Chapter 21: Payback Can be Sweet

Little Haiti, Florida: late August

Several weeks before the fall term of Tamara’s senior school year was to begin, the Alexandres received a mailing from Miami Edison High School which contained school information for the coming school year. It contained Tamara’s class schedule, the sports schedule, the daily bell schedule, a schedule of school events from the performing arts department, a list of school clubs and their meeting times and room numbers, a medical information form for her annual physical exam, and one new item: a volunteer form for the student to indicate if he/she were willing to be a Naked in School participant.

Nadine showed that form to Tamara.

“You interested?” she asked.

“Mother! Not funny!” Tamara responded.

“But I heard something at the hospital today. Remember Marjory? Her daughter is a school district paralegal?”

Tamara nodded. “Yeah.”

“Marjory told me that her daughter mentioned that some officials at the district have been upset by what happened at your school last spring. They think that it was some kind of trick, but no one can figure out how it was done. When school starts, they want to try to have the Program, um, she told me they said, ‘start properly.’”

“Does she know how they would pick kids? I wonder if the school got the names back into that system the Program Office used again. Why do they keep trying to strip kids, anyway? That moronic federal agency is gone and no one’s forcing the states anymore.”

“She didn’t say. I suppose just pick randomly—lots of ways to do that.”

“No, it’s actually pretty hard to get a mathematically true random selection. If you use a computer, the numbers it generates aren’t truly random. Computers use distribution algorithms and they aren’t random because they use deterministic formulas which make the numbers they produce predictable. Computers can get pretty close to random if they use data derived from natural processes like atmospheric noise, like one popular site does. In my math class on statistics, we saw published studies which proved that humans are unable to consciously produce a sequence of random numbers and by extension, can’t make truly random selections out of items in a set.”

“Okay, dear, lecture mode off?” Nadine chuckled. “Sometimes talking to you is like being in a classroom.”

“Sorry, Mom. I guess I got carried away. Anyway, maybe I’ll let Linda know to mobilize the Edison anti-Program guardian corps for possible fall duty.”

She sent Linda a text explaining what she had heard and that there was a real possibility that somehow they might have the Program starting at Edison in the fall.

The next day, Tamara woke up with a bad headache. She was alarmed because in the past, her headaches presaged something bad was about to occur and sure enough, during the day she had a strong premonition that evil, though distant, was approaching.

That evening, she mentioned her premonition to her parents.

“I wonder—is this a warning that somehow they’ll be able to get the Program started?” she told them.

“Strange that you felt a premonition of evil too, sweetie,” Wilson told her. “I did too. I felt the same thing today. It wouldn’t make sense that I would get premonitions about Program stuff since the Program doesn’t directly affect me.”

“I’ll inquire for guidance from the lwa at our next service,” Nadine told them. “Perhaps they will provide advice.”

The following day, Tamara was still thinking about her premonition of evil coming.

I’m still getting the premonition that those yokels from district may try something fishy. I need to prepare. I may need to use my latest, version-4 maser, like I used its predecessor last time. It should work better, since I was able to make the maser much smaller, but I still can’t shrink the power supply. I still need that 24-volt lithium-ion battery, she thought.

Tamara assumed that they would simply claim that they had assembled a random set of names and then spring that news on the kids at the assembly. Most of the posts she had read about on the anti-Program website claimed that the kids could tell that the selectees were rarely, if ever, randomly chosen. She briefly considered simply stopping the assembly from happening by somehow coming up with another stunt, but then she decided that whoever it was who showed up from the district, they needed to be made an example of what happens when one thwarts the spirits.

She looked through the materials the school had sent about the coming school year to see if anything there would inspire a creative thought—and one item caught her eye: the performing arts schedule. It listed a number of major performances: several concerts by the band and the chorus and two productions, a musical in the winter and a play in the spring. The announcement contained a call for students to audition for the musical; the auditions would take place the week before school began. The announcement also mentioned the need for students to work as stage hands to help with the productions.

Perfect, working as a stage hand would satisfy one of the extracurriculars that she needed for the Clarke Scholarship application, plus it would give her access to the backstage area and the stage systems if she needed to disrupt an assembly. She could work with that. Besides, it would be cool to see the workings of a modern, computer-controlled sound and lighting system. But if her idea were to work, she needed to get started really quickly on getting that job. She was between terms now so she could spend time learning how the stage systems operated so she could work her own magic.

On a gamble that she could catch someone at the high school, since it was still summer, Tamara went there the next morning. She knew from conversations with the teachers and staff that they started a week or two before school began, and sure enough, she saw Dr Barello walking in from the staff parking area.

“Tamara, what a surprise!” she said. “Um, school doesn’t start for another two weeks. So I’m guessing that something’s up, right?”

“Yes, ma’am. I came early ‘cause I read the performing arts schedule announcement. With my electronics background—you know about that?—okay, I wanted to see if I could work as a stage technician. I saw in the schedule that Mrs Peary wanted some kids for that.”

“Oh, yes, three of our graduates last term were the backbone of the AV tech crew and two of their replacements that Mrs Peary had trained—the twins, their dad took a new job in Tampa. So Mrs Peary really needs some student techs quickly. She’s here today, I see her car. Let’s go see her and I can put in a word for you.”

“Oh, thanks, Dr Barello.”

Barello introduced Tamara to Mrs Peary and told her about Tamara’s background, including her patents for several electronics devices and that she wanted to help as a tech. Peary practically hugged Tamara, she was so pleased. Sometimes those technical jobs were hard to fill with competent kids.

“I’ll have you talk to Mr Rojas. He’s in charge of the student AV squad,” Peary told Tamara.

A few minutes later, Mr Rojas came in and Peary started to introduce them.

“Oh, I know her,” Rojas said. “She knows some cool stuff; helped me out a few times, most recently when I was troubleshooting a video camera in her classroom.”

“She’s volunteering to be a tech for the stage productions,” Peary told him.

“Yeah; I’m interested in computers, so the sound and light equipment here should be nice to work with,” Tamara told them.

“And we do need sound and light techs. The two guys we trained moved away,” Rojas commented.

“That’s what Mrs Peary told me.”

“Well, Tamara, you want a look-see? If you have time, I’ll show you the gear. The lighting setup has a computerized control and some automated features. This here’s the light board where we program the lanterns—that’s the ‘official’ name of the entire lighting fixture—and we program the lighting effects and save them to play back during a show. And if you look up in the fly, the area above the stage, you’ll see all the spots and floods. Those ‘wings’ on some lanterns are called ‘barn doors’ and are used to narrow the light beam. Some lanterns have shutters instead; they’re computer controlled. Our lanterns are all LEDs now and can be programmed to light in lots of colors. They’re all linked to the computer and light board with a DMX-type system. We have a few manual lanterns—don’t use them too much; they’re for special effects. We set them up and leave them.

“You see those lantern head mountings up there on the trusses? Many are pan and tilt mounts the computer runs. A few are on tracks and can move all the way across the stage. Let me show you this.”

He went to a wall control panel, unlocked it, and opened it.

“This is where the power to all the stage and house lights, plus the rest of the stage power, comes from. All the breakers are labeled; we keep the system turned off during the weekends unless there’s a show. The house lights have a bank of switches over there,” he pointed. “Now over here is one of the light boards. There’s an identical one up there in the control room at the back of the house. Now take this mike. Okay, let me get those spots on. See, these are the controls for the traveling spots. Turn on the mike and walk out to the middle of the stage, then walk upstage.”

“Upstage is away from the audience?”

“Correct. Watch the spots.”

Tamara walked out onto the stage and as she did, two spotlights lit up, bathing her in light. As she walked out to the stage center and then turned upstage, the light beams followed her. They continued following her until she walked back into the wings; then they winked out.

“That’s so cool,” she remarked. “Can all the lights do that?”

“Not all. There are six automated follow system lanterns mounted on the trusses in the fly,” he said, pointing up. “Two are traveling. Next, look at those booms attached to the walls on stage left and right, just behind the front curtain. The top lanterns on each side—the ones about seven feet above the floor—those are follow-lights too and they can give the actor or scene a dramatic wash of light from the sides. And the lights are programed to follow these little target transmitters that the actors wear,” he showed her the little clip-on box. “The mike I gave you has a target transmitter attached to it.

“That’s the lighting basics. Now, for the sound system...”

Rojas went over the wired and wireless microphones, the hand-held, clip-on, and headset ones. He showed her the sound board with its multiple connections for sources and playback from a USB flash drive or USB cable, SD card, CD/DVD player, or even a cassette tape.

“Input levels are controlled separately using the slider for each channel on this mixing board. These rotaries control the channel frequency response and the rotary dials up here are the channel pre-amp gains. There are controls for left/right balance on each channel. The big slider here is the overall board gain.”

“Gee, there are so many controls,” Tamara said, looking at the board.

“Yeah, but each column is a channel, so learn one channel and you got most of the board. Anyway, the mixer connects to noise suppressors and then the amps and they power the speaker system. How much time you got today?”

“Um, I can stay till 2 or 3.”

“Good. You interested? I can give you a crash course. With what you already know, this stuff should be a breeze. If I think you’re ready, we’ll make you the best boy.”

“But I’m a girl. Is that what they call the techs?” Tamara asked.

“The head electrician is called a gaffer, he’s also in charge of lighting design if there’s no lighting director. That’s me. His assistant is called the ‘best boy.’ Maybe they do call a girl in that position the ‘best girl.’ The best bo ... um, you would run the lighting crew, tell them how to do the setups I design and we’d run the light board for productions together. Okay, best girl, let’s get to work. First, are you scared of heights?”

By the end of the day, Tamara was enthralled by what she had learned. And she was tired, after multiple trips up the ladders to the stage fly to reach the grid deck alongside of the lighting trusses. The physical layout was built with students in mind; the ladders and grid deck had tracks to clip safety straps onto the mandatory safety harnesses that people working in the fly had to wear.

But if district officials were coming here to “get the Program started properly,” as her mother had heard, Tamara would also need to come up with a viable plan for the stage; one which she could quickly get going should the officials try to organize an assembly.

Tamara worked hard during the next week, learning to run the lighting system and its computer controls. Rojas gave her a final exam which consisted of setting up a production stage lighting scheme from a lighting plan; the one he had used for the musical the previous year. By now, Tamara had two assistants and, plan in hand, the three clambered around the grid decks repositioning lanterns and aiming the manual ones. Then she had to enter the lighting command sequence into the computer, keyed to the lighting cues in the script.

Rojas checked the crew’s work; made several corrections; but proclaimed that the job was good, especially since this was their first attempt.

“It’ll get much easier, kids,” he told them. “That was the first time you saw that plan. For this winter’s production, you’ll be involved in the lighting planning from the get-go.”

Tamara also got some cross-training on the sound system, but the primary person doing that job was a member of a garage band and had several years of experience using a mixer board.

She also spent time building a second maser. She had fit her version-4 maser in the housing of a fat, stubby aluminum flashlight, so she got a second flashlight and soon had two working masers. Then she heard, through her mother, that the school was to have an assembly on the first Monday back. She needed to get ready.

The Wednesday that school began for the year was a partial day and Tamara took the afternoon to work on learning some additional details about the lighting equipment. She was working on details of the follow lights’ operation, and under the guise of learning about them, she prepared them for possible use during Monday’s assembly. Using some gaffer’s tape, she affixed her masers onto the sides of the two follow-lights which were mounted on the vertical booms at both sides of the stage. She connected the masers’ power cords to AC adapters which she plugged into the lighting power bars. Finally, she disconnected the lamps inside the lanterns so they wouldn’t come on when the tracking was activated.

The light board was bluetooth-enabled so the follow lights could be turned on remotely, as were her masers. She now had an automatic aiming device for her masers, one which would keep them aimed at the target transmitters, which she would somehow get whatever district officials who came, to wear.

The next step of her plan was preparing a special recording to play over the auditorium’s speakers. She decided to use the SD card input on the sound board since the card slot wasn’t readily noticeable and the card could be slipped out quickly. She would use the same web-based voice distortion and frequency-shifting app that she had used previously, too. Since the board could handle a recorded multichannel input, she recorded the “lwa voices” in separate channels on the card and on the Friday before the assembly, she programmed the board to play the recording while randomly switching the various speaker output channels so the voices would appear to be moving all around the hall.

A major problem with this plan was that if Rojas noticed any of her setup when he got the auditorium ready for the visitors on Monday, everything would fall apart. So at the end of school Friday, Tamara planted Rojas with a suggestion to call in sick on Monday.

The stage is set, Tamara thought when she was finished with her arrangements. Literally. He he.

That weekend, Linda texted Tamara.

“Can I come over? Need to talk”

She replied, “Sure”

“I hope you’re wrong about the Program shit,” she told Tamara later, as they sat down over a snack. “I thought that after last year, no one would try that frikkin’ Program again.”

Tamara shook her head. “I’m sure the teachers won’t get involved now, but I have a strong feeling about this. I heard rumors, and also got some tips from the district office. A friend of a friend, you know.”

“If you say so. Well, if whoever comes tries something...”

Tamara interrupted, “Like calling kids’ names to start the Program. That’s what I think.”

“Yeah. I’ll alert the text tree to get the message out. If any names are called, the guardians will shout ‘Everyone, refuse! We’ll back you up!’ You said the teachers won’t interfere?”

“Yeah. Barello said at a meeting that 90 percent of them told her that they won’t enforce anything about the Program. But something could go wrong, so ask the guardians to be ready to do guardian things if the shit goes sideways.”

“Huh. That’s colorful,” Linda giggled.

“My dad’s a Marine. I learned all kinds of cool expressions from him.”

That night, Tamara had a disturbing dream that an evil cloud was drawing closer and that she’d need her strength and abilities; she should keep herself ready to act. Then, when Monday came, Tamara almost had a stroke when she saw Rojas coming into the school as she started up the walk to the main door.

Uh oh, sideways shit already? she thought.

But he came over to her and said, “Tamara, I’m kinda sick today but realized I had taken the light and sound system keys home with me on Friday. I called Barello and told her that you knew how to set up the auditorium—the AV squad usually does that for the assemblies anyway, you know.”

Tamara didn’t know, but was delighted to learn that.

“Here’s the keys. I gotta get back to bed. Tell Barello I gave you the keys and you know what to do.”

He walked back to the parking lot.

Tamara went into the school office and looked for Barello. She was in Leonard’s office where they were talking. Tamara knocked.

“Oh, ‘morning, Tamara. Something you need?” Leonard asked.

“Mr Rojas sent me to Dr Barello with his keys for the stage—said he called here,” Tamara answered.

“He did. He didn’t have to come in; we could have opened the safe and gotten the backup set from there. He also said that you could do the setup for him. Our visitors told me they wanted just a wireless mike,” Barello said.

“Just one?” she asked and Barello nodded. “And I assume general lighting on the stage like normal. The podium is still on the stage from your Wednesday assembly; I’ll leave it there. How many are coming? And it’s still on for second period?”

“Two people, the district’s assistant superintendent and another person. Yes, second period,” Barello told her.

“I should check the stage now and make sure nothing needs doing.”

“I’ll go unlock the door for you; let’s go.”

Barello unlocked the hall. The four security lights were on. They walked to the front and looked at the stage.