2004-08-30

Scene 1
���� I was an Olympic volunteer. Mainly it was just standing around waiting for orders, so I figured I'd sign up to be an event judge. It was a little late in the game for this, and the only remaining event was a musical performance. It would take place on the broken, graffitied roof of the masonic temple in Providence, R.I. I think the roof of that building is actually gone, but here it was broken into island-like sections and covered in powdery, un-cold snow that had most of the spectators removing their shoes. The singing group was a motowny outfit - 10 or so performers including male and female singers. The music started and it was a song originally of a drastically different musical style, adapted. The singers proceeded to feud. In turn they were spotlighted, each singing his or her heart out for a few moments and then ending with hateful insults directed at the other singers in an evil voice. As a judge I was torn: the individual performances were terrific and there were moments of brilliance, but I didn't want to reward evil and the overall group performance could only be called terrible. The evil singing brought a warm, evil rain and the snow melted away. The whole event was a mess; I decided to abdicate and I went downstairs.

Scene 2
     The interior of the building was dorm-like, with hallways and small rooms; each floor also had a large room that now was being used to distribute blankets and soup to the rain-soaked spectators. There was a post-disaster kind of feeling, but a bit calmer. Having quit my position as judge I was back to being a general Olympic volunteer, so I spent a few hours making sure nobody was cold or hungry. There was a slight ministerial aspect to it since many of the people were damp with evil; a little talking and reminding-of-life was necessary to bring them back to solid ground. During this time some backstory surfaced: Some time prior to the concert Amy had been suddenly shrunk down to a height of about a foot. We'd been unsure whether this affected her health adversely; at least it seemed to not threaten her life. Now though, I was hearing reports of a tiny woman slinking around the building in terror. The first sightings were in the old factory area of the building where the evil was known to be based, but later sightings were upstairs. I looked around for Jeff (a competitor in the still rings event) to help me, but I couldn't find him anywhere. I raced through the building searching every corner, terrified that the evil might have caught her, or maybe somebody had stepped on her and then the evil had caught her. Eventually, back at Amy's room, I fell down on my knees in desperation and yelled, WHERE ARE YOU!??

���� There was a creaking sound from the bunk bed in the room as Jeff and Amy awoke and sat up.
���� "Chris, it's okay, I'm here. We're taking a nap. And look - I'm back to my regular size. Is that soup I smell? What kind is it?"
���� Unspeakably relieved, I peeked over the rail at Jeff to make sure it was really him, and it was. Then they were immediately asleep again, so I went to get some soup. It was cream of mushroom, but I was hungry.


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