As I walked into the room and examined it more fully, I saw the table with the box on it again, and I walked on to look at it, Kelly following behind me. I looked around the room and discovered a few objects I hadn’t seen before, since they were fairly obscured before and I hadn’t really had a chance to look in very far. When I walked in past the door way, I discovered a large tank of water to my right that had covered the side of the wall and it actually wrapped around it. On the opposite side were the depressions I had mentioned before. The room seemed a lot more boring than the last hall way, but still quite interesting. The box on the table was quite simple, and when I opened it, I found something that just looked like a simple stereo. It had many simple switches and dials, but they were all written in the same script as the book had had on it, so I couldn’t really understand them. I started to press some of the buttons and nothing happened. I finally flicked a switch on the side and a few small red and green lights lit up on the stereo… apparently I’d found the power switch. I was curious so tried to press the buttons again and suddenly the room went completely dark. This gave me quite a fright and I heard Kelly softly shriek.
What happened next I couldn’t have guessed but it mesmerized me. The room started to flash in different lights. At first it flashed like a strobe light with a flicker here and there and sometimes it would stay on a particular flash for a longer pause. If this had only been in a normal room, I would not have been so impressed, but looking into the depths of the depressions and wells on the wall, made it seem a lot more interesting. I then looked to my side and found the watery backdrop and that was also quite dazzling. It flashed like this for maybe a minute or so, then went black again with total darkness. I couldn’t imagine even the depths of space were ever as dark as it was now, then suddenly; the flashes came back, but this time with colored lights. It flashed various colors, but not just any colored lights, brilliantly vibrant colored lights seemed to dance along the wall, and it rapid succession, blinking with slow speed and alternating, then as it went on it got faster and faster. Soon all of the colors were alternating in really strange hypnotic patterns. I could hear nothing too, except the sound of Kelly and myself breathing heavily. As the flickers continued I looked toward the depths of the depressions and found that in each depression the light seemed to be a different hue. Some were brilliantly lit up and others were darker. The water too, seemed to be moving and in the same way, the water seemed to be carrying different amounts of these great lights.
Again the light stopped altogether for about ten seconds. I asked Kelly what she made of it, and she told me she hadn’t seen anything like it, but she liked it so far and she kind of wanted to see it again, right as I was about to try to fidget with the light stereo, the next sequence started. Now it was a brilliant display of different colors mixed together, suddenly there were lasers blasting in various directions. I felt like I was in a planetarium looking at different stars of great and small magnitudes. The points again were in the colors as before and would flash and fade in various sequences, around the depressed wall and the water one. The flashed like this for a short time than suddenly began to dance around, spinning in circles around each other, and the build up, was almost overwhelming. I can’t recall the last time my eyes had been this impressed by singular flashes of light. The flashing continued to shine in the splendor this way for nearly a minute and as it flashed and sparkled, I again heard a noise much like the one in the hallway before, with a faint hum and soft drumming in the back ground. Then there was the faint sound of Nido’s voice beautifully, but distinctly him singing in the background. It sounded almost like being in a church. The voices in the chorus multiplied and seemed to run in time with the music.
The instruments that started to accompany him were like none I’d ever heard, beautiful, and full of melody. The strange thing was, I could hear at least five different tones of Nido singing. I couldn’t understand anything he sang, other than the tonal quality, but he was obviously singing some sort of foreign lyrics, maybe it was Latin. An all too short moment after it had started and really gotten interesting, it again faded to blackness and silence. About two seconds after everything had fully stopped, some of the white flashes of strobe I’d seen at the beginning started again. This time music accompanied it, but it sounded much more familiar. It was “Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis”, by Ralph Vaughan Williams, it started slowly and dreamily, and the lights accompanied it in perfect unison, lingering and fading in a sort of hypnotic state. As they played, it was brilliant and as the melody picked up, suddenly the background lights mixed with the more focused lights that shone in specific depressions and areas. It almost conveyed the very message of sorrow and longing I’d often felt when I’d heard this song before. The song itself played in a more entrancing and wonderful clarity than I’d ever heard. As the whole thing played out, I just wanted to sit on the floor, and so I did, to discover that Kelly already had the same idea and was thus sitting there as well.
After this song and light show finished, next came the unforgettable song of Eine Kleine Nacht Musik by Mozart. As the light flickered to this fast paced elegant song, the lights again flicked and flashed in time with it. There were more brilliant and large lasers flickering too, and they did it in a very elegant fashion, when I noticed that they were flicking in their various colors into each other and creating new colors in the intersection between them. They blasted and blared on like this, and swooped and swirled to make new incredibly interesting intersections between them. I was quite curious about where this light was coming from and so looked around at what I could only guess were the sources of it, though they should be obvious. When Mozart finished playing, I discovered that the ceiling here, though completely void of any painting or anything like the first room, was full of tiny holes that would have escaped my attention normally, and in the wholes were what I could only guess was hundreds or thousands of lights, all of them acting almost like a gigantic television projector. The funny thing was, no particular images flashed, save what patterns the lights could make together. Then another song came on, this time in a very pleasing and light manner, it wasn’t any I’d ever heard before. The instruments again sounded quite odd to me, like they had in the songs I’d heard with Nido’s voice.
His voice didn’t sing in this one, however, it was only the instruments. The tune was catchy and the instruments sounded like something of a mix between a harp and someone hitting a jug of water. Each instrument that played sounded different than any I’d ever heard before. This was all done to the style of a Johann Sebastian Bach tune, and ended with a Strauss like waltz. The light of course flickered in time with this too. This went on for several more songs, and as it played out, I simply relaxed on the floor and enjoyed the lights that went before me. It felt like I was watching a ballet of lights dancing around and shining like nothing I’d ever seen. In some of the songs that played the lights were obviously shining in patterns like the night sky, replete with constellations and stars, and they would start to move around as if we were changing latitudes. We’d go from the South Pole, to the North Pole and back again. The sun too, was represented, but we saw it as if it were free of an atmosphere and just stood out as a huge bright star in our field. We then would move to what I suppose Nido projected would be the view from other star systems, and the constellations that seemed obvious to us, would change, some of them staying the same, but others getting far too obscured. After a while of this, a narration in Nido’s voice came on at the beginning of the last song.
“A man looks at the star and he dreams about what is to come, and where he is going. He remembers where he has come from…” At this point during the monologue a flash of a pretty young girl’s face flashed in an outline only represented by the shading of the light, I thought it to be fairly curious. “… Where we will go from here, I can’t tell you, but I can say that a man exists in what he makes and what he finds. Life is so powerful, and there is so much to do and so much to see. If only there was no pain…no pain…no pain…” As he said this last line, there was an echo and then his voice faded altogether for a few seconds, when he spoke again, but this time it was in an interesting language I’d never heard. It sounded like a language of whispers, but attractive too. He continued to speak but for a shorter amount of time as what he’d said before, but at the end I heard a distinct repetition much like the ‘no pain’ he’d said in English. After that ended, suddenly the lights came up again, and the room was as well lit as before as if nothing had happened. It was a very strange experience and I asked Kelly again what she made of it.
She said, “Steven, I thought that was very interesting indeed, have you ever seen anything like that. I mean I’ve seen concerts where they make use of lights like that, but the focus seemed to be on the lighting, and the music only felt like a background support to me, what’d you think?”
“I thought it was brilliant. I want to watch it again. Maybe I can turn it on if I just mess with that box again.” I replied.
As I looked at it, again, I noticed that the box it was in opened more, and as I took down the lid in front of it, there was a logo in English that read ‘Nido’s Lusic Player’. What is a lucent player, I wondered.
“Have you ever heard of a lucent player, Kell?” I asked.
“No, but it seems pretty obvious that this thing plays what I’m sure can only be described as lusic, I’m sure whoever made it, and it looks from the title that maybe Mr. Nido did.”
“Yes, but what is ‘lusic’?” I asked.
“Light music, it seems appropriate enough, dear.” She answered.
So, we had apparently just watched a lusic show it was fantastic, and I’d definitely want to come back and watch it many times. I examined the player further, and found that on the bottom of it, were a few things I could describe as compact discs, I took one out, and it read ‘Mozart’, another read ‘Strauss’, and another ‘Nido’s love themes’ and so on. I then found a CD slot on the player and pressed open. It did open and inside there was a CD marked Nido’s Lusic demonstration. I closed the player and the lights went black again, and the whole sequence started again, but I didn’t have any more time to watch it now, so I went back to touch the player, and as I did it illuminated in a low red light, so that it was visible but wouldn’t distract the rest of the show. I found pressed the button I did before to get it to play in the first place, and it shut down. Afterward, we decided to get up and explore the rest of the house. So, I went for the next door, which was quite a lot more obvious in this room, and after finding a similar handle as we had to get to the hallway, opened it and proceeded through. A curious thing to me was that after we would go through any door, it would always automatically shut behind us, no matter where it was. Each room felt like it existed in pure isolation, not only from the room, but also the house. No room or hallway thus far, had had windows, except the antechamber we had first come in.
As we came to this floor, it branched out three ways, one leading up stairs, the other leading down stairs and the third led to another door, straight out in front of us. We decided to take the stairs up first, and had noticed that on either side of us there were half circles cut out of the wall, with a small pillar and busts of various people in front of them. Opposite of these busts were small, partially illuminated masks sticking out of the wall. I recognized only one of the faces and it was a person I’d met many years ago, named Winston, who had died from a heart attack. Winston worked with me some time ago and was a kindly man with a great jovial personality. It seemed a little odd to me that Nido would have what I could only really describe as a death mask of him in his hallway. On the other side was a bust of him, in what looked like a Roman toga. The bust was so well sculpted, that had it not had the distinct white tone of marble, I would have thought it was him. These busts and death masks lined the entire hallway, and it appeared to me that they were all people Nido had known in his life at one time or other. Either he had chiseled them all himself, or had a great deal of money with which to buy them. It all just made the man ever more mysterious to me, and I was eager to learn who these people were and what every one of them meant to him.
“I think I know this man, Kelly” I said pointing to Winston.
“Oh really, who is it?” She asked.
“It’s a man Nido and I used to work with when I first got there, he died shortly after my arrival there, he was a great fellow, everyone really liked him.” I answered.
“Well, apparently Mr. Nido did too.” She said matter-of-factly “Were they very close?”
“No, that’s the strange thing, or if they were, I didn’t know about it, I never saw him talk to anyone but me… not that he ever got in the way or anything, but it felt like he would really go out of his way to avoid people.” I said.
“Oh.” Kelly returned thoughtfully.
“I mean, there would be people who worked there for years and years, and didn’t even know his name, granted it was a pretty big place and all, but that’s how shy or secretive he was.”
“Why was he so secretive about everything, he obviously had a lot to give the world.”
“Well, that’s something I’ve wondered ever since the day I met him, I mean when we used to talk, he would be such a pleasant guy, and he seemed like someone I could talk to anything about, who’d actually have something useful to say back.” I continued “I felt, in many ways like I could tell him absolutely anything, and he just seemed interested and wanted to know all about me… it’s so strange to be here, in his house I mean, now, never having been here before while he was alive.”
When I had finished my diatribe, Kelly replied by saying “Well, honey, this place looks very well planned out, I mean just having seen what we have so far, I think he was retreating from something in life, he was afraid of people and so he spent his time here. This is where he wanted to be. Maybe he just wanted to quietly retire from people and felt that working as a night janitor was the best way to do it, and still make a living.”
Kelly was always so insightful, and I couldn’t imagine not having her with me. She seemed to make things clearer for me whenever I needed help with anything, and I was very glad she had come with me to this overwhelming house. We decided to go up the stairs, rather than down and explore what was here. As we walked up them, we found they curved to the left with the busts and death masks going along them all the while. The hallway they were in was fairly wide and when we had gotten to the top of the stairs, I found a full cut out statue of a naked woman, standing at the top. She was in a very elaborate pose with her arm stretched out and her hand open with long slender fingers. This girl had a pensive and extremely alluring look on her face, yet there was a look of sure sorrow there too if only subtle. She didn’t seem at all sexual, but rather innocent and pure. This was something I felt like belonged in the Louver or the Vatican, it was all carved like an ancient statue in the most graceful of positions. Her hair was bunched together like a Greek goddess, and as she stood there as beautiful and petite as a wood nymph, I saw the only part of her that seemed imperfect, her big does on either foot curved inward slightly, but otherwise she seemed to have what I could only describe as perfect features.
“Who do you suppose this is, Kell?” I asked.
“I’m not sure; I’ve never seen it before. She looks a little like Venus in Bottecceli’s painting,” Kelly said, “but prettier. Whoever this person was, I think she probably meant a lot to Nido, look around her, here’s that strange language again, and beneath it, there’s an inscription.”
Kelly read the inscription aloud.
TO YOU MY DARLING, MY LIFE HAS NEVER BEEN THE SAME WITH YOU NO LONGER IN IT.
FORGIVE ME, YOU WERE MY ONLY CREATOR OF JOY.
FORGIVE ME.
“Wow, I wonder who this girl was to him, she seems to have a place of honor to be sure here.” Kelly remarked.
“I’m not sure” I replied. “Perhaps she was his wife, but look at how young she looks.”
As we reached the peak of the stairs, we found a normal looking door with a handle, and when I went to turn it, I found it was locked. I saw a keyhole beneath the handle, and asked Kelly if she had the key to the house, maybe it opened this lock as well. She searched around her pockets and found it, we tried to put in the lock, but it wouldn’t fit. We looked around the busts and the masks; maybe Nido had hidden it here. It was nowhere to be found. After looking around quite a while, I went back downstairs, and was going to look through the rest of the house, but as I reached the entrance where I’d come in, Kelly yelled that she had an idea. I returned upstairs, and she looked around the statue with the inscription when she asked me to help her. Brushing around I was kneeling at an awkward angle, when I tried to steady myself, by pulling on the arm of the statue, it moved down, ever so slightly, and in her hand appeared the key. I took the key from her hand and put it in the lock, turned it and opened the door, to what looked to be Nido’s bedroom.
Before we entered, Kelly asked me something that was a little startling, both in that she hadn’t asked sooner, and because of how nervous in the way she asked it. She wouldn’t advance any further into the room, until I had addressed her question. “How did Mr. Nido die?”
“Well, he suffered a stroke at work, and died in the hospital the next day. Why do you ask?” I informed her.
“Well, it’s nothing really, but something I’d noticed all throughout the house was how impeccably clean it has been, especially for a man who had died nearly a month and a half ago.”
“Oh, why do you say that, it was something I noticed a while back, but just figured it hadn’t gotten much chance to collect dust, with how well sealed off these rooms seem to be.”
“Yes, I thought the same thing, but look at his bed, and everything, if a room ought to be dirty, it’s this one, and it’s as clean as if it were cleaned hours before we arrived here, and the furniture over there, that’s impossibly clean too, they said no one’s been here since he died and we came, right?”
“Yeah…”
“Well, I’m sorry, it just kind of scared me thinking about it is all.” She said as if composing herself into a sort of peace with the fact.
“I’m sure that you have a point, and I’m sure there’s some perfectly logical explanation for all of this, but for the moment, let’s go and see what this is all about.”
So, it was that we walked into Frazer’s bedroom, a little more cautious but still curious what we might find here.
