by Robin Roseau
“No. We will have many dates, but we must not fall in love. We will have fun. We will be friends. We will remember happiness together. And then you will have a new adventure, and you must be happy to go, not sad. If you begin to fall in love, we will stop seeing each other. If I begin to fall in love, we will stop.”
I thought about it then finally nodded. “All right.”
“This is for fun,” she repeated. “Fun. Say it.”
“Fun,” I said. “And making a friend.”
“And making a friend,” she agreed. “A few friends. All right. We have to go. I’m going to drive you home, then I have to go to work.”
* * * *
I’m going to say a little more about Pippa, Tranquility, and Serenity. We kept it fun. My schedule would become very full, and so we were limited, and our dates were the same. One of them would pick me up. The four of us then joined for dinner, then we went dancing, usually to the same club as the first time, but the style was spreading throughout Tarriton, and there were two other, similar clubs in Artemia. We visited them, but the first was my favorite.
Beginning with our second time, I let them lure me to the not tame floor. At first, I was deeply uncomfortable, especially because they kept trading me. The sisters didn’t dance with each other the way they were dancing with Pippa and me, but it was quite sensuous, and it seemed like there was almost nothing disallowed.
But before I would leave Tarriton, I would become comfortable. Oh, not once would I lead, but I found myself quite responsive, and I grew to look forward to the time when one or the other would begin moving us downstairs.
I learned the group dances, although we didn’t join those on the second floor. That would have been far too much. I didn’t care for the eight-people group unless we came with their friends, and it was all women. And so most of the time, we stuck to the two couples rooms, and that I enjoyed.
* * * *
I do want to talk about the large, chaotic room where they played the games. We only did that a few times.
It started the fourth time we got together. I was Serenity’s date that night, and she would take me home later, and I thought Tranquility went home with Pippa, but I didn’t ask. It was Tranquility who asked, while we were taking a break, “Is Maddalyn ready?”
“Ready for what?”
“The game,” Pippa said. “She’s not ready, but she’s very brave and flexible.” Then she laughed. “And she’ll do what we decide, won’t you, Maddalyn?”
“Pippa knows you well,” said my date. “There are rules.”
“What rules?”
“We don’t know until we step into the room,” she said. “Sometimes you can guess from outside, but they change.”
“And even if we guess,” Tranquility said, “We aren’t going to tell you.”
“Then how can I play?”
“You’ll learn the rules once we’re inside,” Pippa replied. “How about it, Maddalyn?”
“You’re asking me? Not telling me?”
“Let’s go,” Serenity said with a laugh. She took my hand, and we led the way back to the fourth floor, and to the arm where they played their complicated dance game.
There was an observation area. We went there first. You could watch, but you weren’t a participant yet. Serenity pointed. “Once we descend those steps, we’re committed to the rules.”
“We can turn around and come back up.”
“Only if the rules allow it,” she said. “We’re going down. Okay, Maddalyn?”
I smiled. “Okay.”
This time, it was Tranquility and Pippa leading. Tranquility looked pleased. Pippa was excited. I’d learned to recognize when she was excited. She was cute.
Serenity was gentle with me, squeezing my hand, but I knew I would do what they wanted. And so we descended the steps, and then an employee of the club took us in hand and led us to a little alcove. The sound softened significantly, although it didn’t quite grow quiet. Within the alcove the club dampened the sound, but not shutting it off entirely.
“Maddalyn has never done this,” Pippa said with a gesture. “And you must speak carefully. She is still learning English.”
The woman smiled. “I am Talitha.” She turned to me. “Where are you from?”
“Frantzland,” I said. “This is our fourth time, but first to play this game.”
“Well,” said Talitha. “The rules will sound complicated at first, but they aren’t too bad.”
“They said I must follow the rules.”
“We told her she was committed,” Serenity said.
“That is right,” said Talitha. She held up a glass bracelet. “You will each wear one of these. It changes colors as you get closer to winning. If you leave before it turns green, we take you prisoner and sell you.”
I put on a confused expression, and it was Pippa that said it all again, much more slowly. When she finished, I said, “Sell me?”
“Yes,” said Talitha. “You will owe service hours to one of our charities.”
“Serenity and I owed twenty hours each, what? Last year, Sis?” Tranquility said.
Talitha laughed. “You must really have over stated your ability.”
“No,” Serenity said. “We came with friends, and they interfered, but half of them ended up owing hours, too.”
“But not as many,” Tranquility added. “But it’s only fair. We did it to Safire two visits earlier.”
“You’re not going to do that to me, are you?”
“Not on your first visit,” Tranquility promised.
“Before I explain the rules,” Talitha said, “I need your skill levels. Maddalyn is new.”
“Maddalyn is a four,” Tranquility declared.
“A four?” I asked.
“Yes, she’s a four,” Serenity said. “Isn’t she, Pippa?”
Pippa paused, then nodded. “Yes. She’s a four.”
Talitha smiled. “Your friends are looking out for you, Maddalyn.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You will be expected to play with the ability of a four out of ten,” she said. “Everything else depends on your ability. If you play far better or far worse, they’re the ones who take the penalty. How about the rest of you?”
“I’m a six,” Pippa said.
I said nothing. Tranquility and Serenity studied her, then Tranquility coughed, and I thought she said a word under her breath. Pippa said. “Fine. A seven.”
Talitha laughed. “And the two sisters?”
Tranquility and Serenity studied each other, and then Tranquility said, somewhat slowly, “My sister is a… nine.”
Serenity took in a deep breath.
“Come on, Sis,” Tranquility said. Then she grinned. “Do me.”
“Nine? Seriously?” Serenity said. “Damn. Fine. She’s a nine, too.”
“I do love a challenge,” Tranquility said. “Are we going down, Sis?”
“Maybe you are,” Serenity said. “I’m not sure I’m feeling like a nine tonight, but you always rise to a challenge.” Then she turned to Talitha. “We lead or follow,” she said, indicating the three. “Maddalyn only follows.”
“Then let us discuss the rules,” Talitha said.
It didn’t take her that long. As she said, the rules weren’t complicated, and as a follow, they were easier for me than for the leads. Then Talitha asked, “Did you want to visit our boutique?” She gestured to a screen on the wall, and it lit.
“Yes,” Serenity declared. She took my hand and pulled me to the screen. Talitha activated another, and I saw Pippa and Tranquility move in front of it.
Serenity drove our screen, paging through a variety of dresses and other clothing. “What are you doing?”
“Finding something else for you to wear, something that exposes your back.”
“Why?”
“So the colors are more visible,” she said. Then she smiled broadly. “This one, Maddalyn. Will you let me buy this for you?”
“I don’
t understand.”
“Please, let me buy this for you.”
“I have money.”
“Say ‘yes,’ Maddalyn.” She squeezed my hand.
“Do I get to pick yours?”
“No. Are you going to stop me if I begin undressing you?”
“Here? There are people watching.”
“Talitha will dim the opening,” she said. “No one will see but us. You won’t mind.” Then she didn’t wait for an answer but instead selected her purchase. I said nothing as she went poking around until she found a backless dress for herself. Then we all turned to Talitha.
“Very good. While those are being prepared, have you decided your target?”
“I don’t understand.”
“She’s asking how many points we have to earn,” Serenity said.
“We get to pick?”
“There is a minimum,” Talitha said.
“Is there a target?” Tranquility asked.
“There are several targets,” Talitha said. “Which one did you want?”
“You to join our team.”
“Oh, my,” Talitha said with a smile. “You are playing as individuals, but you can choose a team score or an individual score.”
“Team,” Tranquility declared immediately.
“Twelve thousand for a team score,” Talitha declared. “Do you understand?” she asked me.
“I need three thousand points to leave, or I must pay hours?”
“Your share would be three thousand,” she said. “You could offer fewer points.”
“And my teammates must offer more?”
“Yes.”
“What is the minimum?”
“Two hundred and fifty.”
“Is three thousand even possible?”
“Of course. When I play, my average is eight thousand.” She smiled. “But I’m a ten.”
“You sure are,” Tranquility said.
“So you could offer six thousand safely,” I said.
She laughed. “My score doesn’t count. I can offer a discount.”
“Of course you can,” Serenity said. She sounded sarcastic.
“I don’t understand. Why not accept discount.”
“If we agree to her first offer,” Serenity explained, “Then she dances with us, and she helps us win. If we accept the discount, at first, she’ll interfere until we’re in trouble, and then she begins to help. That can be fun, but this is your first time, and she’s obligated to interfere with you as much as she does Tranquility and me. The scale is logarithmic, Maddalyn. Do you understand?”
“She is much, much better than you.”
“She is,” Serenity said.
“If she decides to interfere, she’ll succeed.”
“Yes,” Tranquility said. “And we’re going to accept her discount sometime before you leave, but not your first time.” She turned to Talitha. “We’ll commit to twelve thousand.”
Talitha smiled broadly. “I was hoping I could play tonight. Thank you so much. Now all of you must be silent. If anyone speaks without permission, I may add to your offer.”
I immediately shut my mouth.
“Maddalyn,” she said. “Come here.” She led me to a small touch pad near the screen. “You must make your offer. You probably feel you must offer your one fourth, but if you do, you almost certainly will belong to me by the end of the night.”
I pointed to her and raised an eyebrow.
“Well, not that way,” she said. “I get to pick which charity you work for. Understand?” I nodded. “I pick good charities, and you seem like a nice person. You wouldn’t mind.”
I reached out and squeezed her arm.
She pulled my hand to the touch pad. There was a small display, but it was shielded so no one else could see it but the two of us. Then she spoke softly, right into my ear. “The minimum is 250. If your friends overstated your ability, 250 can be a challenge, but anyone who works at it makes it.”
I looked over at her. Then I held my fingers in a two, looking at her, then glancing down at my hand. Talitha followed my gaze then whispered, “That’s probably too high, Maddalyn.”
I smiled and entered two thousand on the panel, considered it, and then hit enter.
“I think I like you, Maddalyn,” Talitha. “Step away now. Pippa, you’re next.”
It was when Serenity entered her number that I realized they weren’t telling us what the others before her had offered. They wouldn’t know I had offered two thousand. Then Tranquility stepped up, and it was when we were done that the video monitor displayed our team commitment: fifteen thousand.
“You may now talk again, but you may not share your offered scores,” Talitha said. “Our clothes are here.”
A panel opened exposing a small closet. She collected the garments, passing them out. I glanced, and the entrance was darkened. I turned my back, but then Serenity was behind me, helping me from my dress. I changed into the new dress. It was of similar length to my original, but it left my back and much of my shoulders exposed. When I turned around, the others were just making finishing touches. Then Talitha stepped to me and adjusted my dress a little further. I didn’t think it was necessary, but she did the same to all of us, and I realized she was flirting with us. I also got a good look at her back, already bare.
She collected our old dresses and said, “These will be available when you are ready to leave. Now we must step here. Tranquility first.”
She led Tranquility to another opening, a sort of mini shower. Tranquility held her arms above her head, and the machine proceeded to spray her. We each took our turns, and then as we stepped out, Talitha wrapped the bracelets around our wrists. It shrunk into place, and I wouldn’t be able to take it off.
I looked around. It wasn’t normal paint but employed nanotechnology. We were each a pattern of vibrant colors, and the images would shift throughout the evening as part of the game, controlled by the club’s computers. Talitha stepped in last, and if she wasn’t already stunning, she looked even better as she glowed with the nano-paint.
“Questions?” There weren’t any, so she held her hand to me. I let her lead me from the room. I didn’t see what happened to my friends, but Talitha moved me into dance position, and then we stepped forward.
She was an amazing dancer. Of course she was. And she seemed to understand what I could do, asking for everything I could do, pushing me just a little, but only a little. And then she spun me out.
The game was actually rather simple. The paint changed colors. I had begun in a pattern of different blues. Pippa had been blue and red. Tranquility and Serenity were Purple, orange, and green, several shades of each.
A lead’s job was to pass the follow to another lead with the same colors I wore. As I wore only a single color, currently blue, Talitha could give me to anyone who had any blue, even if she had other colors. If she was successful, my lead accrued points. I accrued half as many if I was collected by the person who had been my lead’s target, but only if it was a color match.
If someone wore more colors, it only counted if there was a match. So Pippa counted if she became partnered with someone in blues and reds, or blues and reds and greens.
As the follow, I gained style points if I added flourishes but was facing the right way when I ended, available to my target lead.
However, I lost points if I didn’t end where I could be easily picked up, or if I lost the music.
And there was a handicap system. If I accrued points too slowly, or whenever I went backwards too much, the game would make it harder for me. The bracelet would indicate how I was doing, not only my overall progress, but whether I was suffering a handicap. If it went poorly enough, I would be given more colors, or colors that were rare, making it harder to match me. That temporarily hurt my current lead, as she would be forced to give me to a poor match, but then she would have a new follow, but I would remain difficult to match.
I decided not to worry about that. Instead, I just danced.
&n
bsp; My first partner after Talitha was another woman. She pulled me close, and I could see the smile. We weren’t together long enough to talk before she spun me to a man. He gave me to another man, and then I found myself in Tranquility’s arms.
“I caught you finally,” she said.
I lost track of my partners, although I found myself with Talitha and my friends more than anyone else.
We’d been dancing for perhaps an hour when my bracelet began to complain at me, and then Talitha was my next partner.
“I don’t know why it’s mad at me,” I said.
“You need to step up the flourishes,” she said. “Do you understand?”
“Yes, but I don’t know how.”
“Watch some of the other dancers,” she said. “I’ll help you, Maddalyn, but I won’t feel at all bad if you owe me service hours.”
I understood enough and laughed.
“The other leads have time limits,” she said. “They must pass you often. I may keep you as long as I want.”
“Why?”
“To help teach you,” she said. “Are you having a good time?”
“Yes.”
“Do you mind if you owe me hours?”
“No, but I want to win.”
She laughed. “Tell me what you want me to do.”
“Help me. Push me.”
“All right.” And then she led me through a complicated set of maneuvers, ending with a long set of traveling pirouettes, all the way across the room, depositing me straight into Pippa’s lead.
I was dizzy, and she had to support me, but she was laughing. “She led you straight to me.”
I opened my eyes and glanced at my bracelet. The warning indicator was on, but it was a level one instead of level two. “Push me to be better,” I said.
“It can’t be the same thing,” she said. Then she spun me, but instead of pirouettes, she helped me to spin one way, then the other, back and forth before delivering me to a woman displaying four colors.
But when I glanced at the bracelet, the warning was off. It wouldn't come on again.
We danced for hours. The bracelet wouldn’t tell me what my exact score was; I wouldn’t learn until the end. But it flowed from color to color, and then it turned teal, almost green. Talitha caught me and said, “Almost there. I wanted you, Maddalyn.”
