[Name Redacted]

Ruby

What is he playing at? We picked the women weeks ago, he can’t be changing on the fly! On the air!

“Oh, Al! Never a dull moment with you!” Laugh. Gotta recover after how badly the last few went. Play along. Ruby dug her fingernails into her palm and waited to see who emerged from the green room, but it remained closed. Instead, Al calmly walked over to the line of showgirls and took one of their hands. Is that the one from earlier? Indeed it was, the black woman Michael had shared a look with at their entrance. Who the hell is she?

The showgirl curtseyed effortlessly on her high heels and smiled the big Harem Hotel smile that all the staff wore.

“Mikey baby, ringing any bells?” Ruby saw a tiny spark of recognition in his eyes, but no more than earlier. He shook his head. “Maybe you don’t remember her like this.” Al said.

He cannot be serious. As if he read her mind, Al glanced at Ruby to confirm that he was.

“Let’s roll the clock back a bit.” Al spun his finger around counter-clockwise, and the woman’s headdress fell to pieces and began to fly in circles around her body. The feathers accelerated, swirling around her faster and faster. Even through the small tempest it was clear that her body began to change. Her curvaceous breasts and ass receded, taking her back to an A-cup with a taut dancer’s bottom. She shrank several inches, losing her towering 6’-in-heels frame until she was the shortest on the stage. A fleur-de-lis tattoo appeared on her shoulder as if the ink were emerging from within her skin.

“Better now?” The feathers dropped to the stage to reveal her fully. Even in her new body, she continued to stare and smile silently, playing her part.

“She’s lovely, but still not ringing a bell.”

Al dramatically slapped his forehead. “Well, of course you wouldn’t remember…” He placed his hand on Michael’s forehead, and drew it away as if lifting a veil from Michael’s eyes. “Try again, Mikey.” This time, true understanding spread across his face.

“My god… Ronnie?!?!” The color drained from his skin. Michael had been hammered with quite a lot this evening and managed to remain mildly stoic, but the sight of…her… obliterated him.

“That’s right baby, our final contestant is Mrs. Rhonda Clark!”

LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT - NORTH HOLLYWOOD DIVISION

INCIDENT REPORT

Reporting Officer: Officer Matthew OLIVERA
Date of Incident: 14 October 2006
Type of Incident: Reported **** / Reported Human Trafficking
Narrative: At approximately 0930 hours, I was patrolling in my marked cruiser with Officer Jennifer MCNALLY along westbound Victory Blvd. when I received a call from dispatch of a reported **** in the 6600 block of Camellia Avenue. I accepted the call and activated my siren. Upon arrival at the scene, a 25-year-old caucasian male attempted to signal me from the sidewalk. The man identified himself as MICHAEL CLARK. The man was in an agitated state and indicated that he had called 911 because he was unable to locate his wife, a 22-year-old african-american female that he identified as RHONDA CLARK. MICHAEL stated that he lived together with RHONDA, but had awoken that morning to discover her missing from their shared apartment. I asked if she had gone to work early or left to visit friends, but MICHAEL stated that the HOLLYWOOD HILLS DANCE COMPANY where she worked was not meeting that day and that she would not have left without telling him. He insisted that she had been forcibly kidnapped by agents of an organized criminal group that he called HAREM HOTEL, but could not provide any description of these agents. I asked him how he knew this, he frantically waved a folded piece of paper at myself and MCNALLY. He claimed that the paper told him that RHONDA had been kidnapped to appear on a television show where she would sexually compete for an unidentified male referred to as the “Master.” I took the paper to review its contents but found that it was blank.

MICHAEL permitted MCNALLY and myself to enter the residence. I directed MCNALLY to speak with MICHAEL in the living room while I performed a search. The apartment contained a single bedroom with an adjacent bathroom. In my search, I discovered no indications of a female occupant. I opened the closets and drawers and found only men’s clothing and shoes in the appropriate size of MICHAEL’s build. I searched the bathroom and found no prescription **** in the name of either MICHAEL or RHONDA, and no feminine cosmetics or sanitary products of any kind. The pictures on the wall depicted MICHAEL in a range of activities, but none included a woman matching his description of RHONDA.

I returned to the living room to find MICHAEL engaged in a phone conversation. Officer MCNALLY informed me that he was speaking to a woman he identified as RHONDA’s mother, named Nancy WALLACE. MICHAEL’s demeanor had become frantic and an argument ensued between MICHAEL and the party on the phone. At my order, he provided me with the phone and I identified myself as a Los Angeles police officer. Nancy WALLACE insisted that she had no daughter, and had no idea who MICHAEL was before disconnecting the call.

Officer MCNALLY asked MICHAEL for a photo of RHONDA to distribute. But after reviewing the contents of his wallet and a digital camera, he was unable to produce an image of the purported victim. It was at this point that MICHAEL determined that he was not wearing a wedding ring and became increasingly despondent and uncommunicative. I directed Officer MCNALLY to comfort MICHAEL. I returned to my vehicle and contacted dispatch, requesting a driver’s license check on a RHONDA CLARK at the address indicated on MICHAEL’s identification. Dispatch informed me that no RHONDA CLARK appeared at that address in the California Department of Motor Vehicles database. I asked dispatch if the California State Police Organized Crime Unit contained any records of an organization known as HAREM HOTEL, and was again informed in the negative. I contacted the HOLLYWOOD HILLS DANCE COMPANY administrative number, and was told that no person by the name of RHONDA CLARK had ever been employed by said company.

After returning to the apartment, I informed MICHAEL that I was unable to substantiate the existence of RHONDA, and therefore, the occurrence of any crime. I then began a field mental health check by asking the prescribed battery of questions. MICHAEL’s agitation increased substantially and he became verbally abusive of myself and Officer MCNALLY. He again made reference to the purported letter, and when MCNALLY and I confirmed that it contained no text, MICHAEL accused us of being agents of the HAREM HOTEL ourselves. Following a warning of imminent arrest, MICHAEL calmed down enough to complete the screening but remained in a highly agitated state. After MICHAEL answered the questions, I consulted with Officer MCNALLY in private and we determined that MICHAEL was deeply disturbed but was not an immediate threat to himself or others. We agreed that there existed no probable cause to indicate a crime was in progress or had been committed, and that MICHAEL did not satisfy the requirements for an 5150 Involuntary Psychiatric Detention. We informed MICHAEL about mental health services provided by Los Angeles County and offered to contact a social worker, but he was not interested in pursuing those options. MICHAEL violently slammed his front door behind us as we departed the scene.

Actions Taken: None.

FOLLOW-UP: Upon my own initiative, on 27 October 2006 I returned to MICHAEL’s residence for a wellness check. MICHAEL answered the door and greeted me calmly and asked my name as if we had never met. I asked how he was feeling since the incident of 14 October, but MICHAEL appeared confused by my question and claimed to have no memory of the incident, the letter, of myself or Officer MCNALLY (not present). MICHAEL displayed no visible reaction to the name RHONDA CLARK and claimed that he had never heard it. As there appeared to be no further actions necessary, I departed the scene.

REPORT CLOSED

“His goddamned wife?” Mallory whispered.

“He never said a word about another wife…” Danica looked utterly shell-shocked.

Ruby grabbed Al by the collar and waved her hand over their heads. Everyone else in the theater -Master, contestant, or staff- froze in place. She pulled him off-stage and off-camera,

“This is not part of the deal, Al. She wasn’t in the files.”

“Well why would she be? The files are based on Mikey’s memory, and he clearly didn’t remember her”

“Then how the hell did you know about her?”

“Oh, me and Ronnie? We go wayyyyyyy back.” Ruby’s felt as though she would vomit. The lost season. The redacted files. The cover up. “Yeah, now you’re piecing it together. Who else you think woulda covered that up?”

“She’s not eligible, you can’t just bring back an old contestant!”

“The season never finished. She was never bound to a Master. She’s fair game, baby.” Ruby freezing the world was like bearing a heavy weight, and she trembled from the effort. "You need to take a breather, baby." Al pushed her hands off and used his own power to unfreeze the world. She doubled over, dropping her hands to her knees to catch her breath. “If you’ll excuse me…” He strode back onto the stage to continue, leaving the stunned Ruby standing in the wings.

“Mrs. Clark is, well…it’s complicated. But let’s say she is 22 years old. Rhonda, or ‘Ronnie’ as he liked to call her, was Michael’s first love. They married back when they were both young idiots with so much promise ahead of them. Until Rhonda caught the attention of one of our previous Masters! But up to a few seconds ago, Mikey didn’t remember a thing! Let’s see what she has to say about having another shot!”

No no no, not here! Ruby moved in to stop it, but she was too drained and too slow to interfere. Al walked up to Rhonda and gently tapped her nose.

“Boop.”

Ronnie’s eyes suddenly focused, as if seeing the world with clarity for the first time. She slowly took in her surroundings. She looked down at her body in the skimpy outfit, tentatively opening and closing her hands and moving her limbs. She barely seemed to trust that they worked. The crowd quieted enough to hear a pin drop. Everyone, Michael and Ruby included, held their breath as she opened her mouth.

Ronnie let out a long, room-shaking, bloodcurdling scream. Sixteen years’ worth of pent-up rage and anguish in one explosion. Ruby was actually pushed backwards a few steps and crossed her arms over her face to protect herself against the outpouring of emotion. Ronnie collapsed to one knee and Michael, suddenly free to move with Ruby and Al’s attention distracted, rose from his chair and knelt to pull her into a hug.

“...Is it you?” Michael asked, tears running down his cheeks. Ronnie couldn’t find words just yet, so she just nodded. Michael pulled her even closer. The room remained quiet that his sobs echoed all the way to the back.

Danica turned away at the sight and wiped her own tears. Mallory and Janet stepped off their stools and pulled Danica into their hug as well, shielding her from the view of the crowd with their own bodies. The scream even managed to wake Sarah and Luciana out of their stupor.

Al, however, was nowhere to be seen. In the immediate aftermath, he’d scarpered off and left Ruby to do the damage control. She hustled to the front of the stage.

“Thank you everyone for coming out or watching from home! We’ll see you next time on this season of Harem Hotel!”

Ruby frantically made the throat-slash gesture to the crew standing in the wings, and the curtain dropped over the stage to conceal the group from view.

EPISODE CREDITS ROLL