Mr. Mortok's Hall of Curiosities

The Blue Room and Ophelia

Ophelia the Dancer

     Once upon a time, there was a beautiful woman with six beautiful sisters. Every day she would perform with her beautiful sisters in amazing dances that inspired and delighted those who saw them. Every night she would go back to sleep with her six beautiful sisters, waiting to awaken and practice again.

     It was a wonderful life for the woman, she also had a father-of-sorts who loved his beautiful dancing girls and would teach them new dances and help them when they were worn down or stiff. He would tell them how wonderful they were and how gifted they were and how much they inspired people who saw them.

     One of the dancers had a secret, a secret that her father had given her, and just her. She could talk. Her other sisters were unable to speak, they lacked a voice, but she was different and had a voice all of her own. Not a voice she used for singing, oh no, she wasn't meant to sing. She was meant to dance. Her and her sisters were very happy until one day, one of her sisters fell in love. At first, she and the others were happy for their sister, but it began to show in her dancing. Where once they were part of a whole, the other six could detect that their sister was out of focus, no longer wholly part of the group. This worried their father as well and he decreed that they would go to sleep for some time and they would try a new place to dance.

     The night of their last performance, the woman went to her sister and revealed her secret. She used her voice in order to talk to her sister, to plead with her to continue to do what made her happy and not to risk that happiness on love. Love was dangerous, love was fleeting. They were not made to love, they were made to dance. To feel love, joy, and sadness and express it through the dance, but never to participate. The words fell on deaf ears. Her sister was shocked that she could speak but seemed firmly set on her decision.

     By the end of the show, it was too late. When she reached her sister's dressing room after the show, her beloved sister had run off with the man that she had fallen in love with, leaving Ophelia with one less sister. Their father was furious and demanded that they all return to the crates that they used for travel and to sleep. Even though none of the six remaining sisters had done anything wrong, he seemed so furious with them. So they went to sleep and traveled away from the city that had stolen their sister.

     It was not any better in their new city. Not any better at all. Ophelia and her sisters were still magnificent dancers, but something was missing from them now. There was a hole inside of them that they could not fill. Their father grew more and more irate with them as the beauty began to bleed from their dance and sorrow and sadness began to creep in. They were not as magnificent as they were before, now that there were only six of them.

     They tried their best, and their dances were still magnificent. Those who came to see them didn't know that anything was missing, but their father knew. Eventually, he declared that they would once again go to sleep while he tried to prepare another sister or find the one they had lost. So they went back into the crates and closed their eyes.

     When the light hit Ophelia's eyes, she did not know what was happening. Her crate lay in pieces about her and there was no one in sight. How had she gotten here? Where were her sisters? Had something happened? Ophelia waited patiently, knowing that in most instances if one was lost, the best thing to do was to wait until someone found you. So wait she did. She could be very patient.

     Her patience was rewarded eventually, though not in the way she would have hoped. Eventually, a nice gentleman did find her, though she was very dirty from having sat so still and waiting for so long. The gentleman offered her a ride into the city and offered to drop her off somewhere where she might perhaps be able to find her family. Ophelia thanked the nice man and took him up on his offer. He was a pleasant enough man, if a bit talkative. Ophelia was not used to speaking and so it was very novel to her. She told him of her sisters and of their father and how she was lost.