Map of the World: A Blog Opera
"Waking Fantasy"
Tracy wakes up. Tracy knows the clock is right:
4:00 AM.
Still laying down on the floor in her bedroom in front of the bed, she is shocked when she looks over to discover that she has a pair of scissors in her hand and her new painting lays on the floor in a million pieces.
This painting is for Cameron, she remembers... Why is it ruined? Why? ...
As Tracy gets up, there's a knock at the door.
Tracy is still trying to collect her thoughts: Did I fall asleep here?, she tries to remember. Immediately she has a flashback and recalls the strange nightmare last night. The nightmare with her dead twin sister Jackie, coming back from the dead to visit her in Foxport and later assuming her identity, the gun blast that nearly killed her, and Professor Williams. Weird and scary and creepy. Tracy realizes that she still cannot forget the day that she learned Jackie died two years ago. Tracy missed her sister.
Finally, Tracy now remembers how she ended up on the floor. It all began the day before. Mayberry Park. Cameron and her, walking and talking, under the Peace Bridge. Then.. then... he says it to her. Cameron says he is engaged to Samantha Lumari-Waters: the other beautiful debutante in Foxport. Tracy has never met Samantha but has heard so much about her from Carey Waters, Samantha's stepmother.
Tracy had raced out of Mayberry Park and come home in a rage and destroyed her painting that meant a lot to her. A lot about her realtionship with Cameron. She had set the kettle and while waiting for the water to boil, she must have fallen asleep...
How did I find myself in this situation?, Tracy thinks. She knows that she loves Cameron deeply - but loving a man who is engaged to another woman is taboo!
Everything with Cameron had all really started in the condo elevator lift where she had met him weeks ago. She had started to notice him in the elevator. Most times they had ridden the ride up alone. She got off after him. Always. Some times there was someone in the elevator, but they always shared a moment on the ride. Each time her body shifted with curiosity when glancing briefly at his body there. His eyes always followed her as she moved to the side of the elevator after she had pressed her floor. Tracy noticed that he was always in a grey one-button suit. Formal, yes, but still so relaxed and casual at the same time. Where was he coming from? Where was he going? She always wondered.
Cameron had the kind of body that most girls like. His clothes were never tight, but they showed his body well and fitted and displayed well his physique. Casual eye contact was different too she noted because it was enhanced by his warm golden caramel complexion. She wanted to touch him, but she was afraid of what it might lead to. She had to remain focused and remember that she was in Foxport for a reason: to work at the art gallery and manage a low-key life. Simple? Not quite.
All that was questioned when they made casual elevator-eyes those first few times in the lift. It was normal and unassuming at first, but grew into something much much more. Into something unlike anything that she ever had experienced before. She wasn't imagining what she saw when she looked into his soul through his eyes. His eyes were steady but were also very desirous, very dangerous too and a bit dirty. She could tell he was looking for something physical from a woman. She also knew that she wasn't his type... but maybe, she thought. Just maybe.
Tracy wasn't the type to get all 19th-century "lonely", but the recent media coverage, the work on her thesis project and all the recent pressures of her father had made her into a zombie these last few months. Tracy needed to rest. She thought she could swallow all the confusion in her life by painting. All the work that she had put into that latest oil painting, now lay before her on on the floor. Ruined.
Tracy wanted and needed some time to relax. R & R with someone would have be nice. Not necessary.
That's when it happened. Cameron returned a set of keys to the wrong door one morning. Hers. Tracy had her chance. She could look at him and effortlessly show him what her true soul wanted right now simply by moving her eyes. Naturally. She new her eyes were her strongest feature. At least that's what most guys had said to her growing up. She never moved her eyes in a way to entice guys intentionally, they just did. She had an innocence about her that also made her look sexy in a mature way that guys always liked. As she'd entered her 20's, younger guys in there late teen always liked how she was older but had an innocent look that was still strong on at the same time. That's the kind of girl she was.
Knock. That knock at the door.
It's Cameron. She knows it. She cleans up quickly, throws on her silk night robe and heads out to the front door.
Cameron is on the outside. He is leaning up against the door with his arm bracing up against the top half of the door with his head hanging, eyes half-closed. Sweaty. His head bobs up to listen every time he knocks.
Tracy opens up the door. Cameron stands there like he always does: firm, muscular, fit, eyes piercing. His expression always says that he wants more. Tracy hates that... Sort of.
They look at each other directly in the eyes.
She tightens the belt on her blue silk robe. Yes, she knows what he wants, but, she also knows what she wants too.
He takes a step back, takes a deep breath and puts his hands on his waist. Still panting.
"Looks like you were having a bad nightmare or something..." Cameron says.
Cameron knows what's happening.
*****
Trevor wakes ups again for the third time during the night and heads straight to the mirror. He can tell that his skin is not right.
The cotton swab his father used to take a DNA sample from him in the morning was contaminated. That is why he had those strange reactions in the park earlier. Trevor simply knew that there was going to be serious consequences from the mix-up. How severe would the transformation be? It would take more time to discover that. Trevor was going to change in the process there was absolutely no question about that.
Yes, Trevor knew a lot about modern science. The huge DNA discoveries that had taken place in the last few months in Germany were changing the world, but something like what was happening with him right now, was more science on the fringes of The New Modern Medicine. No one was daring enough to do what his father had. His father was really experimenting with something that really no one in the world should do. Not even within the strict and isolated environment of Foxport-- normally perfect for all kinds of new discoveries.
Trevor realises that he has to be fully ready for the result of his father's mistake. He realizes that he has to be fully ready to become someone else in the next while. Someone entirely new.
*****
Carey is interrupted by the phone as she waits for Mark and Samantha to explain what happened the night before.
Mark had aways liked the company of women. When he met Samantha last night, it was, exactly that he'd wanted. Something that just happened. Almost accidentally. There was no possible way that he was going to tell Carey the truth. The truth was really what happened.
Thank goodness the phone interrupted a nervous situation.
As Carey heads to the phone near the back of the living room, Samantha looks Mark in the eyes. They smile. They have shared something very special. Carey can never know what they did. Not ever. It would be the ultimate betrayal.
