Legacy of a Mad Scientist Read Online Free PDF Page A

is your problem because you are going to meet a
lot more people just like her. You need to win her over. I don’t
mean her personally, but as a test case. Just so you can learn how
to do it, in case you need to someday."
    Mrs. Rabier paused for a long moment then let out a
sigh.
    "Let me tell you a story. This is the hardest lesson
I ever learned. When I was young, I had a teacher who had once been
a student at Wellstone Dance Academy. This was on the east coast,
where I grew up.
    "The director, Miss Marks, was a hateful old crone.
Now they held an audition every year, and I was dying to get in,
until I met Director Marks."
    Suddenly, Mrs. Rabier became a girl in Ashley's eyes.
Some internal change had softened her features, and Ash saw a real
person talking, not just an adult, playing a role. Ashley could see
that she, Alison, had been tall and graceful. She felt as if she'd
never met her before. Beneath the instructor mask, she was
charming.
    "When I went for my audition, my instructor
downplayed the significance of Wellstone because of his negative
experience there, but I was desperate to get accepted. When I was
summoned in, (now this was part of her technique), Director Marks
was still criticizing the girl before me, and she was cruel.
    "I don't know why, but I wasn't scared of her. I knew
I was good. Not as good as some of the girls I knew, but I’d been
blessed with height, and I was pretty. And I too, worked my ass
off.
    Also, I think I wasn’t scared because my teacher
didn't think much of her. He was a clear-headed and disciplined
man, not emotional and yet he could still be enthusiastic. I don’t
know how, we were just children, but he treated us like adults, a
great instructor.
    “Anyhow, I went through my routine, I did fine, but
it wasn't my best performance. I was kind of detached that morning.
You know, I remember, that was the first time I considered doing
something else with my life, something other than ballet.”
    Alison smiled. "Director Marks gave me an offhand
compliment. I remember her hardly even watching. She'd been
preoccupied with one of her assistants, but I had done well. For
me, it was anticlimactic; I already had my epiphany. I wasn’t
attached to the outcome anymore. I ended up going to another school
and didn't even pursue dance right away. I just registered for the
basics my first year. The world felt so much larger, all of a
sudden. But that’s just my half of the story. This is the part that
is relevant to you.
    "Another girl I knew, Jenny Erling, she did go to
Wellstone. Jenny was the nicest girl I'd ever met. Everyone who met
her liked her. No one ever had anything mean to say about her,
except that she was too nice.
    "It took awhile, but Jenny broke this evil old woman,
just as you would a horse, it made the papers. This cruel lady
became a compassionate person. Director Marks recreated the way we
teach dance. To this very day, you are all following her program,
because she published it for free. No one had ever done anything
like that before. Back then all the programs required
non-disclosure agreements."
    "What's that?" Ashley asked.
    "You had to sign a contract that said if you ever
told anyone, or God forbid taught anyone what you learned at the
academy, you could be sued, or put in jail.
    "So when Director Marks had a change of heart and
published her manifesto, it was a newsworthy event. She gave Jenny
Erling one hundred percent of the credit for changing her mind.
    "This sort of thing may happen every day, but I've
never heard of it before. If it hadn't happened in ballet, in my
immediate circle, I might not have heard of it at all. But my point
is this; Rebecca is small potatoes. Someday, you may be up against
a Director Marks. And you won't be able to beat her with clever
observations. You'll have to befriend her.
    "I knew I didn't have it in me. I gave up ballet
because I knew I didn’t have that in me. I didn’t know it
right away, but when all this hit the headlines,