Rick watched the scene from the background. He had arrived late and they had started without him, using their director to read his part. It was just a practice run and even the stage directions weren't entirely worked out yet: they wouldn't be until the actors and everyone made a trip down to the place they would eventually be filming at. Until then they had the script and notes from someone Rick didn't know to go by.
With as much time as they'd had to memorize their lines, this was practically a dry run, and no one had bothered to dress in the long robes that served as their costumes but had simply assembled in a loose circle as their notes instructed. A small group of actors stood at the center, facing outward while their co-workers knelt and faced them. On the fringe of this circle were a few actors who looked out of place standing up and watching as they were, and while in many ways they were supposed to give this impression, they would also have to learn to look respectful about it. The ritual these few were not a part of defined itself as the circle seemed to concentrate towards its center, and the center stood tall as if it were a beam to God Himself. One person from the circle stood up, walked forward, knelt again, and recited in a grave voice, "May God forgive me my sins and take me unto Him." After a motion from one of the center peices, this actor resumed his initial position.
Rick knelt just outside the tape that marked the "stage" as a different actor went through the same motions as the first. Rick was watching his director, who was playing his part on the fringe of the circle. Even now when she joined those under her in their activities, she seemed so unreachable with her blonde hair pinned carefully back and her perfectly straight, perfectly tall posture helping her tower more than physically over the actors on stage, and over him now that he was kneeling. He hoped that her acting his part would give him some hint as to how she wanted it acted and so placed his entire scope of focus onto her.
She walked into the center of the circle, apparently interrupting someone else who was about to do the same thing. Rick played the part of an outsider, and so this action had to be done perfectly, making it clear that it was something unexpected and possibly prohibited. It was a scene near the end of the entire movie, and Rick was pleased to see that Katherine's confidence in playing the part made the actors' heads turn much as he invisioned they should once this scene was filmed. As she knelt solemnly and repeated the prayer, he doubted whether he could do the exact same thing, in much the same manner, and still get as many heads to turn and looks of surprise and attention as she got.
She always presented herself as their superior, and so to see her kneel produced a strange, warm effect in Rick that was somehow loosely tied to hope. He felt the need to tell her she was beautiful, but the distance between himself and her seemed great with the height she usually placed herself at, and more immediately, the fact that she was working and that she was acting, which was firmly attatched to the idea of how she would react to interruption. That was one of the reasons he hadn't announced his presence in the first place.
The woman opposite her smiled with the perfect expression of forgiveness, mercy, and the pleasure of being able to use it as she bowed very slightly towards Katherine and spoke her line softly, "You are forgiven."
This was precisely why they were all here, Rick realized, because they could act this well. Their talents, of course, varied somewhat, but overall it was an excellent cast with all the right parts for all the right actors. Sometimes when Katherine seemed displeased with anything he did in their run-throughs he would feel like he didn't belong with this wonderfully talented group, but later he would always remember that he had the bravery, the experience, and the imagination to rank him along with the rest. Still, he felt grateful that he was even here as the scene ended and everybody stood up. Even the extras, he mused, were first rate somehow.
The warm feeling hid itself in fear when Katherine saw him and approached. "So you're here. You're late, you know."
"I'm sorry," Rick assured her, feeling somehow disillusioned as he stood up. "It was nothing I could help..."
"Make sure it doesn't happen again," she warned him.
"Yes, Miss Sheur."
With no hint of either approval or dissaproval, simply an acknowledgement that what she had wanted to say had been said and received, Katherine walked off. As soon as she was gone a friend of Ricks tapped him on the shoulder, "Hi there! Glad you could join us."
He turned around to see that it was Patrick, a short man who liked to joke around a lot and, Rick suspected, got in trouble for it too. "I'm sorry I was late. What's up?"
"Nothing much. I'm packed and ready for the plane ride. Are you?"
"Packed? That's what made me late," Rick exclaimed with a smile and a laugh. "You ought to have guessed that."
"That you couldn't have remembered in time and finished it last night? Yeah I did guess that."
"I didn't forget I just put it off. But I'm ready now."
"Good, good," Patrick approved, "I'll see you then."
Rick nodded, anticipating their arrival more than the trip itself. He liked flying, but he liked visiting places he had never been before more, what with all the new things to see and experience. They were visiting a small, remote villiage on some island Rick had never heard of but had been assured that it was fairly isolated from modern cultures, although not primitive in the normal sense either. All of this could only feed his imagination and his impatience until he got there, but when he got there he would see for himself and he would do his best to understand this part he was to play. That was, after all, the reason they were flying there so long before the filming could really be started.
They left that afternoon.

~~~
Scene Two.

Rick had just taken a hot shower and was now sitting on his bed reading pamphlets advetising the villiage they were in and the towns closest to it. While the entire crew would be spending some time in this villiage, Rick was one of the few actors that had chosen to actually stay there. He had decided that total immersion was best for absorbing everything he needed to play his part well, while others had decided such immersion would disorient them and make them forget their lines or something of that nature. Or else they simply didn't want to stay in the villiage: it had taken them hours of driving through dusty and then dirty streets to reach this place, and so had arrived feeling grimy and in absolute need of a shower.
They had been last night, and he had fallen asleep before he had found the showers in the house that they were staying. Now he was clean, awake, and reading to himself with his feet kicking the bed idily.
Patrick let himself into Rick's room after a brief knock and announced, "Hey hey, it's breakfast time! Know what that means?"
"No. What?" Rick asked almost disinterestedly, not knowing what Patrick was refering to so vaguely.
"Don't you read your pamphlets, slacker?"
"Just because you tend to do everything at night doesn't mean I'm a slakcer for not. I just started."
"For your information, I just finished. And it's breakfast time. Here, put on this robe; they were left for us in the hallway."
Rick paused, took the robe and exclaimed as if releasing tension, "Alright I give up. Explain it to me."
"Robes! We're all wearing robes if we're going to stay here. So say the people."
"The people?"
"The people who live here. Don't you pay attention to anything?"
"I went to sleep once we got back. I haven't had the chance to."
"Well just put this on and follow my lead. Be... respectful. You're an actor, you can do it."
"Respectful," Rick muttered as he put on the robe over his normal clothes. It hung heavily across his shoulders and brushed the floor at his feet. "It helps to know what I'm respecting."
"Breakfast, kid! Breakfast!"
"Breakfast! Oh of course," Rick laughed.
"Except that you'll have to wear only the robe."
"What for?"
"Hey I'm not a preist here I just follow dirrections. Think of all the natives as not only sources of material, but as your stage directors and all that good stuff... that's the best way to look respectful." Patrick began leading Rick out into the hall and to the breakfasting places as he spoke.
"I'd rather be respectful," Rick hinted, then fell silent because every room they passed, wether it had two or twelve people in it enjoying breakfast, was gaurded by the silence of the halls before Rick and his friend has entered it. Rick felt a little ashamed, but mostly simply on guard for what to do next. Every single person had a robe on, he noticed, with no indication as to identity or stature of any sort. Each had only themselves, a robe, and in most cases, an existing knowledge of what they should be doing at that moment.
Both men were relieved from guessing by a stranger's approach and soft whisper of, "This way. please." They were lead to a larger room with both their fellow actors that had choosen to immerse themselves and strangers from the village, all wearing the same type of robe. "Do either of you have questions?"
"Lots," Rick responded, and was elbowed by his friend. "But I do! Starting with, where do we sit? And who are you? And who are they?"
Their guide smiled softly and assured his guests, "Sit at the same table as your friends. After breakfast I can answer your other questions."
"Where can we find you?"
"I'll meet you here."
And so they sat down to a silent lunch and ate until they were all finished and all but the small collection of actors and the such were left at their small table for a quarter of an hour, unsupervised. Partick began making faces; Rick started to laugh. A girl named Sally grew wide-eyed at their insolence as the woman beside her hushed them. There was a pause as they realized that they were the only ones left and most wondered if the silence need still be kept.
Patrick wondered for about a third of a second and then busted out laughing. "He's late!"
"Maybe he's busy," Sally suggested quietly.
"Are we talking about the same guy?" someone in the back asked ironically. "That guy..."
"That guy in the robe," Patrick added sagely, purposely being ironic so that Rick could point out:
"They *all* have robes. Even we have robes."
"What's with this robe thing anyway?" Patrick asked in an immitation of a sterio-typical mobster. "I don't buy all this 'bout our clothes being a detraction from God. I say there's just a monopoly of clothes 'round here."
"What's that you were saying about respect?" Rick reminded him.
"Oh! Oh! Respect!" Rick responded, crossing himself melodramatically. "I'll go to hell for sure!"
A few people were uncomfortable, but Rick for one couldn't stop himself from laughing at least briefly. "Stop it! That's not even funny!"
"That's not even funny," Patrick mocked. "What they don't hear can't hurt 'em."
"There shouldn't be anything for them to hear," Sally pointed out.
"Hey I don't know about you but I am *not* looking forward to spending months and months in this boring place," Patrick warned.
"What are you gonna do about it, get a room in another town?" someone asked.
"And leave Rick here untaunted?" he asked, putting an arm around Rick's shoulder. "Never!"
"I would never survive," Rick said in a dull voice, rolling his eyes. "With such a primitive culture to surround me."
One from that very culture, the man who had led them there, interrupted, "Do you have any questions about our...dull culture?"
Rick shrugged and bit his lip in embarrassment, suddenly out of questions.
"Relax, we were just playin' around," Patrick explained smoothly.
The guide nodded, graciously over-looking the event for the moment. "Now," he prompted, taking a seat a little ways away from the group, "any questions?"

~~~
Scene Three.

Rick turned to Katherine with the urge to call her Kathy. He swallowed this with a bite of his meal and considered his next comment. He and Kathy were out on a sort of date and were now on the subject of the people he was, at the moment, staying with. He tapped his fingers once on the table and observed the restuarant they were eating at in a nice little town a ways away from the one he was staying in. "They're nice people. Rather sagely some of them."
"Sagely?" Katherine responded in a tone of boredom.
"Yeah. It's hard to explain... Patrick just think they're boring."
"It's too bad he couldn't have joined us."
"He said he had a headache... but oh well. I'm sure we'll get to see him some other time."
Kathy smiled and set her fork down. "I'm finished."
Rick wasn't finished, but he was close enough to that when he set his silverware down and asked, "Would you like to leave then, or dessert?" he didn't feel too embarrassed.
She brushed loose strands of her short, blonde hair out of her eyes, catching every thread of Rick's attention before anouncing. "We've been here hours. Let's go somewhere."
Rick hesitated, thinking about how green her eyes were. "Oh, sure thing." He then payed and escorted her out. They hailed a carriage and as he helped her in, letting his hand linger on her arm, he asked, "Where do you want to go?"
She looked at him as if from distraction and replied, "Ah? Home..."
"Home? Ok." Rick told the carriage driver where her home was, then turned back to her. "Are you tired then?"
He saw her nod.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to keep you up, Miss Shuer."
"Call me Kathy."
"Only if you'll call me Rick."
"I already do," she laughed briefly, then settled back against the carriage. They were soon at the hotel she was staying at, and soon just outside her room.
"Your hair...," Rick began, "is it really that color?"
"Yes it is. Why, do you like it?" She asked him a bit sharply, so that he didn't know what to expect.
"I do. It's nice..." He stopped there, hoping he hadn't offended her. He wouldn't, however, have minded describing her blonde hair to her, with its redish highlights.
She tucked a strand behind her ear. "I'm glad you like it. Thanks for coming."
"Aw: thankyou for inviting me."
She smiled at him and opened her hotel room door, taking a step back into it. Then, with a lowered voice she wished him, "Goodnight, Rick."
"Kathy?" he asked, stepping after her.
She paused. "Yeah?"
Rick took her hand, which she let him do, then kissed her. After a moment she pulled away, smiled coldly, repeated. "Good night," then shut the door between them.

~~~
Act Two
Scene One.

Rick had been assigned a confessor, Kel, who was now waiting for him. The villiage had done this both because they were outsiders and needed to be watched and guided, and because Rick, along with the few other people who had decided to stay, was going to watch their ceremony reguarding forgiveness. The villiage had agreed that to watch was to partake, and so the outsiders must be instrucked, just as everyone of them was. Each had a confessor, and now Rick's was waiting for him patiently.
"Sorry I'm late," Rick announced and then sat down across the table from Kel.
"You have come, and that is important."
"Well, I'm still sorry. Patrick woke me up a little late, and then I was slow waking up anyway."
"You are still tired?"
"Naw, I'll be fine. So, what are we here for exactly?"
"I am going to explain tomorrow to you, both the ritual and its meaning."
Rick smiled and leaned forward in his chair. "Oh, good! I've had so many other things explained to me but this is the most important one."
"Forgiveness is important," Kel agreed with a nod.
"Yeah, I mean, we really want to get it all across right in the movie."
"I wish for you to understand it," his confessor replied simply. It had been explained to him what a movie was and he, frankly, did not care. Whatever his visitors decided to do with what they learned was their choice, while he simply wanted to help them make a good choice, even though he didn't even pretend to know what a good choice would be in a world he did not understand.
Rick, who didn't even know what to expect, leaned farther forward and encouraged, "Do tell, then."
Kel nodded. "In the morning you will be taken to a room like this one," he began, pausing a moment to let Rick take in the fact that the room was small, dark, and unfurnished except for two chairs and a table. "You will be locked in by yourself. This is a time for reflection. You are meant to think of the state of your soul, any sins you have commited, and talk with God."
"Talk with God?"
"Yes. You can't possibly know the true state of your soul without talking to God, even if you knew every single verse of the Bible. You must let the Spirit guide you and convict you of your sins."
"Ok. What next?"
"Then the door will be unlocked and you will be asked if you wish for breakfast. You are to refuse unless you have found yourself innocent of all sin. Which, all in all, because every man sins, you will not find yourself if you have trully searched your soul and reached out to God."
"What's the refusal for? What does that have to do with me sinning?"
"It marks the seriousness of the event by resembling a fast, although you do not have to continue the fast once the ceremony is over. Next you will be given a sheet of paper on which to write all your sins and their punishments."
"But wait. I haven't been trained what all the punishments are."
"Rick. I'm glad you're willing to participate in the entire ceremony, but you do not need to worry about the exact wages that one of us must write, for then you would miss the point: the wages for sin is death. And, overall, while you will do these things if you wish you will not be part of the ceremony but only an observer."
"But I can go through with all of the preperations if I want to?"
"Yes. Do you?"
"Sure. It's no skin off my back."
"Ok. Well, next you will stand outside of the circle that will form, and watch withotu interfering."
"And where will you be?"
"I will be in the center of the circle, with my back to the fire."
"Fire?"
"Yes. There will be a fire in the center of the circle, with all of the confessors standing around it facing a second, larger circle."
"Ok. What will everyone who's participating do-- what will I see?"
"Everyone in the outside circle will, one at a time, step up to their confessor and hand he or she their paper, then kneel and pray."
"What will the prayer be?"
"Traditionally it is 'May God forgive me my sins and take me unto Him,' but anything along those lines is ok."
Rick reflected that the writers had at least gotten that right. He felt it, somehow, his responsibility to notice what was right and what was not because he seemed to be the only one who cared. If anything big was off, he would tell someone who could do something about it. "And that's it?"
"Almost. The confessor throws each paper into the fire."
"That's very symbolic."
"I'm glad you approve," Kel told him with a surpressed laugh.
"Do you do this ceremony often?"
"Once a year. It is intended to be symbolic. It is a cleansing of the soul, but it is also a reminder because it is not the only way to cleanse ourselves. That we do quite often, privately or otherwise."
"So... this is supposed to teach something?"
"Yes. It is done for every new convert so that they may realize, with the help of tradition, that they are sinners who must realize their sins and give them to God."
"And you're supposed to be able to do that any time?"
"Yes. Anytime. All it requires is a prayer."
Rick nodded, taking all this in as information for his acting and as what he considered 'cool facts'. "Anything else?"
"No."
"Then I'll be leaving now, ok?"
"That's fine."

~~~
Scene Two.

Rick was in a very sour and pensive mood as he sat across from Katherine and Patrick during lunch. He had noticed the night before that Katherine had joined Patrick in his room, and he had also noticed that she had not left until the next morning. Now he watched her darkly, noting everything she did and exactly how she held herself. Who was she, really, this girl who pretended to be above everyone else? Rick realised that he had met several people at this villiage, for instance, who seemed much better than her without pretending to be. He had never thought she would degrade herself like that, especially after her cold reception of a simple kiss, when that in fact had been all he had planned on doing.
Patrick was flirting with Katherine, and she was snubbing him almost entirely. Neither of them were in love. Why had Rick thought he loved her? He had liked the idea of her, and he had thought her pretty (she was), but he had never come close to loving her. Now he saw that her superiority act was only to attrack sleezy men, and to make herself feel better for succumbing to them. Now Rick didn't even like the idea of her.
He cleared his throat, deciding he would try not to hold any of this against them, but that he would simply never give them the benifit of the doubt. He was, now, fully disillusioned over these two people he had often thought of as role models.
Rick glanced at his notes with a clearer mind. Since Katherine, who had more power, was with them today he had brought his notes on the differences between the movie and the actual villiage. Some of them were nitpicky, but others were not, and for those had he brought his notes. "Excuse me. Katherine?"
She didn't even look at him. "Yes?"
"Well I've noticed a few things..." Rick thumbed his script nervously as he reffered to it. "This story line should be altered slightly. The way we've got it right now, the villagers are too nice. They aren't realistic." The story line involved a young boy who was sent here on vacation because his parents couldn't handle him, and who realized his rebellious nature was wrong before the movie ended. The problem was how he realized it. "The way the villagers are scripted is a little off. They go for the whole pacifist, believe in someone and be nice to them and they'll change thing, right?"
Patrick nodded impatiently.
"Well, this is hard to explain I guess but there's more to these people than that. It's... not acurate."
"How so?" he asked in a humoring tone.
"They believe in more dynamic things... point blank there are things in the script that they let the boy get away with that they probably wouldn't in real life. Why don't you ask them? I'm just pointing out that it's inacurate."
Patrick nodded and shrugged. "Ok, at least we know."
Rick could tell he didn't care, and knew that Katherine had more power to do something about it anyway. She could convince the right people if she had the mind to. "Katherine?"
Katherine replied in a dull, insincere tone, "I'll look into it."
"And what about the robe thing? We've got it so that they have symbols for their ranks, but they don't have any." Rick thought it was interesting that in a way every member of the villiage was put on an equal basis by this, and yet they still performed distinct functions that by themselves seperated the confessors from, say, their visitors. This seemed so facinating, and so in tune with their culture and religion, that he thought such a simple thing should be pulled off by the crew.
Katherine shrugged.
Rick noticed a distinct sinking feeling inside his stomach. It made him wonder why Patrick had stayed in the villiage at all. Just to make fun of it? He didn't respect it. If he had the mind to, he would tell Katherine she should look into it, but now nothing could be done because Rick had already done his best. He didn't have any influence over his boss on any level, and while he didn't want it out of respect for her, he wanted it in order to make something happen about the script. Anything to show he tried.
Now he just felt doomed. The only power he had was to either quit or play his part as best he could. He was, after all, the "kid," whom he only thought of as such because of the character's maturity level. He would decide after the ceremony, and at the moment he was fairly sure he would decide to quit. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more certain he was, but he would not announce it until after the ceremony.

~~~
Scene Three.

Rick watched the ceremony from the background. He had already gone through the priliminary things, and so hadn't eaten all day and was now clutching a folded piece of paper on which he had written only "too many to list" and "death." He was standing outside the circle, looking at everyone in their robes.
The ritual he was not a part of defined itself as the circle seemed to concentrate towards its center, and the center stood tall, with a large fire in the middle, as if it were a beam to God Himself. One person from the circle stood up, walked forward, knelt again, and recited in a grave voice, "May God forgive me my sins and take me unto Him." After a motion from one of the confessors, this villiager resumed his initial position.
Rick watched this a few times, then glanced at Katherine and Patrick, who were also here outside the circle with him. He clutched his paper harder thinking of all he had once thought of him, and how now he knew what kind of people they really were. They had never hid it from him, really, they had simply not shown him, and so when he was ready to think badly of them all the clues fit together nicely. He had wanted to think well of them, now he just felt bitter.
He moved his gaze to his appointed confessor. The man had been nice to him, and very factual, but that was all Rick really knew about him. He had been too busy to ask him everything he wanted to, but he had got in a good many questions and that made him feel a little better. He didn't mind respecting these people or their beliefs, and had even gone through the priliminary stuff that he didn't have to in order to understand this ritual through experience. Learning any other way didn't work as well for him, and he felt that with what he had been told and having gone through everything properly, he could form a definate oppinion of the ritual itself.
If he were acting the scene that was based on this, he would walk into the center of the circle, interrupting someone else who was about to do the same thing, he reflected. He played the part of an outsider, which was what he really was. The man opposite him would smile with the perfect expression of forgiveness, mercy, and the pleasure of being able to use it as he bowed very slightly towards Rick and said softly, "You are forgiven." Of every other scene, this one would be the most pivital, and in Rick's oppinion, the most correct.
He had the urge to do this right then, in the middle of the real ceremony. He had to fight himself not to, thinking that the impulse stemmed only from knowing that, for the movie, he would be doing that soon. He approved of it for the movie, but he thought it would be inappropriate at the moment. But watching his confessor and thinking about what this ceremony was supposed to mean, he suddenly realized that he wanted to join the ceremony because he wanted to be a part of it, not because he wanted to act the part of it. Why act it when he could do this for real, when he could feel the need? When he could feel the shame and dread of becoming anything like Katherine, or anythign like Patrick. Surely they were sinners, surely he had wanted to be like them not too long ago. Rick wanted to know what love really was, he wanted to recognize lust when he felt it. And this urge felt akin to love.
He ran into the circle, "Wait!" Rick couldn't finish his thought; that one word seemed to express what he felt as he fell to a kneeling position and prayed after the rest, clutching his paper that said "too many to list" and "death;" "Please...I want to be forgiven."
Rick realized he would have to throw his piece of paper into the fire himselved because Kel, his confessor, did not smile, bow, or say, "You are forgiven."

~~~
Epilogue.

Everyone else, including his confessor, thought that Rick was once again just acting. The villiagers ordered him and his co-workers out of the villiage, and so much to Rick's delight the entire movie was cancelled because that had been their filming location. There were rumors that the script or a version of it would be reconsidered later, but Rick did not volunteer for the part. He was forever banned from that villiage, and even when he died, only Rick knew how he had changed that day.
The villiage itself allowed no more visitors, even from the towns near it. Rick's confessor became a bitter man and also the leader of the villiage; it was rumored soon after that the place collapsed and dissolved due to dissagreements of an unknown nature. Years later, Rick's diary and the remains of the town were found, with no clue as to how or why everyone had left or died. It is indicated by Rick's diaries that, despite this experience, he adopted the basic teachings of the villiage and died a very happy man.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

See Also:
Rick's Profile
Katherine Shuer's Profile