Chapter 7 - A Fun Gambit
Before Charles and Alexandra found their new amusement of directing lives in new directions the club was getting a bit boring. Their first idea was to have the animals suddenly turn wild and eat all the patrons. But that would wreck the place and it had taken months to build.
That's the downside to playing a game with flesh and blood people.
It took ages to knock down those old flats; then to have their buildings constructed, even 24/7. The main delay had been in removing the tenants and the park protesters. It went a bit smoother after removing the ringleader, by having him arrested and disgraced for possessing kiddie-porn.
But the club's become a great hit with the upper-crust and it's really fun to play with now.
Most of the big end-of-town have become Seraglio regulars. The discrete gardens and alcoves have become the preferred place for negotiating kickbacks; hidden commissions; trading insider information; and collusion of all kinds. The kids can listen-in and watch with interest but they seldom make use of the information, there's no need and they like people to get on with their lives unless they need to make a change for one of their gambits.
These 'gambits' can be enormously entertaining - better than watching an old movie - while waiting for the adults to return from and evening out. For example, one night they had fun getting the Mayor of Urban high. Initially it was just to try a new formulation of psychedelic rose petals in his Hookah, but a waitress took advantage of his aphrodisiac addled condition to secure his protection to avoid being sacked for fighting with another girl in the kitchen.
During the following days the waitress began alternately seducing and blackmailing him. And he became so besotted that he abandoned his Mayoral duties to join the her in the suburbs, where she hangs-out with an outlaw biker gang, Heaven's Devils.
Initially she delighted in having the Mayor at her beck and call. But since his impeachment the waitress has tired of him - and gone off with a dancer.
Almost immediately it began Charles had said: "Look at this, we've got the makings of a modern tragedy. It's not Kama it's Carmen!"
Alex giggled delightedly at this joke.
"We have to record this for your reality MV show. We can use background music by Bizet! How quickly can the NYGirls be taught some flamenco routines?"
But in real life it was going a bit too slowly and getting boring so they decided to destabilise the waitress with a message, through the waitress' VPA, warning that her days were numbered.
"She believes anything her VPA tells her. Now she is even more highly strung and irresponsible than before. It's like a death wish," Alex commented.
At the same time the leader of the Mayor's Moral Right Party was looking for the motorcycle gang clubhouse, where the ex-Mayor now hangs-out waiting in vain for the waitress to return to their love nest.
Charles had the Moral Party Chairperson's VPA arrange for her to meet the ex-Mayor at the nearby candy store.
Charles has got it all recorded so far.
"Can your NYGirls 'do' the Shangri-las?" he asked Alex. "It's a girl group from 1964. The song goes something like this: She met him at the candy store-or..." he sang, rather badly.
Alex was delighted at the idea, and his terrible singing.
"That would be great!" she'd giggled. "I love those 60's 'platter splatter' songs. My NYGirls could do a medley of songs: 24 hours from Tulsa, Tel Laura I love Her, Teen Angel, with a recurring riff from that classic Ode to Billy Joe."
So they directed the Moral Party Chairperson's VPA to coach her in what she should say, insisting that poetry was the way to his heart. This was reinforced with a subtle musical background from Leader of the Pack to give her a sense of the rhythm and meter they want for the MV production.
"I don't want them to put you down, so please come back to the right side of town," she declared, on cue, to the subtle rhythm of her VPA's coaching.
Serendipitously, the Chairperson had always had 'a thing' for the Mayor - and she broke down and sobbed the next line beautifully:
"They say you've been bad but I know you're just sad."
Then she broke her bad news:
"The Party want me to find someone new, and I've come to say we're through."
On cue, he stood there angrily and asked her:
"Why?"
All she could do was cry.
Although the ex-Mayor then relented, promised to give up his foolishness and return, in her heart she knows all hope for him is...
"Gone; gone; gone..." in sinking octaves
"It's a modern rock opera with real people living their real lives - not just actors. Cool! It'll make great MV," declared Charles.
A day or two later Charles and Alex had agreed to babysit George again in the evening.
"It's in the can!" reported Charles, with elation. "And the ex-Mayor's VPA has just informed him that he's won a ticket to a free meal and show at Seraglio,"
"What's more the object of his passion will be there too! I've even changed her name to 'Carmen' and doubled her salary to persuade her to come back to her old job."
"And I gave his VPA all those upsetting explicit visual and tactile recordings of his girlfriend's frolics with one and all, except him. So, he realises that his life has been ruined by his unrequited lust for that little tart," added Alex with delight. "Now he knows for certain that she's been using him, amused and aroused by his besotted grovelling after her."
"Yes, she's ruined his life simply to sate her passion to be desired; and for the delight of making him a slave to her whim. He's bound to be there in a highly emotional state."
"This is really fun!" declared Alex, forgetting her grammar in front of little Georgie.
Gran would not approve. 'But is 'fun' an honorary verb?' she finds herself wondering - the verb 'to fun'. Nope, doesn't work! Perhaps she should have said 'real fun' or 'really enjoyable'? Oh well...
"How can we stage it?" she wonders aloud, forgetting about setting a good example to George.
"I'm thinking lots of fog on the big dance floor, with just a hint of our new hallucinogen to make it seem surreal," says Charles. "Dramatic lighting, strobing to the alpha rhythms. Big sound. The NYGirls squealing provocatively, ride in as pillions on 20th century motorbikes: Harleys clinging to their suitor guys, who are bare-chested except for leather biker jackets and tight pants."
"Great!" Alex immediately starts designing the wardrobe. "The guys' hair greased back Bodgie style. The girls in tight tops and wide skirts that spin and ride up when they jive with the boys to show their little cotton pants and bobby-sox. I'll start the choreography widget working out some rock-n-roll dance routines. You know, rolling across the guy's shoulders and shot between their legs. Obviously, they all need to be hapticed-up so the fans at home can feel what it's like to ride a bike and do the jive."
"And Carmen's new lover will have to be one of the boys," confirms Charles, as he hires him on the spot, via his VPA, for the gig. "I'll have him grab Carmen from the sidelines and incorporate her into the act as if it's unplanned. Can your widget choreograph something highly suggestive for them? You know, like an erotic ballet pas de deux, with simulated sex. And maybe we can have them rehearse together? Tell them she's been selected for a new dance elimination context and he's the professional."
"This is going to be fantastic!" Alex says: "But how will you make the ex-Mayor follow-through and complete the classical tragedy? I'd love my NYGirls to sing that line at the end of the final scene: gone, gone, gone..."
"I'm thinking that when the ex-Mayor comes in, he will be given a table by the dance floor, from which he can almost touch the waitress and the dancer performing their erotic dance. I'll ensure that the other waitresses have told her that he's there, lurking in the shadows. She enjoys frustrating and mocking him so she'll put on a good show. I imagine she might even hold his eyes with her gaze as she performs."
"Great! He'll be out of his mind with jealousy, and we can put a little something in his drink to enhance his anger and sense of hopelessness. So now all we have to do is get them together with a knife. How can we do that?"
"I know! What if Carmen gets an order for roast beef to be carved at his table. Then she'll have to wheel it to his table, conveniently carrying a carving knife on her trolley," suggests Charles.
"Yes... And she'll mock him, perhaps mimicking her recent dance performance, when she confronts him. She won't be able to resist a taunt or two, she's addicted to the thrill of degrading him. Her adrenaline levels will be up from the show and she's already living dangerously. The Tarot app she likes to play on her VPA has repeatedly dealt her the death card in all her recent games."
"And there we have it: 'Carmen a beautiful waitress stabbed to death by ex-Mayor', what a wonderful headline. Business will boom at Seraglio afterwards."
"Neat!"
"The gambit is complete! I'm just locking-in the Mayor's last supper as a free man," confirms Charles.
"And I've just scheduled the world's first Real Life Snuff Musical to appear on my next NYGirls Sexperience reality MV spectacular," says Alex.
"What fun tonight's been! Now Georgie it's off to bed - and I'll read you some more Alice Through the Looking-Glass."