Chapter 20 - The First Chance

Underground Music

Oliver Fagin Thomas found himself within touching distance of Cassandra Calo on three occasions between first seeing her play Nancy in Oliver! and selecting her to be the first Persephone fourteen years later. Oliver was fully aware of Cassandra and her talents on each of these chance encounters, while she knew nothing about him. In fact, Cassandra has openly denied ever having been to the Blue Canoe Saloon, but there are at least two existing photographs that prove her wrong.

But the Blue Canoe Saloon was the third meeting, it is best to start with the first. The first time Oliver saw Cassandra in public he was twelve years old, and both of his attention spans were concentrating on other matters. He was in an airport, alone, as the cheapest flight to Moscow left during business hours at a time that was particularly busy for Oliver's father. John Thomas did as much as possible to make up for not being present at the moment of Oliver's actual departure. They had a raucous two-man party the night before, with take out Mexican food, a clip-reel of Oliver's favorite moments in the history of television, and a full glass of red wine for each of them. "Children drink wine in Europe," his father told him. "Russia has a history of not being able to decide if it is European or not, and just in case, you should try some so you'll know whether to say yes or not." Oliver enjoyed the wine, and would enjoy wine for the rest of his life.

Still, when the next day came, Oliver came to work with his father and sat in the lobby with his luggage until one of the studio's more responsible production assistants took Oliver and his bags to the airport.

Dan Krahulik, twenty years old at the time, was the Labrador retriever or young men. He was short, blond, had a bit of an underage beer gut and not really very intelligent but was extremely friendly. Oliver's happiness in seeing him temporarily overwhelmed his fear of the future and grief for the things he was leaving behind.

Dan hoisted the over-stuffed duffle bag onto his shoulder and it bumped against the back of his shins as he picked up the suitcase. Oliver carried his own knapsack and followed him into the large passenger van owned by the studio.

Riding in the front seat of the van, Oliver suddenly felt like he had grown older, this was one of the first times he had been in a vehicle without a real adult, Dan, certainly not a teenager, was not a real adult either. Perhaps part of the feeling came being higher than the other cars; mostly it was the music that Dan was playing. Oliver had been exposed to all kinds of music. He knew more about classical music than most adults and just as much about every top 40 popular song released since 1940. This music was neither, it was underground. Music imitating this stuff would be top 40 three years later but now it was undiscovered and raw. The 'fucks' were not bleeped out, but said with a recklessness that made them seem more honest than obscene. Oliver pretended to enjoy and understand this new form of cultural expression but in truth he was scared by how much it fascinated him.

This fascination, this newly discovered notion of the underground was still occupying Oliver's attentions in the airport. Certainly Oliver was experiencing many unpleasant emotional stresses at that time, fear of getting into a machine and flying over the ocean, terror of living in a new county, meeting his mother with whom he had never had a conversation in person, grief for leaving his father, but Oliver knew that he had just realized something very important; something that would change his life far more than this plane trip. Dr. Partee would probably say that this new idea seemed so attractive because it offered Oliver a chance to escape the horrible anxieties facing him, and that is an idea that must certainly contain some truth, but however psychologically complex the situation, a short ride in a white passenger van with no real adults, might have been one of the more important cultural events in the history of cultural events.

So, when Oliver found himself sitting directly across from Cassandra Calo in the airport waiting room, he took this as a sign that these new ideas he felt gestating in his mind's womb should cause him to rethink the entire play and the character of Persephone in particular. This is not to say that Oliver was superstitious, but instead that Oliver understood superstition. He had come to realize, perhaps prematurely that people need drama, and that if they want something to have meaning they will give meaning to something that is meaningless, they will find a mystery plot in the gasoline prices, a romance in the stock market, and a coincidence to be a sign from God. If Oliver was going to write the most popular play ever written, he was going to have to find the drama in its creation.

Oliver recognized Cassandra immediately; he knew that he was looking at the woman who would be his star actress twelve years in the future. He also knew that he had to pretend that she was only a stranger, because to make contact this early would ruin everything. So on this particular afternoon, Oliver could only watch Dan Krahulik flirt successfully with the future most famous woman in the world, while in his mind he started over from scratch.

Chapter 19 - Like Father

Pointing to Eleanor Thomas as the Major earthly influence to Oliver's Genius is easy. She did intend to develop a child genius and she did have a genius child. Still, the amount of direct contact between Eleanor and Oliver is almost insignificant in comparison to the time spent with his father, John. Oliver's love for so-called higher culture is due almost exclusively to his mother's care but there is also a near certainty that Oliver's superior understanding of lower popular culture, and perhaps the genetic capacity for intelligence (if such a thing exists) came exclusively from his father, John.

John was a second generation television programming executive. His father George Thomas had been mildly successful developing the early situation comedies. John himself was most famous for helping make Saturday morning cartoons a cultural phenomenon.

He Married Eleanor when they were both 27 and Oliver was born just before his 32nd birthday. The idea of being a father was a great excitement to John. Upon learning that his wife was pregnant, he immediately, began to assemble an archive of all of the greats in children's programming that he kept locked up for a time when the new son or daughter would be able to appreciate television, and also perhaps to hide it from Eleanor who might not have understood.

By the time the archive came out, Oliver was eight years old. Every evening when the homework was done and the dishes were clean, John and Oliver would watch an hour of classic television together then the two would discuss what they had watched over dessert.

The discussions always began with John asking the same two questions. First, 'did you like the program?' and second, 'why?' The greatest sin in the two-man household was to say that one liked or disliked something 'just because.' There had to be a reason backing every opinion. This wasn't often a problem for young Oliver who had inherited his fathers propensity for considering many aspects of an idea. Often, if Oliver could not say right away why he felt a certain way he could make a hypothesis and intuitively find his way to something that rang true. John was very patient and encouraging and the evening conversations did much to foster a love of both logic and opinions that was a defining part of Oliver's character.

Chapter 18 - Because it is There

The theatre must be absolutely dark. Cover the exit signs, bribe the fire marshal if you have to, but when the play starts there must not be one free photon in the auditorium. Of course we cannot provide for the light leaked by glow-in-the-dark writing on an audience member's wrist-watch, but therefore we must be all the more diligent in blocking the light we can.

It will help if you imagine the darkness first. Pretend that you are in the audience. You are there with your Mother or the girl that you met last week at the theatre when your coats got mixed up. Come up with a good story for why you are at the theatre, going to see this play in particular. Don't read any further until you have done this.

Now pretend you have been sitting in this dark dark theatre for, say, thirty seconds. Probably you are thinking this is the darkest theatre you've ever been to. You start to get a little bit nervous, perhaps because you can't see your proverbial hands. Most people at this point will think that they felt something strange about the lighting even when they had first entered the auditorium. This means that you have an observant audience because you have managed to tint all of the house lights slightly orange. And then, just at the breaking point when the slowest audience member has started to worry that someone could be stealing his wallet, just then, and no later, the curtain parts.

You see, the whole time the audience had been sitting and thinking and worrying in total darkness, behind the curtain, which is extra thick and hung with great care to not give this away, the brightest blue and brightest white lights you can afford are shining. The set itself, which is completely white is reflecting this ultra-bright light and it's bouncing around all over the stage trying with all its might to get through that curtain, which it can not do because the curtain is so well-sealed.

So with that in mind, when just the tiniest little crack between the curtain opens the excited light bursts into the theatre. The audience is momentarily blinded. And when their irises adjust they see what appears to be vast sheet of broken ice.

In reality they are seeing an assortment of 21 platforms all in various interlocking shapes. Each platform must be quadrilateral and between 1.5 and 3 feet thick. These platforms are also all suspended from the fly space by sturdy cables and can move up and down into different configurations when needed. Right now all of the platforms are resting on the stage. Things look very jagged and cold.

Once the audience has regained its sight, it is time for the actors. There are five characters, three of them male and two female and they enter in the following order.

James Masterson, 32 a novice professor of history.

Cynthia Van Loon, 28, author of a best selling fitness book.

Francis McStier, 18, college freshman and apprentice of sorts to Masterson.

Sid Cawley, 40, writer of creative nonfiction, adventurer.

Daisy Edison, 21, actress, and lover of sorts to Cawley.

They convene in the center of the stage, each person carries a large knapsack and stands on a separate platform. Daisy sits down, pooped.

SID: You all right Daisy?

DAISY: Yes, yes of course. I just wanted to have a sit.

FRANCIS: How far do you suppose we've gone Jim?

JIM: I'd say we're a third of the way up.

FRANCIS: (Writing in a note book) Day 3: 3:45 P.M. one third of the way up.

CYNTHIA: One third eh? I happened to have brought three bottles of champagne. I say we drink one for each third we go.

DAISY: And not save any for the way down?

CYNTHIA: Who cares about the way down? We'll have already seen the world from its highest point.

DAISY: It does sound nice. Just don't let Sid have more than one glass.

FRANCIS: I'd like some champagne.

CYNTHIA: You're not old enough boy.

JAMES: Of course he's old enough. This mountain doesn't have a drinking age. Give me that bottle. We're going to toast the mountain.

Cynthia takes a bottle from her knapsack.

JAMES: Do you need help with that Cynthia?

CYNTHIA: Of course I do not.

Cynthia lets the cork fly off stage left. The audience should jump at the sound, and before they have landed back in their seats, the loudest, most catastrophic noise your audience has ever heard in a theatre goes off.

The lights get brighter, the stage fills with mist and the platforms shake. Seconds later the platforms begin to shift into a configuration where each is at a drastically different height level. It is also of utmost importance that the five platforms carrying actors are at such a configuration that it is believable that none of the actors can see the others. From now until the final pages whenever an actor speaks he should be hit with a pure white follow spot. If he is not currently speaking he should be hit with an ice-blue follow spot.