Snip, Snip !

Two young art students, one male and one female, were already in the side room of the gallery laying out their robot costumes that looked suspiciously like cybermen ! "Hi" said Debbi brightly. No answer. "I guess you are going to be the ones who'll be chopping my clothes ? I hope you'll be careful with the scissors !" No answer. "I must admit I'd rather have you guys doing it than a real robot." No answer. "Well, it's always nice to work in such a friendly atmosphere !" Debbi continued her monologue, as she began to get changed into the functional clothes she had been given to wear for the ritual shredding. Again, no answer initially. Then the girl whispered fiercely "Z says we are not to talk to you, robots wouldn't do that." "Shush" the boy admonished her. "Oh for goodness sake" Debbi groaned.

Vanessa came in to break the awkward silence. "Z wants you to walk out passively to the chair on the raised platform, like a zombie."she said. "Acting's not part of my fee" Debbi teased her. Vanessa looked alarmed. "Don't worry, just teasing, I know I'm not getting paid" Debbi relented. "I think my acting ability will run to being a zombie !" Vanessa was relieved. "Once they've cut all your clothes off, just stay there quietly and follow Z's lead with K9, er, I mean the symbolic dog robot."

The only disadvantage for Debbi as she made her way to the chair to begin the performance was that, as a zombie, she could not look around to see who was in the audience. The gallery was a bit too close to home for comfort compared to where she had undertaken the other tasks for Lawrence, which were either in distant lands or in some semiprivate location. But she did not think anyone from work would be seen dead in an art gallery, especially one as pretentious as this.

Z kept his Buddha like silence and made no attempt to interact with his audience but there was a back projection behind Debbi that explained the concept, such as it was. Debbi could neither see this, nor the black and white big screen version of herself seated on the chair that was also displayed ! The two robot students began jerky movements around her, brandishing their scissors. Debbi allowed herself the conceit that she made a better zombie than they did robots !

The bots began by cutting the sleeves from her blouse. Debbi was relieved to find that the scissors were sharp enough to cut through the material efficiently without any awkward tugging or tearing. The process was slow and methodical in an order that had been laid down by Z. After cutting all the buttons off of Debbi's blouse and leaving it hanging open, the students then set about splitting the skirt on either side from hem to waistband. All the time, Debbi sat passively staring straight ahead !