relaxed. Sometimes I’d be walking alone down one of the numerous hallways and she’d suddenly appear out of nowhere, like a ghost, staring at me as though I’d done something wrong. She’d tell me that it was time for lunch or dinner, or she’d tell me that this hallway was being cleaned, and I wasn’t allowed down there right then, even though I couldn’t hear any cleaning going on. That woman could scare the Dickens out of me. Of course, I later found out that she wasn’t a woman at all. Or a man.
Wyn and Theo ate their breakfast happily. They were already brimming with delicious Blood Memories. So was I, with Theo’s in me. Blood Memories rejuvenated us surprisingly. We all seemed reborn. We were like inquisitive children seeing the world in a whole new way. The tissue paper of my personal identity was beginning to galvanize.
Ms. Crystobal gave me a plate of strawberries dipped in peanut butter. I’d never had it before. She seemed to know I’d love it. She was right. They were scrumptious! Wyn talked about electromagnetism. Theo finished stringing the violin. He stood before us. He positioned the instrument at his neck. His fingers pressed on the strings. He held the bow above the strings for a second. Wyn and I watched. We were curious to know what he would play. Ms. Crystobal sipped a cup of tea. Her eyebrow raised in doubt. Theo slammed the bow down on the strings. The violin music resounded beautifully. The kitchen had excellent acoustics. The music was Bach's Chaconne for Solo Violin . Some say that Bach wrote that music as a tombeau at the death of his first wife. When I consider that a tombeau is like a requiem, only less religious, it is no surprise that it was my china doll’s favorite piece. Mourning felt normal to her. It feels normal for many people. She was more normal than she knew.
We watched Theo working the bow across the violin. His fingers moved swiftly over the strings. He had such newfound power and speed and authority. A tear came to Wyn’s eye. It was like seeing a Vulcan cry. I couldn’t tell if Wyn was happy or sad. He might have been happy. The Blood Vivicanti had proven to be his most successful science project. Then again: He might have been mourning – the way Bach mourned his wife through music.
Theo played the violin for us for days. It was wonderful to have live music in the mansion. Yet his playing and his music were associative: They reminded me of how my china doll used to make me feel. But the richness of my fantasy life turned my thoughts and hopes and dreams away from her and toward Theo. The network of my mind was making new associations.
He was a phenomenal dancer. And now that I had his Blood Memories in me, so was I. Theo would play the violin and I would dance with his music. The memory of dancing was not in my muscles. It took me a day to get used to being graceful. I’d never been graceful before. My body had never moved so fluidly or so beautifully before. I could plié and brisé and pirouette. I still can. His Blood Memories are still strong in me. If I wanted to, I could dance a very lovely Lobster Quadrille.
At the end of the week, Theo and I performed a dance recital in the ballroom. Wyn came to watch. Ms. Crystobal came too, but only because Wyn threatened her with immanent unemployment if she didn’t. He was joking of course. I’m not sure if Ms. Crystobal gets jokes. They might be a little too human for her.
Theo and I danced to the music of Danny Elfman’s Topiary Garden Waltz . We would twist our bodies beyond the limits of the human frame. We would leap high into the air. We’d spin around and around, far from the ground. We moved like two currents of clear water. Ms. Crystobal sat with her arms folded the whole time. She looked annoyed and unimpressed. Theo and I finished. We’d hardly broken a