Ornette had never seen an episode of any show in her life that dragged on as long as that episode of Goldilocks Zone. Every second ticked backward. She could have sworn she saw Cudia do her bathing suit runway walk seven times before they moved on to the next contestant.

  By the time it was Ornette’s turn to go on stage, she was impatient, sweaty (even though they kept blowing cold air on her), and tense as a piano string. She needed to get sold.

  When she stepped out into the spotlight, she knew she’d screwed up. She shouldn’t have done what she was doing. She wasn’t smiling. She had to smile if she wanted to get a good bidder. She had to look excited and full of life. She had to look like a good investment for a businessman who needed a spokeswoman. She had to look like a smart designer and a talented model to get the interest of a designer.

  She wasn’t going to interest anyone without a smile on her face.

  Well, she could straighten her back. She could peer like a flower child from around the cascading waves of her blonde hair. She could walk straight like her high heels were part of her skeleton. She could stand next to the designer who made her bathing suit and blink at him like he was the world. Maybe that would speak louder than her smile.

  She hoped.

  When he was finished presenting his big made-up story about how they worked together for the week, he neither praised her nor condemned her. Then, he sent her to her position for the vote. The makers of the show were still bothering with a vote like it wasn’t already decided that Ornette would be auctioned off. Uncle Bear read a script that tried to make it sound like it was anyone’s game. It didn’t sound as convincing or as tense as when Varner did it.

  Whoever was in charge of Varner, they weren’t letting him come back to the show to let everyone see his broken nose. His absence stopped him from being able to bid on Ornette and ruin the rest of the show.

  Ornette thought the voting would finally begin and that would be the beginning of the end. She wished it was. She wished it hard.

  Except Uncle Bear kept speaking. “We have some special guests in the audience tonight.”

  Gasps came up from the designers and businessmen in the audience. The grumbling began immediately.

  “Are the guests going to be allowed to vote?”

  “Are the guests going to be allowed to bid?”

  “That’s not what we agreed on when we joined the show. It was supposed to be exclusive bidding!”

  Ornette heard other things, other compints, other reasons to be annoyed.

  That was when Uncle Bear shone. “Settle down, Boys,” he said in a voice that belied all he had said as a substitute MC. He wasn’t what he seemed. Not at all. His new voice told everything. The man was a bear in more ways than one, and it was not for them to go against him. He’d take them all on. “The guests are just here for the show, but they need to be introduced because we neglected to announce them at the beginning due to Varner’s absence. Who knows? Maybe one of them will be Papa Bear in the next season of Goldilocks Zone.”

  Ornette perked up. Who did they have?

  Uncle Bear announced, “First, we’d like to welcome Harrison Fox, CEO of Excalibur Helocarriers.”

  The spotlight moved to show Harrison Fox. There was a somewhat enthusiastic appuse from the businessmen. They would not have wanted to offend Harrison Fox. Otherwise, Ornette was surprised by how attractive he was when his face was enrged on the big screens. He was dark and lean with beautiful cheekbones and an easy way of moving. She supposed someone as rich as him could afford all the cosmetic surgery in the cosmos.

  The spotlight moved. “Next, here for one night only, the head of the Church of Voynich, Benediction Hallows… May he withdraw tonight and pray for our souls.”

  “What is he doing here?” Ornette heard someone balk.

  “I thought he was against svery.”

  “Is he here to see if everything is above board?” another voice asked.

  “Is everything above board? I doubt it.”

  “What can he do one way or the other? This isn’t Io,” a realistic voice refuted.

  Ornette scanned the room and saw who they were pointing to, but without the aid of the cameras and the big screen, no other part of him would have been visible except his shadow. He had an unnatural way of making forest green hair look good. His eyes reflected a color that made him look like a whole other world of blue was inside his body. He was shocking in his bck beauty. Although, there was something about him that was familiar. He reminded her of someone... Someone who had been talking to her about power and how having power made someone more attractive. Ornette's brain thought of Vangelis, but she didn’t see the connection. To her rattled head, they didn’t look anything alike. There was just something about power that was affecting her. She’d heard that the head of the Church of Voynich was an extremely handsome man. He was, but was it his disregard of power that made him attractive? She’d probably get to see more footage of him if she got to watch the episode ter. She hoped she would get to see the rest of the episodes until the end even if she would not be in them.

  “Lastly,” Uncle Bear said loudly, trying to calm the audience after the revetion that an anti-sver was in attendance. “I would like to welcome Beckett Beltrose.”

  There was a louder reaction from the audience at the announcement that Mr. Mars himself was there. Wherever she was, Silver Ashley was probably pleased. She had been trying to get his attention, and now she had it.

  When the spotlight went on Beckett, Ornette was stunned. She had been in cryostasis. She didn’t know anything about him. The only thing she knew was what she had been told, that he was the man responsible for terraforming Mars. That made him sound like a big shot, but when he stood up, she was stunned. He was a very young man. He was tall, but he was nky like a child who had grown upward faster than he had grown outward. The big screen blew up his face and made his white skin gleam like pale marble, a true child of Mars. Venecian children were tanned. He really was a Martian. If a boy like that could terraform Mars, she supposed anyone could do anything.

  Ornette started doing a breathing exercise meant to calm her. She closed her eyes momentarily and thought about Desmond. In her mind, they were in bed. They were curled up like snakes bathing in the sun. No one needed anything from him. No one needed anything from her. Thinking such things helped her breathe. In her mind, the clouds were gone—only pure sunlight remained.

  “Let’s begin the voting!” Uncle Bear shouted.

  Startled, Ornette opened her eyes just in time to see Varner lower himself into his throne as Papa Bear. His nose was swollen and broken, but apparently, they had gotten the bleeding to stop. That wouldn’t have been easy with that level of head injury. His nose was pinned. The cameras were avoiding him, and he wasn’t taking the mic away from Uncle Bear, but he was there.

  Shit!

  Was he going to take part in the bidding? If he bid on her, even once, he would win her. He was the MC so he could have whatever woman he wanted.

  The pain in Ornette’s head was returning. The numbing cream wasn’t meant to st forever, and the show didn’t have a set run-time. It could go for as long or as short as the creators wanted. The voting felt endless.

  Ornette gnced at the other contestants. None of them looked bothered in the least. A few of them shot her consoling looks, but every single one of them knew they were not getting voted off that night.

  It would be her.

  Finally, Uncle Bear stood at the microphone with the results. “Contestant number twelve, Ornette, has been voted for elimination. Ornette, please come to the auction block.”

  Ornette felt sick as she moved from her position with the other contestants to the auction block. She had never witnessed herself being auctioned off, even though it had happened many times.

  She struck a pose under the spotlight. It was one with a hand on her hip and her leg out. She bent slightly forward and stuck her chin in the air.

  “We’re going to start the bidding at nine hundred thousand,” Uncle Bear announced.

  That was more than Starling had been bid for. It was also a lie. It was nine million dolrs in Earth money. The bidding was opening on more money than all the money that had ever been spent to buy Ornette before.

  She was terrified. Her left wrist was starting to tremble. She put it behind her back and held onto the waistband of her bathing suit to hide her hand under the bow.

  “You have nine hundred thousand!” It was Hans.

  Ornette did not want to be bought by him, but at that moment, all she could think about was how she would rather be bought by him than Varner. She would have smiled and blown him a kiss if she could have moved her mouth. Instead, she twisted her hand in a motion that was almost like blowing someone a kiss. It made her look detached. She knew it did, but she couldn’t do anything better.

  Uncle Bear had moved and he was now standing next to her. As he came closer, she turned to greet him, but with no way to move her mouth, it was only her moving her head.

  Up close, she couldn’t hide the fact that her face was frozen and she saw recognition in his eyes. He knew she was hurt and that her hair was covering her injuries.

  He looked at her funny, like he wasn’t sure how to proceed.

  She gave him a nod to urge him onward.

  He seemed like he wanted to pause the show and ask more questions, but she nodded at him again, and the glint in her eye convinced him.

  He turned back to the crowd and continued, “We have our first bid of nine hundred thousand. Do I hear a million?”

  “You have a million!” Fen shouted.

  Ornette was gd she couldn’t smile at him. Out of Hans or Fen, she couldn’t decide which was worse. She waved at him wistfully and prayed within herself that he had less money at his disposal than she suspected.

  “One point one million!” That bid came from Joel, from the fitness empire.

  Ornette didn’t think he liked her enough to bid on her. Apparently, she was wrong. So far, he was the best bidder.

  “One point two!” Fen bid.

  Ornette’s head jolted up. She hoped he wouldn’t bid a second time for her.

  “One point five!” That was Westen from her time touring his companies.

  Ornette couldn’t believe her ears. He was bidding for her? She didn’t even think he liked her. Did he just want in on the action?

  Then the simultaneous bidding grew to frenzied shrieking and it seemed that every single man in the room was on his feet throwing out bids for her like she was their queen.

  Competing bidders? A room full of bids? It should have been the single most beautiful moment of her life, but what was happening was what every Sleeping Beauty Inc. model dreamed about when she was put into cryostasis. Instead, it was simply terrifying. They were going to tear the building down.

  Uncle Bear had put himself between Ornette and the crowd. He was calling for silence. He was calling for order. Even his big scary man voice was having no effect on the men on the floor. Finally, he simply screamed an off-key note into his microphone until they quieted down enough for him to say the word, “Silence.”

  When he got it, he put his hand to his ear and listened to the voice on the other side giving him instructions. It was not Varner. Varner’s mouth wasn’t moving.

  Finally, he pulled away and said, “It has been decided that we will have a silent auction. Every man will be allowed to send his bid to the control box. The highest bidder from there will win.”

  “Are you or any of the other bears going to bid on her?” a man in the front row shouted. “You boys get preference.”

  “That’s a very good question,” Uncle Bear said, still receiving instructions over his earpiece. “I’ve been told that Baby Bear will not bid on Ornette.”

  That shot Silver Ashley’s pn to hell. Ornette didn’t care. At that moment, it was impossible to care. She was going to be lucky if she got out of the studio in one piece. She kept her eyes on Varner, but he made no moves, said nothing, and did nothing.

  Uncle Bear kept talking. “I’ve been told that Papa Bear will also refrain from the bidding. He’ll be avaible for comment tomorrow morning on the Venus Morning Show. As for myself,” he said, turning to Ornette and giving her a look that could only be described as hungry. “I will also skip the bidding. Ornette is as lovely as the sun in the morning, but the whole point of this show is to raise money for charity. She has an opportunity to raise more money for our cause than anyone else. We will let the bidding resume.” He turned away from Ornette and shot out instructions to the audience on how they could bid on her using the control panel on the armrest of their chairs.

  Ornette stood by herself, feeling like a piece of meat until The Coordinator ordered the other contestants to leave their pce and to go stand near her.

  “This is such a kerfuffle,” Yilin snuffed crankily.

  Ornette pointed to her mouth and shook her head.

  Then Yilin made the mistake of a lifetime. She moved Ornette’s hair away from her face and saw her bruises, but she didn’t just see her bruises. She showed them to the entire audience and everyone at home. The camera was on Ornette’s face and it showed the bruises as clear as day on the jumbo screens.

  “What’s going on?” Fen shouted, leaving his seat and coming toward the stage. “Why is she bruised? What is that mark on her face? What did you guys do to her? No wonder none of you want to bid on her! You already had your fun with her, and now you’re setting her loose?”

  “Nothing like that happened,” Uncle Bear said with more poise than Ornette believed possible. “She fell in the revolving door. It was an accident. She’s fine.”

  Fen was at the bottom of the stage with what looked like sincere concern on his face. “Ornette, are you fine?”

  She couldn’t smile or move her mouth. She nodded, but it wasn’t convincing. Yilin pushed her backward, and the other contestants covered her. They smiled and became the faces on the jumbo screen.

  “She needs a minute. This has all been a bit overwhelming for her,” Cudia expined into Uncle Bear’s microphone.

  When Ornette was at the back of the crowd, the red curtain parted, and The Coordinator grabbed her arm and pulled her off stage.

  “What a shit show,” he muttered under his breath. “We’re in deep trouble. Is the freezing falling out of your face? How long until you can smile? Until you can talk?”

  “I don’t know,” Ornette said in a voice that was all tongue.

  “We have to auction you off right now, but you will have to fudge it over. Uncle Bear is telling them that you’ve been taken off-stage to change since you’re in a bathing suit and you weren’t very comfortable. Do you have another dress that they haven’t seen?”

  “I have nothing,” Ornette fumbled, still sounding like a dental patient who had just had a root canal. “Fen. Put me in one of Fen’s dresses.”

  “Great,” The Coordinator said as he pushed her into a changing room.

  Even a crazy person could be her hero that night. She thanked Fenrir Charming in her head and wondered if he would be the one to win her.

  ______________

  Author's Notes: Thanks for reading! It's te, and I'm super sluggish. See you on Thursday!