of these strange moving pictures of entertainers that everyone was talking about, Vashti hurried into the storeroom to seek out another costume.

Maybe I can get a job dancing! she thought as she plowed through the former employee's costume trunk.

Or maybe some big producer will drop by the Kash Bowl and see me sitting on a bar stool and hire me! the lovely lady fantasised.

Nearly at the bottom of the large box, she found what she'd been searching for and quickly dressed in the luxurious folds of the silk and gold leaf.

The strains of the Haysiriz drifted through the curtained doorway, and Vashti fell immediately under the spell of the music, her body already beginning to move in that most sensuous of rhythms.

In the blink of an eye, she was posed before the customers, gently moving with the music... feet still, but arms raising higher and higher, then opening to reveal the glorious body beneath.

Indrawn breaths around the room ignite the voluptuous sway of hips, feet stepping delicately, even the exotic bend of the ankles an invitation for the onlooker to imagine... whatever the onlooker might wish to imagine...

Casting eyes at the patrons as the dance moved her slowly around the floor in an ecstasy of evocative motion, Vashti found herself caught in the gaze of a stranger.

Each aspect of his bearing struck Vashti to her core. Stardom was forgotten.

The dance now belonged to him...