She turned toward the stage and called the name Jill in a languid, high-pitched voice. It was the first time I’d ever heard someone stretch a name out into such a sweet sound. Once the saccharine echoes of her call died out, silence returned with a vengeance. There was no sign of this Jill, either in person or in voice.
Paula put a hand on her hip and puffed out her pectorals before letting out a sigh.
“Honestly, that girl. She’s so shy.”
With a brief “wait here,” she vanished backstage again. She returned before long, dragging another young woman with her. She pushed this woman forward, planting her in front of me, and put a hand on her shoulder.
“Right. This is Jill,” she said. “Jill, this is Kei. He’s our audience.”
The young woman named Jill hunched in on herself, winding her hands around each other, and ever so slightly shook her head. Even her gaze wouldn’t settle on a specific target.
“Uh, hello,” I tried greeting her.
Jill jolted in surprise and then gave several trembling nods.
“’llo...”
Her voice was so faint, I only caught the tail end of the word. I could see why Paula had called her shy.
“She’s a bit introverted, as you can see, but she sings really well.”
“You’re a singer?”
That was a surprise. I couldn’t imagine her standing like this on a stage, belting out lyrics. Yet Jill shook her head frantically, sending her long braid bouncing.
“No, um, that’s too much...”
That was all she said before she ran off and hid behind Paula. Apparently, this was the most she could bear.
“Ahhh, jeez. There’s no helping her,” Paula said with a sigh. “Thanks to that personality of hers, she’s never actually stood on the stage. She’s so good she’d fill this theater and send shivers down everyone’s spines. She’s practically magic.”
“I’d love to hear that.”
“Right? I could die happy if I got the chance to dance along to her singing.”
She then called a wheedling request over her shoulder for Jill to come out, but there was no response. Paula just gave me a reluctant, apologetic smile. I’d pretty much expected that outcome, of course, given how Jill had been frantically shaking her head earlier. I might have figured that if you had such a good singing voice, you’d be able to hold your head high, but apparently it wasn’t that simple. Personalities don’t work off of logic, after all.
“So you two spend your time here singing and dancing?”
“That we do.” Paula nodded. “We don’t need to earn money, and there’s a veritable mountain of food in the vault, so we just do what we want.”
“The vault?” I asked; my sharp hearing wouldn’t let that word slip past it.
“Yup. Lots of the rich villa owners fled here. They all pulled together a bunch of food and necessities and collected them in a warehouse at the end of the street. There’s plenty left in there.”
“Would I be able to get some of that?”
“Well, it’s not like it’s actually ours, so I’d say do whatever you like.”
Paula paused there and put a finger to her lips. A grin made its way onto her face, and she leaned in closer.
“Actually, nope. It’s for the people living here,” she decided instead. “I’ll split some with you if you give me a hand though.”
It was strange. This was probably just a normal trade we were talking about, but with Paula facing me down so intently, it felt like I was making a deal with the devil.
“What do you mean, a hand?” I asked, swallowing.
“I want you to be our customer.”
“Uh...excuse me?”
“I mentioned earlier. We’re the only ones on this stage, and yet we’ve got no audience. I want the watching eyes, the applause, the cheers! I’d even take the jeering from back in the day! I’m tired of dancing for empty seats.”
She had her arms spread wide, hands and face turned up toward the ceiling, almost as if she were striking a pose in a play. She had a bit of a tendency toward exaggerated gestures.
“So I want you to come to this theater. I want you to watch my dance,” she said, then paused and dragged Jill out from behind her. “And listen to her song.”
“Wha? I-I didn’t agree to this...”
“Jill doesn’t seem entirely on board. Are you sure?”
“It’ll be fine. If we don’t try, she’ll never be able to get on that stage, and we might never get another audience considering the state of the world. They say opportunity only knocks once, right? So we need to open the door wide.”
As she spoke, she lifted Jill’s hand to point toward the door, before casting me a flirtatious look and a wink. She’d worded it like a business deal, but there was no downside in it for me. We’d started to approach the bottom of our food stocks, and with this I could both resupply and enjoy a dance performance at the theater, and perhaps even a song. You could even say it’ll slightly enrich my mostly boring life, I reflected.
“Of course I’ll help,” I told her.
“Excellent! You’re a sweet boy, Kei.”
She suddenly opened her arms toward me, but I swiftly retreated. It might have been the quickest reaction time I’d ever had. I could foresee only asphyxiation awaiting me if I got stuck between her burly arms and chest.
“I’ll pass on the hug.”
“Such a shy guy,” she said, reluctantly dropping her arms. “Shall I show you to the vault now? Or would you rather listen to Jill sing?”
As the topic shifted to Jill, the girl in question shook her head so fast I thought her braid might fly off. She’d probably have fainted if I accepted Paula’s offer.
“I’ve got some things I want to sort out first, so I’ll head back to the village for now,” I answered. Nito and Charolles were still waiting there, and I figured I may as well invite them too. “I might even bring some more audience members with me next time.”
“Oh, how wonderful,” Paula squealed, clasping her hands in front of her chest.
Meanwhile, at her side, Jill was shaking her head even harder. She really can’t deal with people, I guess, I thought as Paula spoke again.
“You’re staying at that temple for a while, right?”
We didn’t have any real itinerary, or any reservations waiting for us at the next hotel, and we didn’t have our tickets home booked either. Nito and I were on a journey to find the places in her notebook, and we’d just stopped here looking for a map to follow on that trip. So the answer to how long we’d be staying was simple, if vague: either until we found a map in the library, or else until we knew that there wasn’t one to find. I had to rely on Nito and Charolles for that search, and with Nito so captivated by the books, I doubted she’d find anything very soon.
“I think we’ll be there for another few days at least,” I answered Paula. “Probably.”
“Right. Then feel free to come visit whenever you’ve got the time. We’ll be practicing, right, Jill?”
Jill seemed on the verge of tears as she frantically shook her head.
“See, Jill’s feeling super motivated as well.”
“Are you sure that’s really motivation?” I asked.
“It’ll be fine. It’s only scary and painful the first time.”
I decided not to ask anything else at that point. After all, if you go looking for trouble, you just might find it.