Episode 514: Casino Caper, Part Two

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Oops. Arden keys the comm and grunts an approximation of an affirmative and keeps on going. He finds Gigi changing out of her stage costume and into her street clothes. Arden puts the flowers aside and they hustle for the backdoor. There’s an alarm on it. Arden pauses and tells her the plan.

Arden: Once we get out, we don’t pause. We go until we’re with people and then we’ll find the car and get going.

He opens the door and no alarms sound. Arden’s sure there’s an alarm going off because over his ear comm he can hear someone say: Backdoor’s open. Get someone in there. The clock is ticking. Arden hustles them down the alley for the street where Beglan’s parked. After 200 feet, the ear comm goes dead, out of range of the transmitter. Once on the street, Arden sees Beglan waiting half a block away in the flatbed. They jump on. There’s no way for him to signal to the others he and Gigi have made it out. He has to trust they will get themselves out on their own. He gives Beglan the nod and Beglan takes them back to the spaceport and Equinox.

Mission accomplished.

Now for the mopping up …

Rina and Joshua are finally presentable and are led out of the bathroom. They are marched right past Nika and Kiera at the employee entrance and are shown into a somewhat bare room with a desk and a couple of chairs. Rina plays to Joshua’s spin and her face lights up when she sees the desk.

Rina: Oh, hey …. We could do this table right? (looks around) Oh my god, there’s a mirror …
Joshua: (grinning) Maybe, yeah. All right.

The guard detailed to watch them just rolls his eyes. Time passes. Passions cool. The table stays unmolested. Rina and Joshua sit down on the chairs eventually, making no move for the door.

Outside, Nika and Kiera are pretty much ignored. Apparently they can leave their post if they want to, things seem to be pretty well in hand again. The mess with the slots has been cleaned up, the coin collected and secured. Nika and Kiera know that Rina and Joshua are in house custody and if they stick to the plan, they’re busy talking their way out of their public indiscretion. Hardly something they drag someone out back and shoot them for. It will tie up some personnel but if Arden’s done his job right, the need to tie anyone up is long gone. And even though Nika and Kiera have done their part and finished it, it would seem a little weird if they just up and left. All around them, the casino picks up business as usual. In silent agreement, Nika and Kiera mosey over to the gaming table they’d left when the commotion began and resume their interrupted play.

In the back room, the door opens to admit a sleazy-looking man. He’s got a top hat and a tie on, without a buttoned shirt. His hair is greasy, curly and black—he matches Arden’s description of Ira Jakes. His voice is Cockney, through and through.

Jakes: Wel’, wel’, what do we ’aff ’ere?
Joshua: I’m sorry. Was that a question for me? (faking unease) It … I … it seems kinda serious for gettin’ it on in the bathroom. I mean, I’m sorry. We could have gotten it on somewhere else if we realized you were so concerned with bathroom—
Jakes: No’mally, we’d toss you out for that, but clearly somefing else is goin’ on ’ere.
Joshua: Is there? Uh … ? (lighbulb!) Oh! You mean that … that thing, whatever that was.
Jakes: Wel’, when that ’appened, our guards spot’ed you … leafing …
Joshua: (a touch annoyed) Yeah …’Kay. They noticed us leaving? (to Rina) Good lord, it took them forever.

Rina backs him up with a fervent nod and an eyeroll.

Jakes: Nuffing’s been stolen, save a few plat’nim down in th’ fing.
Joshua: Well … Okay.
Jakes: So?
Joshua: You think … (lightbulb again!) … You think we stole from them?
Jakes: I dunno. I wanna know why yer ’ere.
Rina: (miffed) I thought I was getting laid.
Joshua: (taking up her cue) Yeah. I just wanted to get her laid. With people watching. Like … your guards took forever. Good Lord! I thought they would pay attention a little more closely.

Jakes eyes the guard in the room. The guard grimaces a confirmation. Jakes looks back at Joshua and Rina.

Rina: Do you have any idea how hard it is to hold off? Until the right moment for the guys to walk in and then scream?
Joshua: The guys didn’t even want to help. They didn’t want to join in. Well, I … guess that’s professional.
Rina: (disappointed) I suppose …
Joshua: But it’s not very helpful customer service.
Rina: No. (to the guard) Geez, you guys are slow.

Jakes walks over to the guard for a whispered conversation. It takes a minute. Joshua leans over to Rina and stage whispers for Jakes’s benefit.

Joshua: It’s the Blackout Zone, man.
Rina: (whispers back) Uh-huh.
Joshua: Couldn’t do this anywhere else.
Rina: Are you kidding? They’d throw us in the hoosegow and then … oh God, then I’d be someone’s bitch.
Joshua: Anything that happens in the Blackout Zone—what happens in the Blackout Zone, stays in the Blackout Zone.

Joshua raises his voice so Ira Jakes can hear.

Joshua: I’m sorry if you lost money out there, but you said it was only a few platinum. I’m pretty sure I gave you that at the craps table. Good Lord. Do you have any idea how many times I’ve crapped out at the craps table? Way too many.
Jakes: Wel’, I’ll let you sit and fink abou’ it for a li’l bit.
Joshua: Will there be guards watching us?
Jakes: Yes.
Joshua: Really?
Jakes: Yes.

Joshua gives Rina the salacious eye, she gives it right back. Jakes rethinks the strategy of locking them in a room with a witness.

Jakes: (sourly) Take’em t’ one’a the tables an’ jus’ watch ’em.
Guard: All right. Get up, you two.

Joshua and Rina get up as ordered and Rina tweaks Joshua’s butt on the way to the door. Jakes clears his throat.

Jakes: This is a respek’able establishment. Anyfing like that ’as to ’appen upstairs.
Rina: Oh. (brightens) Upstairs?
Joshua: Can you pay people to watch upstairs?
Jakes: (oh please!) What you do in your room’s not my business. S’long as you don’ break anyfing.
Rina: (to Joshua) Should we get a room?
Joshua: Well … I don’t … Let’s just go back outside. See if we can earn back what we lost already.
Jakes: We’ll keep an eye on you til we c’n find out what went on in ’ere.
Joshua: All right. Whatever.
Rina: (sighing) Well, just don’t take so long about it.
Jakes: Go to a table. Sit down and watch. Or play if you want.
Joshua: I’ll play.
Rina: Oh, all right.

Clearly the lady’s disappointed but willing to go along to get along. The guard escorts them to one of the gaming tables. Sits them down. Retreats a bit to watch them, arms crossed. Kiera and Nika spy them at the table and satisfied their crewmates are all right, they only linger long enough to play a couple more hands before they take themselves out. Just two country deputies having had enough big city for the night.

Kiera: (complaining) I think I lost my shirt. You’d think they’d give us a little bit’a credit or two for savin’ the place. Don’cha think?

They are almost at the door before the Manager from the hallway sees them and points them out to a greasy-looking fellow in a top hat. Both men look at Nika and Kiera and the guards are motioned over to stop the women from leaving. The guards cross the floor in full-on intercept course. Kiera stops—after all, she and Nika are lawmen and have nothing to hide.

Kiera: (to Nika) Maybe they’re gonna give us a re-ward.
Nika: I don’t think you get a re-ward for just standing guard on a door. When nothin’ happened. B’sides, you don’t do the job for a re-ward.
Kiera: You’re right. I do it cuz I’m noble. You’re right.
Nika: You are the worst trainee ever.
Kiera: I’m tryin’!

The Manager comes up in the middle of this conversation and clears his throat.

Manager: Excuse me Officer Moore, Officer Hanson. This is the owner, Mr. Jakes.
Nika: Howdy.
Jakes: Yes. I understand that you believe you saw somefing goin’ on. What did y’see?
Nika: Well, several slot machines went all at once. Seemed pretty suspicious to me.
Jakes: Okay.
Nika: But other than that, we just glanced toward the cashier and figured that would be where they’d head if they were tryin’ to rob the place.
Manager: But you didn’t go to the cashiers place. You were found in the administrative offices.
Nika: Well, right. Cuz when we got to the cashier, there’s the employee-only and it makes sense that you’re gonna have your safe in the back. So we wanted to make sure nothing got taken.

Jakes eyes Nika evenly for a minute.

Jakes: Somefing ain’t right ’ere.
Nika: Pardon?
Kiera: Ain’t right? People were runnin’ like chickens with their heads cut off.
Nika: Did somebody actually steal something from the floor?
Kiera: (gasps!) We were right!
Manager: Do you mind if we, just to be on the safe side, check your IDs?
Kiera: Sure.
Nika: Sure. I can give you the supervisor’s name out in Cody.
Kiera: Yep.

They hand the IDs right over. The Manager leaves, ostensibly to get to a phone to call them in. Jakes asks them about Cody. It’s a town hereabouts? Yep, Nika says and tells him about the general vicinity. Kiera keeps up the act of the over-enthusiastic newbie.

Kiera: You know, I saw a video where they were tryin’ to do it. They faked somethin’ and they were really drillin’ in from the bottom to get to the safe.
Nika: (disgusted) You saw that in a Cortex feed.
Kiera: I did!

Nika sighs. Why does she always get stuck with the stupid gung-ho ones? Kiera notices that Jakes is staring at her. Specifically her hands.

Uh-oh.

Jakes: (to Kiera) What do they do out there in Cody?
Kiera: Do a little ranchin’. Do a little cow wrestlin’.
Nika: She don’t do a little ranchin’.
Kiera: Hey. You said it was okay if I became a trainee. Cuz Momma said y’all were friends an’ you understood that I weren’t worth nothin’ an’ I ain’t purty.
Nika: (brow raised) You ain’t useful, either.
Kiera: (hurt) Now, you’re supposed to make me feel better ’bout myself. Daddy’s done tried to marry me off.
Nika: (sighs) I think you’d be better off.
Kiera: I’m tired of cows. I weren’t no good at sewin’.
Nika: (to Jakes) She wasn’t any good at sewin’.
Kiera: Hain’t good at a gun.
Nika: She ain’t good at a gun.
Kiera: (sniffs) I’m tellin’ Momma you’re makin’ me feel bad.
Nika: Look, I don’t want you tellin’ your momma nothin’ cuz your momma will tell my momma and then my momma’ll have me up by the ears again.
Jakes: So, did you ride yer ’orses all the way over ’ere to Vandenberg?
Nika: Oh, no.
Kiera: I can’t ride no horse. Cuz I ain’t no good at that either. Go bucked off. Ain’t got me back on one’a them damn things. Ain’t no good as a ranch hand.

She’s gonna need to break out the violins if she keeps this up.

Nika: We caught the supply shuttle on the way up.

Jakes just waits for his manager to come back and Nika fills in the silence.

Nika: We’re real glad you didn’t get robbed.
Jake: Wel’, we were real lucky to haff … lawfolk … ’ere on the occasion of such an incident.
Nika: (nods) See? That’s what she thought.
Kiera: Mm-hm.
Nika: Me? I thought we should mind our own business.
Kiera: Me, I have instincts. I do have instincts.
Nika: She’s tryin’ to train for this job so I thought that it might be good practice for—
Kiera: I got good instincts!
Nika: (continuing)—her and—
Kiera: Instincts. (points at her eyes) I got the cop eyes. (points at the guards) They know! They know I got the eyes.

The Manager comes back and saves Jakes from making a reply.

Manager: Everything checks out, sir.

He hands back the IDs and Kiera gazes on hers reverently before putting it back in her pocket.

Jakes: All righ’. Wel’ … ’Preciate your ’elp. If you see anyfing, you know, strange goin’ on …

He points out the wait staff to the Manager.

Jakes: Why don’t you set th’ ladies up wiff’ some drinks, if they’d like ’em.
Nika: Why thank you kindly.
Jakes: All righ’. Wel’ … Somefing’s not righ’. Just don’ know what. (to Kiera) I’m wiff you on yer instincts.
Nika: (sotto vocce) Don’t tell her that.
Jakes: It’s not like th’ machines t’go orf just like that. (to the Manager) Let’s go review th’ tapes.

Jakes and the Manager nod their goodbyes and leave for the offices for those tapes. Nika and Kiera belly up to the bar.

Kiera: See? I told you there’d be a re-ward for bein’ good. They givin’ us drinks.
Nika: (long-suffering) I’m goin’ home an’ I’m tellin’ Momma there ain’t no way I’m gonna keep this up. You got to go.
Kiera: Go?! But I have instincts! (points to the offices) They talk to me like I knowed what I was doin’. Now I’ll have one’a them fancy things with an umbrella.

The bartender serves one right up, umbrella and all. Nika sighs a long-suffering sigh and orders a beer to drink with her friend.

After about ten minutes of playing at the tables, the guard taps Joshua on the shoulder and tells him he can go. Joshua quits his chair with a sigh.

Joshua: Thank God. I was about to lose another 10, 15 credits. I thought I would lose everything I had, forced to be here at the craps table. This thing’s loaded.
Rina: (soothingly) You know what they say darlin’. Unlucky at cards, lucky in love. C’mon. Let’s go.

Her smile makes it perfectly clear she prefers his luck exactly the way it is. She pulls him across the casino and out the front doors. Nika and Kiera see them leave but remain at the bar drinking, just long enough to keep it from looking like all four are leaving together. Drinks drunk, thanks given, tips paid, they slide off their stools and mosey on out.

The four of them make the rendezvous at Equinox’s cargo bay. Kiera marches up announcing proudly:

Kiera: We done stopped a crime!
Nika: I need a stiff whiskey. Find some. The never-ending coffee pot is not going to work here. Find whiskey!

Lord, but getting saddled with Kiera has Nika on her last gorram nerve. Kiera runs ahead to her quarters to get a bottle of good stuff from her personal stash, while the rest of us follow her up the stairs at a more sedate pace.

Nika: Please tell me that Arden is back here.
Joshua: He should be. Unless you want him to be somewhere else.

We climb up to the crew lounge and Kiera joins us at the table with a bottle of her finest stuff. Nika pours herself four mother-effer glass’s worth—cuz it was a four mother-effin kind of day—and starts sipping it down. Kiera wordlessly gets the rest of the crew some tea glasses and serves the rest of the whiskey up. Arden hears the commotion and leads Gigi out to the lounge to meet the crew. We look up from our chairs and introductions get made all around.

Joshua: Hi.
Arden: Giselle.
Joshua: Giselle? (rises) Pleasure, ma’am.
Arden: She’s hoping that since we’ve helped her escape, we can help her find a new life, too.
Nika: (drawling) I’m so glad you got out of there okay.
Arden: You’re still talking in an accent.
Nika: An’ I don’t know if it’s gonna go away ANYTIME SOON, Arden!
Kiera: She just had the best deputy of all time.

Joshua takes Giselle’s hand and shakes it gently.

Joshua: It’s a pleasure, ma’am. Glad to see you’ve gotten free.

Giselle’s voice is low, with a soft accent. French, perhaps? Her name is Clemenceau, after all.

Giselle: I do not know what to say. When Mr. Arden told me you would help people in this case, I was shocked. I didn’t think anyone knew what happened to us. I don’t know if Ira’s right or if he was telling the truth or not, but I believe he has some sway with the port authorities. So …
Joshua: Hm. We may want to … (gestures: take off)
Nika: Where do we take her back to?
Arden: She doesn’t have a destination in mind. I assume she wants to get off planet to another planet.
Kiera: So we need to take off with her.
Joshua: We’re going to need to take the ship somewhere. It’s not like there aren’t other—there’s a couple of other cities, right?

Meaning on the JJB list we could investigate elsewhere in the system. But Rina’s got concerns closer to home.

Rina: If she goes missing, they’re going to check the spaceport records for suspicious departures. Right?
Arden: It’s not like we signed in at the front gate when we got to the spaceport.
Nika: No, no, no. We’ll take the shuttle and we’ll go back to the ranch for the night. And then we’ll leave tomorrow, which will a lot more normal.
Arden: Okay.
Nika: Instead of ‘Look, she just went vanishing and we took off …’ and now they’re gonna send out—
Arden: I’m pretty sure that ships come and go at all times.
Joshua: I’m actually with him. How likely are the local Marshalls going to go chasing after a … (how to say it) … for somebody he basically had bought and sold to him?
Rina: They’ll shut down all the spaceports and put everybody on a watch list.

Vandenberg is Boros’s largest spaceport, but that’s not saying much. The trick is—would they do it for the sake of a runaway showgirl? Do we look suspicious enough to stop for boarding? And Giselle said it herself—she doesn’t know if Ira Jakes is as powerful as he claims to be. It could be he has no pull whatsoever with the local law to demand an APB on Giselle. Nika also points out that if we left now, we’d be leaving without cargo. We had enough money to fuel up—we took care of that when we landed—but we’re not so rich we can afford to fly empty.

Joshua: You’re the Captain, Captain.
Nika: We don’t have any cargo. We don’t have anything to get us off the ground right now. I think we’re better off going ahead and—where is it that she needs to go? Where does she want to go?
Giselle: I am from Beaumonde but … Beaumonde is in Kalidasa and that is a long way from here.
Nika: (gently) Do you want to go back to Beaumonde? To family or to anybody like that? Or do you … ?
Giselle: I suppose. I … didn’t think it was possible. It is millions of miles away.
Joshua: You’re welcome to stay with us for a period of time.
Nika: If you like.
Joshua: We plan to stay in system for a little while, if you don’t mind staying on board ship we’ve got—

He waves his hand to indicate all our decks. Scads of room. Expect to see tumbleweeds roll through any minute. Giselle looks at the lounge, then:

Giselle: Do you … do you think you will go to Beaumonde?
Joshua: Yeah, I think we would. Not immediately, but yeah.
Nika: At some point. We were planning on staying in Georgia for a while.
Joshua: But we’ll be back in Kalidasa.
Giselle: Will you be coming back here?
Nika: To Vandenberg? Depends on what cargoes we pick up in-system, but it would be likely.
Giselle: Well … then maybe you could drop me off before you come back here.
Nika: Yes, if you’d like. We could drop you off in Georgia anywhere you’d like to go.
Giselle: I don’t know any place.
Joshua: You don’t have to come back to Vandenberg. We don’t have to come back here. We’ve found everybody on the list on-planet.
Kiera: In that case …
Nika: Then no, we don’t have to come back to Boros. We just won’t pick up any cargo back to Boros.
Kiera: That’s easy enough.
Joshua: And there are ten names on Beaumonde.
Nika: So you’re saying you want to head back to Beaumonde.
Joshua: I’m not saying I want to head back to Beaumonde—the reason that had us going to Georgia in the first place was there are a couple of other planets on the list, plus we’ve got that thing on Regina.
Rina: The coordinates off that land sat photo.
Beglan: And Roskov is here.

Joshua looks pained and horrified.

Joshua: Why did you do that to me? Do you hate me?
Rina: No.
Arden: That’s not the reason.
Rina: Because he knows he can get a rise out of you.
Beglan: (devilishly) You mean you don’t want to visit the gravesite of Potemkin?
Joshua: That I would do. To spit on it.
Rina: No. Uhn-uhn. I am not going back to Seriy Ogohn.

There’s a spate of this and that, pros and cons, of where to go next. Nika lets her crew get it out of their system before putting her foot down.

Nika: (Focus!) Where do we want to go to next? Pick a place on that list.
Rina: There’s a name on Ithaca. And Di Yu. (to self) … Three Hills … Aphrodite …
Beglan: Those are all in Georgia.
Rina: I know. But those are names off the list as well.
Joshua: Hmmm … trying to see what’s convenient … (consults list) … Newhope.

Joshua has a print-out of current cargoes that need shipping and he compares the cargo runs with the JJB list.

Rina: (whispers) Oh, God, not Newhope.
Joshua: (whispers back) Thank you.
Kiera: (softly) I like Newhope. Newhope is cool.
Rina: You had a nice time at Newhope.
Kiera: I had a great time in Newhope.
Rina: I had a rotten time in Newhope.
Joshua: If we don’t want to come back to Boros, then we probably want to go to either Ithaca and pick up cargo to go to Newhope or go to Di Yu and pick up stuff to go to Whitefall. We’ve got one line on Di Yu and …
Rina: (not unkindly) And Giselle’s probably looking at us and thinking ‘what a weird-assed way to pick our cargo’ …

Actually, Giselle knows something about our quest over the list—Arden explained it to her during the several nights he’d visited her so as to get her to trust him to rescue her. So, no, our current cargo runs are not entirely weird-assed to her.

Joshua: I pick Di Yu to Whitefall. Unless someone has an objection.
Nika: Are one or both of those places somewhere we need to go?
Joshua: One of them is … (checks print-out again) … There’s not anything on—Ithaca is one we need. There’s a couple of jobs on Ithaca and there’s a couple lines on Ithaca. (taps print-out) This one has ‘speed’ which means we have to get it there fairly quickly. We can pick it up there, but we won’t be able to stay long. Why don’t we go to Ithaca?

There are two jobs we can run out of Ithaca—a passenger run of shipwrights to Aphrodite and sports gear to Newhope. It will mean a nice payday for us when we’re done: 200 credits for the shipwrights and 457 for the sports gear. We choose Ithaca. Our immediate plans decided, Nika calls her sister Nala from the bridge to tell her of our departure though it’s not under any hurry and to thank her for her hospitality.

Nika: We’re gonna go ahead and take off and we’re going to be in-system for a while so if you want to send a wave or what have you, we’ll be around.

Meaning: We’re not being pursued.

Back in the crew lounge, Joshua repeats our offer to Giselle.

Joshua: Giselle, if you don’t mind sticking around with us for a little bit, we’ll get you to Kalidasa.
Giselle: I really don’t know how to do anything on the ship.
Joshua: I wouldn’t worry about that at the moment.

Though from the looks around the table, the crew’s thinking they know what Arden would suggest she do … gutter-minds, the lot of them. Nika walks in from the bridge and gives the crew a warning look.

Nika: Just so you know, you are not expected to pay for your keep.
Kiera: No matter what Arden says.
Arden: No, you’re not. You are a guest aboard our ship.
Kiera: (to Arden) No matter what you say.
Arden: And I’m saying she’s a guest aboard our ship.
Joshua: Yes.

Giselle seems a bit suspicious.

Nika: (off Giselle’s look) Nobody gives something for nothing, right?
Giselle: That’s right.
Nika: Well, what we get out of it is makin’ right something that stained the honor of our ship.
Giselle: Honor? It is something I have not much—when I hear it, it is an excuse to get in a fight.
Arden: (gently) It does exist, though. Even in this Verse.
Kiera: But it is an excuse to get into a fight, for them.
Arden: What is?
Kiera: Honor.
Beglan: Them’s fightin’ words.
Nika: Whatever. C’mon. Let’s get underway.

Sunday, 05 Jul 2522
Durance class, Equinox
En route to Ithaca
0030hrs, ship’s time

We prep for departure. We burn atmo off Boros just as the clock tips over into the next day. Sleeping arrangements for Giselle comes up. We offer her the pick of the accommodations on the passenger deck. It takes her a while but she slowly realizes just which ship she’s on—the ship that had taken her into slavery. She breathes a sigh and closes her eyes. Joshua’s standing right there, giving her the cook’s tour, and he sees it the second she understands.

Joshua: That’s why. That’s why you are our guest. No payment of any sort is expected. Because we’re trying to set things right.

Giselle walks over to the passenger cabin that Joshua particularly doesn’t like, the one that doesn’t like him. She stands with her hand flat on the door.

Joshua: (softly) Was this your room?
Giselle: No. It wasn’t. But I heard … things … coming from here.

Dear God. It doesn’t take a genius to understand what the slavers did in that room.

Giselle: I heard a lot of sounds like that … later in life, but … I remember wanting so much to get off this ship because I didn’t want to hear that anymore. And then when I got to Boros, there was ... more of it.
Joshua: That’s past, now. You have a new life ahead of you to—.

Giselle opens the door and steps in. She looks around, thinks.

Giselle: This doesn’t look so bad. Did you … change it? From when you found it?
Joshua: We’ve cleaned up. We haven’t physically changed anything.
Giselle: For some reason I thought there would be … something in here. Chains … or a torture device … or … monsters. It is just an empty room. I can remember … In Najak, where I grew up, when I was just a child, where I was raised, there was an inn. It was really a guest stop with a room for passengers traveling onward to other places. It wasn’t—it was just a room and I would talk to my mother of going to Nouveau Lyon and staying in a hotel and I thought it would be the greatest thing. And the last seven years, I’ve been living in a hotel and it is not what I am expecting.

She looks back at Joshua, who’s still standing outside in the corridor.

Giselle: I know it is not the norm for everyone, but … it seems like everything they tell us is good can be … They’d be disappointed.
Joshua: There’s … There’s good in the Verse. And I’m sorry … (getting a grip) … More sorry than you can know that you haven’t had a chance to experience it yet, but we’re going to try and do right by you. We can try and get you set up somehow. A new life. Something where you can try and put this stuff behind you. You can find some of the good in the Verse. Make some of it your own.

Is it her case he’s describing? Or his? Giselle looks at him standing there in the corridor, so carefully not coming in.

Giselle: Perhaps.
Joshua: Let’s close this room off.
Giselle: I don’t want to … get my hopes up.
Joshua: I understand.

Giselle sits slowly down on the bed. Smooths the spread on it. Looks at him.

Giselle: Can I have this room?
Joshua: If you want it.
Giselle: Yes.
Joshua: Then it’s yours.

By silent accord, the tour ends and Joshua withdraws, leaving Giselle to her thoughts, whatever they might be.

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