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Chapter 21 - Payback Can be Sweet

Little Haiti, Florida: late August

Several weeks before the fall term of Tamara’s senior school year was to begin, the Alexandres received a mailing from Miami Edison High School which contained school information for the coming school year. It contained Tamara’s class schedule, the sports schedule, the daily bell schedule, a schedule of school events from the performing arts department, a list of school clubs and their meeting times and room numbers, a medical information form for her annual physical exam, and one new item: a volunteer form for the student to indicate if he/she were willing to be a Naked in School participant.

Nadine showed that form to Tamara.

“You interested?” she asked.

“Mother! Not funny!” Tamara responded.

“But I heard something at the hospital today. Remember Marjory? Her daughter is a school district paralegal?”

Tamara nodded. “Yeah.”

“Marjory told me that her daughter mentioned that some officials at the district have been upset by what happened at your school last spring. They think that it was some kind of trick, but no one can figure out how it was done. When school starts, they want to try to have the Program, um, she told me they said, ‘start properly.’”

“Does she know how they would pick kids? I wonder if the school got the names back into that system the Program Office used again. Why do they keep trying to strip kids, anyway? That moronic federal agency is gone and no one’s forcing the states anymore.”

“She didn’t say. I suppose just pick randomly—lots of ways to do that.”

“No, it’s actually pretty hard to get a mathematically true random selection. If you use a computer, the numbers it generates aren’t truly random. Computers use distribution algorithms and they aren’t random because they use deterministic formulas which make the numbers they produce predictable. Computers can get pretty close to random if they use data derived from natural processes like atmospheric noise, like one popular site does. In my math class on statistics, we saw published studies which proved that humans are unable to consciously produce a sequence of random numbers and by extension, can’t make truly random selections out of items in a set.”

“Okay, dear, lecture mode off?” Nadine chuckled. “Sometimes talking to you is like being in a classroom.”

“Sorry, Mom. I guess I got carried away. Anyway, maybe I’ll let Linda know to mobilize the Edison anti-Program guardian corps for possible fall duty.”

She sent Linda a text explaining what she had heard and that there was a real possibility that somehow they might have the Program starting at Edison in the fall.

The next day, Tamara woke up with a bad headache. She was alarmed because in the past, her headaches presaged something bad was about to occur and sure enough, during the day she had a strong premonition that evil, though distant, was approaching.

That evening, she mentioned her premonition to her parents.

“I wonder—is this a warning that somehow they’ll be able to get the Program started?” she told them.

“Strange that you felt a premonition of evil too, sweetie,” Wilson told her. “I did too. I felt the same thing today. It wouldn’t make sense that I would get premonitions about Program stuff since the Program doesn’t directly affect me.”

“I’ll inquire for guidance from the lwa at our next service,” Nadine told them. “Perhaps they will provide advice.”

The following day, Tamara was still thinking about her premonition of evil coming.

I’m still getting the premonition that those yokels from district may try something fishy. I need to prepare. I may need to use my latest, version-4 maser, like I used its predecessor last time. It should work better, since I was able to make the maser much smaller, but I still can’t shrink the power supply. I still need that 24-volt lithium-ion battery, she thought.

Tamara assumed that they would simply claim that they had assembled a random set of names and then spring that news on the kids at the assembly. Most of the posts she had read about on the anti-Program website claimed that the kids could tell that the selectees were rarely, if ever, randomly chosen. She briefly considered simply stopping the assembly from happening by somehow coming up with another stunt, but then she decided that whoever it was who showed up from the district, they needed to be made an example of what happens when one thwarts the spirits.

She looked through the materials the school had sent about the coming school year to see if anything there would inspire a creative thought—and one item caught her eye: the performing arts schedule. It listed a number of major performances: several concerts by the band and the chorus and two productions, a musical in the winter and a play in the spring. The announcement contained a call for students to audition for the musical; the auditions would take place the week before school began. The announcement also mentioned the need for students to work as stage hands to help with the productions.

Perfect, working as a stage hand would satisfy one of the extracurriculars that she needed for the Clarke Scholarship application, plus it would give her access to the backstage area and the stage systems if she needed to disrupt an assembly. She could work with that. Besides, it would be cool to see the workings of a modern, computer-controlled sound and lighting system. But if her idea were to work, she needed to get started really quickly on getting that job. She was between terms now so she could spend time learning how the stage systems operated so she could work her own magic.

On a gamble that she could catch someone at the high school, since it was still summer, Tamara went there the next morning. She knew from conversations with the teachers and staff that they started a week or two before school began, and sure enough, she saw Dr Barello walking in from the staff parking area.

“Tamara, what a surprise!” she said. “Um, school doesn’t start for another two weeks. So I’m guessing that something’s up, right?”

“Yes, ma’am. I came early ‘cause I read the performing arts schedule announcement. With my electronics background—you know about that?—okay, I wanted to see if I could work as a stage technician. I saw in the schedule that Mrs Peary wanted some kids for that.”

“Oh, yes, three of our graduates last term were the backbone of the AV tech crew and two of their replacements that Mrs Peary had trained—the twins, their dad took a new job in Tampa. So Mrs Peary really needs some student techs quickly. She’s here today, I see her car. Let’s go see her and I can put in a word for you.”

“Oh, thanks, Dr Barello.”

Barello introduced Tamara to Mrs Peary and told her about Tamara’s background, including her patents for several electronics devices and that she wanted to help as a tech. Peary practically hugged Tamara, she was so pleased. Sometimes those technical jobs were hard to fill with competent kids.

“I’ll have you talk to Mr Rojas. He’s in charge of the student AV squad,” Peary told Tamara.

A few minutes later, Mr Rojas came in and Peary started to introduce them.

“Oh, I know her,” Rojas said. “She knows some cool stuff; helped me out a few times, most recently when I was troubleshooting a video camera in her classroom.”

“She’s volunteering to be a tech for the stage productions,” Peary told him.

“Yeah; I’m interested in computers, so the sound and light equipment here should be nice to work with,” Tamara told them.

“And we do need sound and light techs. The two guys we trained moved away,” Rojas commented.

“That’s what Mrs Peary told me.”

“Well, Tamara, you want a look-see? If you have time, I’ll show you the gear. The lighting setup has a computerized control and some automated features. This here’s the light board where we program the lanterns—that’s the ‘official’ name of the entire lighting fixture—and we program the lighting effects and save them to play back during a show. And if you look up in the fly, the area above the stage, you’ll see all the spots and floods. Those ‘wings’ on some lanterns are called ‘barn doors’ and are used to narrow the light beam. Some lanterns have shutters instead; they’re computer controlled. Our lanterns are all LEDs now and can be programmed to light in lots of colors. They’re all linked to the computer and light board with a DMX-type system. We have a few manual lanterns—don’t use them too much; they’re for special effects. We set them up and leave them.

“You see those lantern head mountings up there on the trusses? Many are pan and tilt mounts the computer runs. A few are on tracks and can move all the way across the stage. Let me show you this.”

He went to a wall control panel, unlocked it, and opened it.

“This is where the power to all the stage and house lights, plus the rest of the stage power, comes from. All the breakers are labeled; we keep the system turned off during the weekends unless there’s a show. The house lights have a bank of switches over there,” he pointed. “Now over here is one of the light boards. There’s an identical one up there in the control room at the back of the house. Now take this mike. Okay, let me get those spots on. See, these are the controls for the traveling spots. Turn on the mike and walk out to the middle of the stage, then walk upstage.”

“Upstage is away from the audience?”

“Correct. Watch the spots.”

Tamara walked out onto the stage and as she did, two spotlights lit up, bathing her in light. As she walked out to the stage center and then turned upstage, the light beams followed her. They continued following her until she walked back into the wings; then they winked out.

“That’s so cool,” she remarked. “Can all the lights do that?”

“Not all. There are six automated follow system lanterns mounted on the trusses in the fly,” he said, pointing up. “Two are traveling. Next, look at those booms attached to the walls on stage left and right, just behind the front curtain. The top lanterns on each side—the ones about seven feet above the floor—those are follow-lights too and they can give the actor or scene a dramatic wash of light from the sides. And the lights are programed to follow these little target transmitters that the actors wear,” he showed her the little clip-on box. “The mike I gave you has a target transmitter attached to it.

“That’s the lighting basics. Now, for the sound system...”

Rojas went over the wired and wireless microphones, the hand-held, clip-on, and headset ones. He showed her the sound board with its multiple connections for sources and playback from a USB flash drive or USB cable, SD card, CD/DVD player, or even a cassette tape.

“Input levels are controlled separately using the slider for each channel on this mixing board. These rotaries control the channel frequency response and the rotary dials up here are the channel pre-amp gains. There are controls for left/right balance on each channel. The big slider here is the overall board gain.”

“Gee, there are so many controls,” Tamara said, looking at the board.

“Yeah, but each column is a channel, so learn one channel and you got most of the board. Anyway, the mixer connects to noise suppressors and then the amps and they power the speaker system. How much time you got today?”

“Um, I can stay till 2 or 3.”

“Good. You interested? I can give you a crash course. With what you already know, this stuff should be a breeze. If I think you’re ready, we’ll make you the best boy.”

“But I’m a girl. Is that what they call the techs?” Tamara asked.

“The head electrician is called a gaffer, he’s also in charge of lighting design if there’s no lighting director. That’s me. His assistant is called the ‘best boy.’ Maybe they do call a girl in that position the ‘best girl.’ The best bo... um, you would run the lighting crew, tell them how to do the setups I design and we’d run the light board for productions together. Okay, best girl, let’s get to work. First, are you scared of heights?”

By the end of the day, Tamara was enthralled by what she had learned. And she was tired, after multiple trips up the ladders to the stage fly to reach the grid deck alongside of the lighting trusses. The physical layout was built with students in mind; the ladders and grid deck had tracks to clip safety straps onto the mandatory safety harnesses that people working in the fly had to wear.

But if district officials were coming here to “get the Program started properly,” as her mother had heard, Tamara would also need to come up with a viable plan for the stage; one which she could quickly get going should the officials try to organize an assembly.

Tamara worked hard during the next week, learning to run the lighting system and its computer controls. Rojas gave her a final exam which consisted of setting up a production stage lighting scheme from a lighting plan; the one he had used for the musical the previous year. By now, Tamara had two assistants and, plan in hand, the three clambered around the grid decks repositioning lanterns and aiming the manual ones. Then she had to enter the lighting command sequence into the computer, keyed to the lighting cues in the script.

Rojas checked the crew’s work; made several corrections; but proclaimed that the job was good, especially since this was their first attempt.

“It’ll get much easier, kids,” he told them. “That was the first time you saw that plan. For this winter’s production, you’ll be involved in the lighting planning from the get-go.”

Tamara also got some cross-training on the sound system, but the primary person doing that job was a member of a garage band and had several years of experience using a mixer board.

She also spent time building a second maser. She had fit her version-4 maser in the housing of a fat, stubby aluminum flashlight, so she got a second flashlight and soon had two working masers. Then she heard, through her mother, that the school was to have an assembly on the first Monday back. She needed to get ready.

The Wednesday that school began for the year was a partial day and Tamara took the afternoon to work on learning some additional details about the lighting equipment. She was working on details of the follow lights’ operation, and under the guise of learning about them, she prepared them for possible use during Monday’s assembly. Using some gaffer’s tape, she affixed her masers onto the sides of the two follow-lights which were mounted on the vertical booms at both sides of the stage. She connected the masers’ power cords to AC adapters which she plugged into the lighting power bars. Finally, she disconnected the lamps inside the lanterns so they wouldn’t come on when the tracking was activated.

The light board was bluetooth-enabled so the follow lights could be turned on remotely, as were her masers. She now had an automatic aiming device for her masers, one which would keep them aimed at the target transmitters, which she would somehow get whatever district officials who came, to wear.

The next step of her plan was preparing a special recording to play over the auditorium’s speakers. She decided to use the SD card input on the sound board since the card slot wasn’t readily noticeable and the card could be slipped out quickly. She would use the same web-based voice distortion and frequency-shifting app that she had used previously, too. Since the board could handle a recorded multichannel input, she recorded the “lwa voices” in separate channels on the card and on the Friday before the assembly, she programmed the board to play the recording while randomly switching the various speaker output channels so the voices would appear to be moving all around the hall.

A major problem with this plan was that if Rojas noticed any of her setup when he got the auditorium ready for the visitors on Monday, everything would fall apart. So at the end of school Friday, Tamara planted Rojas with a suggestion to call in sick on Monday.

The stage is set, Tamara thought when she was finished with her arrangements. Literally. He he.

That weekend, Linda texted Tamara.

“Can I come over? Need to talk”

She replied, “Sure”

“I hope you’re wrong about the Program shit,” she told Tamara later, as they sat down over a snack. “I thought that after last year, no one would try that frikkin’ Program again.”

Tamara shook her head. “I’m sure the teachers won’t get involved now, but I have a strong feeling about this. I heard rumors, and also got some tips from the district office. A friend of a friend, you know.”

“If you say so. Well, if whoever comes tries something...”

Tamara interrupted, “Like calling kids’ names to start the Program. That’s what I think.”

“Yeah. I’ll alert the text tree to get the message out. If any names are called, the guardians will shout ‘Everyone, refuse! We’ll back you up!’ You said the teachers won’t interfere?”

“Yeah. Barello said at a meeting that 90 percent of them told her that they won’t enforce anything about the Program. But something could go wrong, so ask the guardians to be ready to do guardian things if the shit goes sideways.”

“Huh. That’s colorful,” Linda giggled.

“My dad’s a Marine. I learned all kinds of cool expressions from him.”

That night, Tamara had a disturbing dream that an evil cloud was drawing closer and that she’d need her strength and abilities; she should keep herself ready to act. Then, when Monday came, Tamara almost had a stroke when she saw Rojas coming into the school as she started up the walk to the main door.

Uh oh, sideways shit already? she thought.

But he came over to her and said, “Tamara, I’m kinda sick today but realized I had taken the light and sound system keys home with me on Friday. I called Barello and told her that you knew how to set up the auditorium—the AV squad usually does that for the assemblies anyway, you know.”

Tamara didn’t know, but was delighted to learn that.

“Here’s the keys. I gotta get back to bed. Tell Barello I gave you the keys and you know what to do.”

He walked back to the parking lot.

Tamara went into the school office and looked for Barello. She was in Leonard’s office where they were talking. Tamara knocked.

“Oh, ‘morning, Tamara. Something you need?” Leonard asked.

“Mr Rojas sent me to Dr Barello with his keys for the stage—said he called here,” Tamara answered.

“He did. He didn’t have to come in; we could have opened the safe and gotten the backup set from there. He also said that you could do the setup for him. Our visitors told me they wanted just a wireless mike,” Barello said.

“Just one?” she asked and Barello nodded. “And I assume general lighting on the stage like normal. The podium is still on the stage from your Wednesday assembly; I’ll leave it there. How many are coming? And it’s still on for second period?”

“Two people, the district’s assistant superintendent and another person. Yes, second period,” Barello told her.

“I should check the stage now and make sure nothing needs doing.”

“I’ll go unlock the door for you; let’s go.”

Barello unlocked the hall. The four security lights were on. They walked to the front and looked at the stage.

“All okay?” Barello asked and Tamara nodded. “Good,” Barello said.

“When should I be here to turn stuff on and get them.... um, him? Her? The mike and whatever else they need?”

“It’s him. And get here ten minutes before the bell; that should work. Thanks, Tamara,” Barello said.

Tamara didn’t sense that Barello was hiding anything from her; she exhibited no tension in her emotions and seemed relaxed—relieved, actually, knowing that the stage setup was being handled. Maybe this was a false alarm. But, more likely, perhaps Barello was being kept in the dark too.

At the appointed time, Tamara entered the auditorium and saw Barello and Leonard at the front of the stage talking with two men. They stopped and looked at her when she came down the aisle. She climbed the steps and walked over to them and as she did, her senses detected a feeling of warning. Was this her premonition? She’d wait and see.

Barello introduced them. “Tamara, this is Mr Jose Rodríguez. He’s the assistant superintendent and this is Mr Roman Nueves, a district aide.”

Tamara shook Rodriguez’ hand and as she did, her mind filled with his emotions: a sexual interest in her, an excited anticipation, a need for domination... the tastes flowed out of him. She felt similar emotions flowing from his companion. Instantly her mind was made up. Like she had done back in middle school when she faced those four district and SiF officials, she quickly pulled up a greenish-brown taste—a “lite” version of it—and “pushed” it at Rodriguez. Her hand and eye contact made the suggestion very powerful.

“You’re a little confused but you will carry on. You will speak what’s really on your mind. When you start, I will sit in the front row. You will watch me and stop when I signal. When you hear the spirits speak, you will obey them with no question,” she told him intently.

Still holding his hand, she kept her eyes locked on his and he looked at her, confused for a second. She dropped her hand and he shuddered. Tamara repeated the handshake and her “pushing” with Nueves.

“Happy to meet you,” she told them in a normal voice, after that. “Dr Barello said you wanted a wireless mike. Handheld or clip-on?”

Rodriguez shook his head to clear it and instead of answering, said, “Uh, Tamara, right? You want to be in the naked kids’ group? I think I’ll add your name to the list.”

Barello and Leonard both gave him an alarmed look at hearing that, while Tamara shook her head and walked away into the wings to turn the board and sound system on and get the mikes.

“What’s this?” Barello demanded of Rodriguez. “You can’t just come here and do that—and with no warning to me either.”

“I’m doing exactly that. I told the school board president and he gave me direct permission. We didn’t want to give the school any chance to set up any distracting side show.”

Tamara returned and went to Nueves, locking eyes with him, and handed him a follow-light target.

“Clip this to your clothes.” Then so no one else could hear, “You want to see naked kids too.”

He jerked but nodded uncertainly and Tamara told him, “Well, have fun. Do whatever your boss does.”

Tamara was also carrying two hand-held mikes and she brought one to Rodriguez.

“Use this,” she told him; then with a quiet but intense whisper, looking into his eyes with a steely look, “Any more sexual thoughts about me and your testicles will shrivel.”

He took the mike but his legs nearly gave way; they had started to shake. He looked at Tamara with fear while she walked away. Nueves came over to him.

“You okay, boss? You looked a bit shaky there for a sec.”

“I’m good, Roman. Maybe stage fright?” he attempted a chuckle but it came out as a croak.

Tamara went to the two women who were now standing in the wings, deep in conversation. She heard, just before she reached them, “...no time to call district now... oh, yes, Tamara? Say, please don’t speak to anyone about what you heard here, okay?” Barello told her.

“I won’t. The bell will ring any second. I just turned the sound system on. Everything’s ready. Dr Barello, you’re introducing them, right?” She nodded. “Here’s your mike. I suggest you don’t remain on the stage after your intro.”

She “pushed” the suggestion that, after Barello’s introduction, they both take audience seats and stay there.

The bell rang.

“I’m gonna join you in the house. He has a mike; you have yours and everything they need is ready, so nobody needs to be backstage now. I don’t wanna be near that guy. Did you see how he was looking at me? Forget about what he said; he just creeps me out.”

Barello looked at her and nodded. “I’m really sorry about that, dear. I plan to make a complaint to the district office.”

Kids were beginning to come into the auditorium now, and with Linda’s warning, most were quite angry. She had been creative in spreading the word, also letting a few teachers know what was afoot. Word spread from there, so all the teachers had gotten the “leaked” news about this Program assembly and many of them were annoyed about it too. Since the kids were mostly quiet, the staff stayed out of the way. Barello watched and became alarmed when she saw that there were no teachers among the entering students; then she saw a few at the hall’s rear. That’s when she noticed that quite a few students were wearing red shirts—hmm, that wasn’t exactly a dress-code violation, was it?—and they were not only keeping the students in order, the students were actually listening to them. She vowed to look into that phenomenon.

Barello walked out onto the stage toward the podium and waited as the students got seated. She noticed that the red-shirted students seated themselves at the ends of every row, another mystery. When the bell rang, the hall fell silent.

“Welcome, everyone,” she said. “This is an unusual time for an assembly but we were asked by the school district to hold it at this time. We have district visitors here who have a message to everyone, the gentleman who will be speaking to you is the assistant superintendent, Mr Jose Rodríguez, and with him is Mr Roman Nueves. Mr Rodriguez, you may begin.”

She walked offstage and then down to a seat off to the side of the hall, next to Leonard. Tamara had already seated herself in the center of the front row from where she could catch Rodriguez’ attention if needed. She switched on the masers and could see the slight motion of the following lanterns as they kept their aim on Rodriguez and Nueves.

He came to the podium and the room got dead quiet.

“Thanks, Dr Barello. Students of Miami Edison High School, I’m happy to be here and to see all of you; you represent the future of our city and the great state of Florida. So that’s why I asked to come here today to talk to you; to talk about your high school education and your futures.

“Children go to high school to begin to learn the skills they will need for the rest of their lives. For many of you, attending high school will be your last formal education opportunity. But the formal subjects that high schools teach are mostly in academics. Little is taught about personal relationships. Very smart people have thought long and hard about how to change that. They have told us that most of society’s social ills can be cured by fixing the problems of adolescents, and have convinced the people in education, like us in schools and school districts, that adults have a major role in watching over and guiding teens to achieve their progress in socialization.

“Adolescence is a time that many sociologists call a ‘dangerous passage’ since this age group is very susceptible to many kinds of temptations and negative influences, especially where sexuality is involved. They tell us that our schools must develop programs that can channel teenagers into a controlled environment where their sexuality could be shaped and the artificial social barriers of cliques are broken down. We must teach our children to connect with their own essential being and that of their peers so they will learn how to interact in constructive ways. Doing this requires teaching respect for others by promoting body acceptance and improving self-image, creating an environment where trusting relationships can form between the teens.

“Another of society’s major ills is a lack of open and trusting relationships between sexes. Many people do form positive relationships which are accepted by society, but at the other end of the spectrum, violence and abuse are present. Many of those problems are caused because children are never taught about developing healthy sexual relationships; in fact, most children learn extremely unhealthy forms of modesty from the secretiveness that society imposes on its members when nudity and sex are involved.

“The Naked in School Program...”

There was a great sigh from the audience at those words.

“... is supposed to teach you to overcome your personal modesty and become familiar with the bodies of both sexes.”

He paused, took out a handkerchief, and mopped his forehead.

“We want you to become aware of how your own body reacts to the stimulation it receives when your privates are touched so that you’ll learn to accept your own body and its sexuality without the interference that personal modesty imposes... Why is it so hot here?” he asked, away from the mike.

“Indeed, it is the very idea of modesty in children, especially excessive modesty among teens, which gave rise to the development of the Naked in School Program. Too many of our youth grow into adulthood with their experiences of healthy interactions ... er, whew, it’s hot ... between genders severely impaired by the modesty and puritanism which society, even their own families, impose on them. Um... ahhh... where was I ... Excessive modesty leads to improper urges that allow misunderstandings to arise between genders and can, in turn, lead to... errr, um, sexual assault and violence. Excuse me; the lights here are hot.”

He moved away from the podium but the tracking system followed him.

“The Program was specifically designed to remove, ahhh... the mystery of what human sexuality entails in all of its manifestations and to banish, um... the modesty which society has imposed on our children.”

He took another pause to wipe his face, then looked at Nueves, who was also mopping and fanning himself. Then he resumed talking.

“The Program, as the experts have developed it, ensures that those who participate in it will be conditioned to lose their modesty. Um, yeah... let’s see... This will better equip you to be able to function in our modern society. It is the indoctrination of modesty in children which the Program is expressly designed to dispel.

“To do that, our school district started the Program in our high schools last year, but out of all of our high schools, only Miami Edison did not participate; that is unacceptable. ... christ, why is this place so hot?”

He took off his sport jacket and loosened his tie. Students in the audience began chuckling—most had seen this happen before.

“Um, whew, let’s see... The officials of our school district... um... one second...” He loosened the top button on his shirt. “Ah...want to bring your school into compliance with... phew... state mandates... ahhh... Oh, I’m not saying any more... We need to start this thing... aaah... right now; it’s too hot to talk. I have... ummm... a list of students who I’ll call up here... ahhh... who must get naked to start their Program week. When I call your name...”

Tamara signaled Rodriguez with her hand and he stopped, confused, as Tamara “pushed” a greenish-yellow taste of uncertainty and fear at him while she triggered the sound board to play her prepared recording. A deep, hollow moan reverberated through the hall and everyone looked around in alarm.

“Trouble brings me again to this children’s place of meeting. I am most unhappy,” a hollow voice boomed.

The menacing bass voice seemed to move across the room, right to left and then back.

At the word “unhappy,” a thin, wavering voice broke in and the words seemed to skitter all around the hall, left to right to middle to back.

“Once again evil people from outside my nanchon cause me, Anansi, the spider trickster spirit, to leave the spirit world to intercede on behalf of my holy people. I am angry.”

The deep voice continued, booming, “My own fury burns with fire and heat. I, Lord Kalfou, lord of darkness and fire, protector of children, summon my brother, Baron Samedi, the spirit of death, to witness what I do when my children are evilly treated.”

There was a rustling and rattling sound and then a cynical and nasal voice began, “Death is not quite ready for these evildoers, my brother.” This voice seemed to come from everywhere. “I ask that the trickster spirit Anansi devise a punishment that will make the evildoers wish for death. I am Baron Samedi, the spirit of death, and have spoken.”

“Evildoers, this is my verdict. I, Anansi, for your attempts to bring your immoral actions and desires to my holy people, sentence you to perpetual nudity. You shall remove all your clothes. If any garment touches your skin from this moment on, that touch will burn and blister as a reminder of the heat you now feel.”

There were gasps from the audience, who were rooted to their seats, listening and watching with fascination, awe, and disbelief.

As the last sentence wavered through the hall, the booming voice uttered, “Well spoken, my brother. Se pou dezi imoral yo pou nidite se pwòp pinisyon yo. Let it be so!”

Then it was quiet. Tamara caught both men’s eyes as the recorded voices stopped and gathered a dark gray taste, filled it with red, yellow and brown, and “pushed” it at the men to complete the suggestion she had implanted in them earlier. But moaning in pain, the two men were already hurriedly stripping off their clothes, exclaiming that their clothes were burning hot. Tamara switched the masers off.

She heard behind her a hushed, “What’d he say?... What’d he say?” and another hushed voice said, “It was, ‘Let their immoral desire for nudity be their own punishment.’”

Barello gathered her wits then, stood up, and used her mike, which she was still holding.

“Students! The assembly is over! Please be orderly and return to your second period classes. Teachers, take control of your students and help them get safely out of here. Thank you.”

The two men were standing there naked now and their skin clearly was glowing bright red—looking very much like a severe sunburn.

Barello called to them, “I didn’t appreciate that show. I will be complaining to the school board about what you two have done here. I must ask you to leave the premises immediately.”

“We can’t leave yet... can we get dressed? It’s not hot up here anymore.”

“You have five minutes.”

But when Rodriguez tried slipping his shirt on, he yelled in pain. “Shit! That hurt!”

Nueves had already found that out. He reached into the pocket of the pants he was holding and pulled out his cell phone, then dropped it, shaking his hand.

“Shit! My phone’s blazing hot!”

Rodriguez checked his. “Mine too. What the fuck’s going on in this place, anyway?”

Barello grinned mirthlessly. “I’m told the people in the community are convinced that Edison is haunted. I believe that you just found out why.”

Holding their clothes in a bundle, the two men scurried out of the auditorium and out the main building door.

Tamara called from her seat in the front row, “Um, I’m supposed to close things down? Or what? What should I do?”

“Humpf. That’s the big question, isn’t it?” Barello sighed. “What do we all do now? If I hadn’t witnessed that... Unbelievable things keep happening here. Tamara, I think they’ll say that the school somehow staged that display. I need to confirm that the school didn’t stage this... Tamara, do you know anything about what I just witnessed?”

“Um, I just know that was kinda scary; those sounded like real spirits too. And how could it get so hot up there? The only stage lights on are those LED strip lights.”

“You’re right. Let me look at the sound system and see if there’s anything attached to it, like a tape recorder or something that was playing on the speakers. Can I check the sound system?” Barello asked.

“Sure. Go on back there. Let me get the mikes to put away too.”

Barello handed hers over and Tamara went to get the other one; she noticed the target device lying on the floor where it had dropped when Nueves stripped. She grabbed it and then picked up the mike from where it had been dropped. It was hot.

“Oops,” she said. Well, looks like extended maser exposure is unhealthy for electronics.

She went into the wings where Barello was poking around at the sound board.

“I know a little about these; my husband was in a band in college and he showed me the band’s board. This one is maybe four times bigger.”

“Yeah, this is a cool board. See, I rigged just these two wireless mikes, these two channels. See how all the other channels are turned off?”

While she was pointing at the controls, she surreptitiously popped out the SD card.

“Is it okay to shut things down now?”

“I saw what I needed to, dear. You can close up. Then you can get to class.”

Barello walked out and Tamara hit the stored program selection button, selected her preprogramed sequence, and deleted it from the board’s memory. She shut the board down and locked up the control panels, then put the mikes and target device in a cabinet and locked it. Finally, she quickly unplugged her masers, pulled them off of the sides of the lanterns, and reconnected their lamps.

Gotta remember to let Rojas know about that mike, she thought.

When Tamara was walking through the hall going to her class, she could hear that there was a commotion going on in every room; students were jabbering about what they had seen and were rejoicing that the dreaded Program was again being held at bay. Within a few minutes, the P.A. crackled to life.

“Edison students! Please attend. I know what you just saw was exciting and unprecedented. But please, contain your enthusiasm until after school. Just think of how entertaining your descriptions of this morning’s show will be for your families. I want to thank all of you students, especially the red-shirted ones—who I just found out are members of the school’s new guardian corps—for your orderly and disciplined behavior this morning. Red-shirted guardians represented the Red Raiders well. Mrs Leonard and I are proud of you all and you should be proud of being a Miami Edison Red Raider. Thank you and please return to your lessons.”

Tamara walked into a mostly orderly classroom but she could sense that everyone’s emotions were running at a fever pitch. The overall emotional tastes she felt in the room were ones of joy and relief; but she was both physically and emotionally exhausted by her mental exercise.

This was even more tiring than when I handled those morons in middle school, she mused.

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