society, prevent them from propagating. So they receive a brain implant and are later directed to commit suicide.”
Tom Buckle nods. “Like Jane Hawk’s husband. But how would these people be chosen for elimination?”
“A computer model identifies them by their public statements, beliefs, accomplishments. Then they’re put on the Hamlet list.”
“‘Hamlet’? Why Hamlet?”
“The theory is that if someone had killed Hamlet in the first act, a lot more people would have been alive at the end.”
Frowning, Tom Buckle says, “For the movie, we’d probably have to call it something other than the Hamlet list. Anyway, how many people would be on this list?”
“Let’s imagine the computer model says that, in a country as large as ours, two hundred and ten thousand of the most charismatic potential leaders in each generation would have to be removed at the rate of eight thousand four hundred a year.”
“Mass murder. This is a very dark movie, Wayne.”
“To the Arcadians, it’s not murder. They think of it as culling from the herd any individuals with dangerous potential, a necessary step toward peace and stability.”
Mai-Mai returns with the entrée: sea bass, asparagus, and miniature buttered raviolis stuffed with mascarpone and red peppers.
Conversation throughout the main course focuses on what changes to make in the lead character and possible twists and turns in the story line. Hollister mentions the “whispering room,” a feature of the brain implants, by which adjusted people are able to communicate with one another via microwave transmission, brain to brain, as Elon Musk, of Tesla and Space X fame, has predicted will eventually be possible. They have the potential of forming a hive mind. The idea delights Buckle. Hollister enjoys this blue-sky session far more than he would if he were actually going to finance a motion picture.
Movies are terrible investments. Perhaps three out of ten make a profit. And there are countless ways that the distribution company can massage the box office numbers and pad the costs, so when there is a profit, much of it disappears.
However, Tom is bright and enthusiastic. Inventing this movie with him is a pleasure. The more the young man talks, the clearer it becomes that the computer model was right to put him on the Hamlet list, and it is good that he will be dead by dawn.
When Mai-Mai returns to remove their plates, Hollister says, “The time has come for you to do as we discussed.”
She meets his stare, and though she is submissive, she is also afraid. Her lips part as if she will speak, but instead of words, her voluptuous mouth produces only tremors.
As she stands beside her master’s chair, Hollister takes one of her hands in both of his, and he smiles reassuringly. He speaks to her as he might to a daughter. “It’s all right, child. It’s just a moment of performance art. You have always excelled as an artist. This is what you were born to do.”
Her fear abates. The tremor fades. She answers his smile with an affectionate smile of her own. She bends down to kiss his cheek.
Tom Buckle watches with evident perplexity. When Mai-Mai leaves the room with their plates, the filmmaker is at a loss for words and covers his uncertainty by taking a sip of wine and savoring it.
“I see you’re curious about Mai-Mai,” Hollister says.
“No, not at all,” Buckle demurs. “It’s none of my business.”
“In fact, Tom, it’s the essence of your business here. Mai-Mai is twenty-seven, a year older than you, an exceptional woman.”
Tom glances toward the swinging door through which Mai-Mai left the room. “She’s quite beautiful.”
“Quite,” Hollister echoes. “She’s also supremely talented. Her paintings redefine realism. They’re stunning. By the time she was twenty-two, she’d won numerous awards. By the time she was twenty-four, her work was represented by the most prestigious galleries. She broke new ground as well by combining several of her larger paintings with a unique form of performance art that began to draw enthusiastic crowds.”
“Does she still paint?”
“Oh, yes. Better than ever. Magnificent images exquisitely rendered.”
“Then why …”
“Why is she here serving us lunch?”
“I can’t help but wonder.”
“She creates paintings but doesn’t sell them anymore.”
“You sure know how to build mystery, Wayne.”
Hollister smiles. “I’ve intrigued you, have I?”
“Greatly. I’d love to see these paintings.”
“You can’t. After she finishes a new canvas, she destroys it.”
Bafflement creases Tom Buckle’s brow. “Whyever would she do such a thing?”
“Because she’s an adjusted person. She made the list.”
This incident with Mai-Mai has disoriented Tom just enough so that the word list has no immediate meaning for him.
“The Hamlet list,” Hollister explains.
Puzzlement gives way to misunderstanding, and Tom smiles. “You give one hell of a pitch meeting, Wayne. And she’s quite an actress.”
“She’s not an actress,” Hollister assures him. “She’s just an obedient little bitch. She destroys them because I tell her to.”
Just then Tom Buckle’s gaze shifts from his host to the wall of glass behind him. “What on earth …?” Tom rises from his chair.
Wainwright Hollister gets to his feet as well and turns to the window.
Mai-Mai stands naked on the terrace, in the swiftly falling snow, facing them and smiling serenely, seeming more mystical than real.
“Her body is as perfect as her face,” says Hollister, “but one can grow tired even of such perfection. I’ve had enough of her.”
A scarlet silk scarf drapes Mai-Mai’s right hand. It slides to the snow-carpeted terrace, revealing a pistol.
“Performance art,” Tom Buckle tells himself, for he is both confused and in denial.
Soundlessly snow falls and falls, cascades of white petals, as Mai-Mai puts the barrel of the gun in her mouth and seems to breathe out the dragon fire of muzzle flash, seems to fold to the terrace in slow motion, the flowerfall of snow settling silently on her silent corpse.
Jane raised the lower sash of a double-hung window.
A foot below the windowsill, running nearly the width
