I love this house and I love you and I want to be with you every night. And now that you've landed a job teaching at the Sycamore Creek Boys Academy, someone needs to be here to take care of our baby." ------------- Press space bar to continue ----------------- "Baby? Did you say baby? You can't be pregnant already, you just got back from L.A. Although I do admit to having some pretty realistic dreams while you were gone. This sofa must be a dream couch, because whenever I look at your picture right before I take a nap I always have racy dreams." "Silly! I'm not pregnant yet, I just have a good feeling about tonight." "You're feeling pretty good to me right now..." he says under his breath as his hand moves up from her waist and his kisses move down from her forehead towards her left ear. She laughs, a beautiful, musical laugh that fills the room. "Viktor, I'm serious. You know my father says I inherited my intuition from my grandmother." "Can we talk about your father and your grandmother tomorrow? I'm busy trying to seduce you so we can get started on this baby idea." Raina pauses for a moment, gathering her courage for what she is about to say next. "Speaking of my intuition, I was thinking that maybe we should convert your laboratory into a nursery. Or maybe into a dance studio so that I could start a dance school and bring in some extra money. We could do shows at the community center." Viktor suddenly pulls away, his face serious. He looks at her with his stern schoolmaster expression. "Raina, I need the lab for my research. You know that they don't have any observatory facilities at the Academy. A nursery and a dance studio is no problem, we can ask your brother and his construction crew to build some extra rooms onto the house, maybe a second floor. God knows they could use the work considering his reputation for building ridiculously impractical secret entrances to every room that anyone lets him design. Now stop making excuses and tell me what the hell my lab has to do with your intuition." ------------- Press space bar to continue ----------------- Raina's face turns pale and her voice drops into a whisper, almost as if she is afraid that by speaking her fears she might empower them into becoming real. "I have a bad feeling about what you're doing in there. How do you know it's not dangerous to try to send signals to extraterrestrials?" "Raina." His voice sounds tired and disapproving, disappointed in her. Viktor stands up and turns, stepping away from her. Raina gets to her feet and prepares to follow him, her face now filled with fire and determination. The words have been spoken, there's no way to take them back. Now she knows she must fight for this man, she must convince him of what she knows to be the truth. But unexpectedly he turns back to face her, his hazel eyes suddenly soft and gentle as they look into the fierceness of her own dark brown gaze. "Raina. Look at me. There's no danger here except in your imagination, but even if there were it wouldn't matter. Even if I had to give my life for it I couldn't stop. Teaching is a job, but research is my passion." Her words lash out at him. "I thought your passion was me!" And this time it is she who turns to walk away. But his arms quickly enfold her and she can't help leaning back against him as her eyes squeeze shut and fat tears streak down her beautiful face. And then he speaks. "You've always been my passion and you always will be. But I can't stop exploring. Science is what I do. It's who I am." She knows that this, too, is the truth. ------------- Press space bar to continue ----------------- Bitterly Raina tells herself that there is a time and a place for grieving and that therefore she shouldn't start crying now. But this thought frightens her so deeply that she turns and buries her face in his chest, holding him tightly as if her world is ending. And then, somehow, she forces herself to loosen her grip and put aside her dread. She resolves to live the life she was meant to live, to stand beside him and find joy in whatever time they might have together, no matter how long or how short that time might turn out to be. "Can we ask my brother to build a secret garden?" she asks, trying to keep her voice as simple as a child of innocence. "I've always wanted a secret garden," she sighs wistfully. "Of course you want a secret garden. Your brother will love that, we'll keep him so busy working on renovations that he won't have time to eat any sacred mushrooms." Viktor braces himself to receive a playful slap from Raina but she gives him an elbow in his ribs instead. "You've been reading too much Carlos Castaneda, white boy. My people don't pick mushrooms, we just buy organic broccoli from Takamine's General Store." "I hate broccoli," Viktor says, getting in the last word before drawing her into deep kiss. And so their son Martin is conceived, in a union of strength, courage, joy, and most of all, love. ------------- Press space bar to continue ----------------- Before Raina's memory slips away from you, you hear a low rumble of thunder and the sound of the wind whistling through the open sliding glass door. The wind circles twice around the untouched glasses of champagne and begins to circle around Viktor and Raina. The wind moves faster and faster, almost as if it is drawing its strength from the bond between the two lovers. The wind splits off and begins to encircle you as well, somehow crossing the boundary between the inside of the memory and outside of remembering. After the air grows still, you are left with the odd feeling that the encircling wind has left an imprint of its power in the belt that you wear around your waist. You feel stronger somehow, more connected. You notice that one of the cords on the belt has turned red. As the memory ends, the fan turns in your hand. The other side is facing you now.