As if to prove his statement he reached for his glass, only to find
it empty. The resemblance was superficial, he assured himself. That
was all it could be. Ann could not be here. But the nagging impression
that the girl on the stage was enough like her to be a double unnerved
him. He was chagrined to realize how seldom he had thought about her
since his arrival in the Freeman Camp. Perhaps that was understandable
enough--the clockless hours had been full--but this defense did not
dispel a twinge of guilt. Forgetfulness argued a shallow emotion,
undermining the importance he attached to his hours with ABC-331.
"Ah, here come the greens," Nik said. "And I've ordered us a couple
refills on the drinks. Don't take it if you don't think you can handle
it."
Hendley didn't answer. He wanted the drink, and he had a feeling that
he would need it.
The pattern of presenting the showgirls was repeated, except that the
second set were washed with a startling green light. And each girl
wore an identical male face-mask. The slow but insistent beat of the
background music quickened slightly, acquiring a harsher, more driving
rhythm. A perceptible tension of excitement quivered in the air of the
auditorium.
There were twelve girls in green. "They're the males," Nik said
unnecessarily. "You'll be surprised how you get to think of them that
way, the obvious physical evidence to the contrary."
Hendley started to ask what all this was leading up to, but before
he could speak the tempo of the music changed. The twenty-four girls
formed a wide circle near the apron of the stage. Their spotlights
faded until they were only dimly visible. Attention shifted to the
center of the stage. Light panels dropped into place, figuring
suggestively the setting of a pre-Organization city. The technique and
the scene were immediately familiar to Hendley. They were traditional
in the presentation of a Freedom Play.
Quietly a cast of characters appeared. The play was presented in
pantomime, its drama heightened by music and dance. Every move and pose
had its traditional meaning. The all-female cast was also a tradition.
Only the nudity of the performers was different, and that one fact
subtly altered the effect of the play.
Through it all--the early scenes of man's frustrations and drudging
labor, the spectacular fireworks and sound effects of the great war
which climaxed the third act, the final scenes which depicted man's
building of a new world underground and the gradual emergence of
his dream of freedom from something unattainable to an immediate
goal--Hendley's attention kept going back to the line of showgirls
ringing the stage, specifically searching for the one who had seemed
so familiar. He thought he saw her but in the dimmed spotlight could
not be sure. Only in the triumphant dance number climaxing the play did
these showgirls participate, functioning as a dancing chorus in the
background. In the confusion of movement Hendley could not find the one
he sought.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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