CAUSING THE PURPLE FLOWER INCIDENT LIVING ROOM (back half) There's an armchair on the north wall. To the right of the armchair is an open sliding glass door leading north to a courtyard. A pet door has been installed as part of the sliding glass door. The polished dark wood floor is adorned with a fine oriental rug in the center of the living room. There is some model railroad track inlaid into the floor here. On the west wall is a piano. There's a bust of Beethoven on the piano. A piano bench sits in front of the piano. The east wall is covered with bookcases, with a small desk built into the bookcases. On top of the desk is a large tape recorder and a plastic box of audio cassettes. A wooden desk chair is in front of the desk. The living room continues to the south. >n WEST COURTYARD Rachel runs into the west courtyard, heading for the sliding glass door. She closes the door. Then she sits down on the ground, quietly staring at a grasshopper. >wait Time passes... "You don't live in the same world as anybody," Julie teases Martin as she runs away from him laughing. "You're too crazy!" Suddenly Martin stops chasing Julie. "I'm not crazy," he says matter of factly, his voice more subdued than usual. "I'm not the one who's trying to talk to aliens." Julie is instantly apologetic. "I know you're not crazy," Julie tells him. "And I know what it's like when the other kids make fun of you and call your father a crackpot. They say it about my dad too." "At least your dad doesn't teach at the same school you go to," Martin complains, but he gives Julie a little crooked smile. You can almost see Martin wondering how it's possible that Julie always seems to understand what he's feeling better than anyone else. Rachel is sitting on the ground, watching a grasshopper. >wait Time passes... Rachel has been sitting on the ground watching a grasshopper for some time now. It occurs to you that her attention to the insect is remarkably focused for a child no more than six. After a while she picks up a twig and starts drawing in the ground with it. "What are you doing, Pipsqueak?" her older brother asks. Martin and Julie walk over to take a look. Rachel doesn't answer right away because she's holding her tongue between her teeth to one side of her mouth to help her concentrate on her drawing. "I'm drawing a grath-hopper," Rachel tells her brother. Martin and Julie look at each other and then they look back down at the lines and circles in the ground. It doesn't really look all that much like a grasshopper, you think, but somehow she seems to have captured something very fundamental about what it means to be a grasshopper. "What's that?" Martin asks her, pointing with his foot to part of the drawing. "That's the chumping," Rachel tells him, "The grath- hopper likes to chump." Rachel gets up from the ground and demonstrates by jumping around. >wait Time passes... Rachel seems to be having a good time jumping, so Martin and Julie put their cans on the ground and start jumping too. Before long Martin organizes a contest to see who can jump the highest and the farthest, and who can stay in the air the longest. Suddenly Rachel sits down on the ground, her face pale and worried. "What's the matter?" Julie asks her, kneeling beside her and giving her a sympathetic hug. "You did a really good job of jumping," Julie tells her, "Just like a grasshopper." But Rachel is not consoled. "I forgot purple," Rachel moans. Julie looks at Martin, but Martin seems just as clueless as Julie. "I brung Daddy all the colorth," Rachel tells them. "Red and white and pink and blue and orange. But I forgot purple." Suddenly Martin realizes what Rachel is talking about. "We don't HAVE any purple flowers in Mom's garden," Martin tells her. Rachel nods her head wisely. "Mommy forgot purple too," she says. Not knowing how to respond to this, Martin and Julie stand quietly while Rachel mourns the absence of a purple flower. Then the silence is broken by the forceful opening of "Beethoven's Fifth Symphony", playing loudly on the sound system. >wait Time passes... Rachel stands up and starts pacing, chewing her lip. Apparently she is trying to figure out how to get a purple flower. You see that this is a child who doesn't give up easily when presented with a problem. Martin says, "Maybe we could take a white flower and paint it purple, like they did in "Alice In Wonderland"." "That was red paint, not purple," says Julie. "And it doesn't sound very practical to me. Maybe we could make a flower out of a hankerchief and then dye it in the sink." "But I don't want it to die," Rachel wails. "Then we won't use Red Dye Number 2," Martin jokes, "We'll use Purple Dye Number 6!" Julie gives Martin a withering look that indicates her low opinion of the sense of humor possessed by ten-year-old boys. Martin responds by shaking up his can of Tab and squirting her with it. This time his aim is much better and Julie squeaks equal parts of outrage and giggle. Julie runs into the east courtyard while Martin chases her. Little Rachel, ignored by the older children, sits back down on the ground again and shakes her head. "Don't want it to die in the sink," she tells the grasshopper. Martin and Julie are now playing and talking in the east courtyard. >e EAST COURTYARD "Red Dye Number 2!" Martin yells, squirting Julie with more Tab as he chases her across the east courtyard. "It's my new secret weapon, look out!" Julie looks like she is briefly considering telling Martin that Red Dye Number 2 can't be a NEW weapon because scientists have known for several years that it's dangerous, and besides, it can't hurt you unless you eat it. And that Tab is brown and not red, but it does have saccharine in it, which is probably just as dangerous. But one of the odd things about being with Martin is that sometimes Julie forgets to be a pedantic twelve- year-old. She decides to have some fun instead, which is always the best part about coming here to visit the Kesslers. "You can squirt Tab on the aliens when they come here," Julie laughs, shaking her can with a glint in her eye that causes Martin to back away. "Maybe it will make them dissolve into a puddle like the witch in the Wizard of Oz," Martin says, backing away slowly and then quickly circling to come in for a sneak attack. Martin manages to elicit a rather satisfactory squeal out of Julie even though she successfully dodges the squirting foam. But their play come to a sudden halt as her father speaks sharply to her in Japanese. Julie becomes serious again. "I shouldn't get my clothes dirty because there won't be time for me to change before we go to your mom's show tonight," she tells Martin. Martin and Julie walk over into the west courtyard and sit down on the cast-iron loveseat. >w WEST COURTYARD "So, you and your Dad are coming with us to Mom's show tonight?" Martin asks. "Yeah, West Side Story, I loved the movie," Julie answers. "I love ALL your mom's shows." "They're going to do the Mikado in a few months," Martin tells her. "Don't bring that up, my Dad is already complaining about how that play is really more about England than about it is about Japan. I'm not sure if he really doesn't understand how funny Gilbert and Sullivan's songs are or if he's just being stubborn so that he can set a good example for me," Julie says. "I didn't think he knew much English at all." "My Dad understands more than he lets on. He just doesn't like to speak it." >drop purple flower Upon leaving your possession, the purple flower increases its substance and visibility. The purple flower then begins to glow, undergoing a change that completely transforms it. After a while the glow fades and you sense that the purple flower has become bound to the surroundings here. The purple flower is now on the ground. Martin and Julie are sitting on the cast-iron loveseat. Julie tells Martin, "My Dad brought a fan to give to your mother after tonight's show." "A fan?" "Yeah, a real Japanese fan, it belonged to my Mom. It's really old. My Dad says that if Mrs. Kessler uses it when they do the Mikado this fall, then at least there will be ONE thing on the stage that's really Japanese." "That's great," says Martin. "We're just bringing her flowers tonight. But no purple ones." Martin and Julie laugh together. Rachel comes out of the house. She closes the sliding door. Rachel sees the purple flower! She looks around, trying to figure out who brought the purple flower and left it where she could find it. She should say "Thank you" for the flower! But nobody that she can see is paying any attention right now. She picks up the flower. >wait Time passes... Rachel heads east, holding the purple flower. >e EAST COURTYARD Rachel heads into the lab, holding the purple flower. Rachel heads into the lab. Joruko Takamine turns off the laser beam transmission that has been shooting up into the sky. He walks over to help Viktor take off the helmet. Paganini is standing on Viktor's lap, trying to get his nose into the food. Rachel steps over the cables and then reaches out to give the flower to her father. With one hand on Paganini to keep the cat away from the food, Viktor reaches to take the flower from his daughter. Their hands make contact at the exact instant that Mr. Takamine touches Viktor's helmet. At that moment, a shock wave hits Viktor, Joruko, Rachel, and Paganini. There is no sound of explosion, but the force of the shock wave blows you down. You land flat on your back. Rachel, who is also thrown into the courtyard, lands on top of you. Well, not actually on top of you, since your body doesn't really have enough substance to support her. She's sort of inside of you. ------------- Press space bar to continue ----------- Rachel has stopped breathing! Instinctively you send a part of your essence into the little girl, willing her to live. Rachel gasps and coughs, her body curling into a ball and rolling away from you. Then she relaxes and her breathing slows to a normal pace. Still clutching the purple flower, Rachel sits up. She seems to be completely unharmed, although a bit disoriented. Rachel looks directly at you. "Who are you?" Rachel asks. You try to speak, but no sound comes from your lips. So you pantomime the action of picking a flower and handing it to Rachel. "You brung me a flower? The purple flower?" Rachel looks down at the flower in her hand and then smiles at you. "Thank you."