went so far that now he had decided to set up a fund bearing Vivien’s name with the intention to help the poorest people in the world. He had condescended to run the fund personally and be Vivien’s personal advisor. Of course, he did it without expecting any official reward for his effort. All of the team members knew very well that he was the central figure of the team, that without him nothing at all could be done. They agreed with him that the purpose of the interview with Vivien was to make the spectators and readers like her, suffer with her, rejoice with her, admire her, and learn from her experience.
‘We must make her what she is. She is an example to follow,’ he summed up.
All others just nodded.
Professor Frederic also nodded, however he looked serious. Now he was sitting in his comfortable armchair. The ankle of his right leg was resting on his left knee. While he was carefully listening to Mr Corner he was nodding and gazing at the floor. He was holding his hands open and wide apart in front of him as if trying to explain something to somebody. He did not seem to be particularly happy about the plan and strategy put forward, because he feared that Mr Corner threatened to steal the entire show from all other members, and from him personally infinitely more than the show alone. He was used to being the cock of the walk and could not put up with the idea of being second in the team.
“Now there is a collective sky-window for Vivien,” added Mr Corner.
All of a sudden Professor Frederic stopped nodding and moving his hands, because Mr Corner had spontaneously said something in a way somewhat reserved for psychologists.
For Professor Frederic it was an assault on his own scientific and professional realm. For how could a non psychologist dare use words like ‘collective sky-window’ beyond the boundaries of psychology? The magic, enigmatic and deeply emotional words that Mr Corner had just spoken could no longer be prevented from being said. They were in the air, clearly uttered by him and also clearly heard by all members of the team.
Mr Corner was a thorough professional intimately acquainted with crowd psychology. He knew that the human brain had in principle two main functions. One function was to remember and to use all sorts of information when necessary. The other one was to forget them when necessary. A brain that could not forget old things could not create room for new ones either; it could not learn. He had studied the behaviour of crowds in detail and had come to the conclusion that the interest in shocking events followed a pattern. He had found out that the moon’s rhythm of growth and decrease, the menstrual rhythm of women and the increase and decrease of people’s interest in scandals seemed to follow the identical rhythm of increase and decrease. The moon grew during the first two weeks after it appeared in the sky for the first time and reached its maximum after two weeks. Then it shone as a full moon, a sort of lit window in the dark night sky. In a similar way the menstrual cycle of women reached a peak two weeks after the menstruation; the same was the case with the interest of the readers and viewers in an event after the event had taken place. That was the moment when the sky-window was wide open, when the crowds should be addressed. After that critical point the brightness of the moon, the fertility of women and the interest of masses in a particular event fell away.
“In our case,” Mr Corner proceeded, “the interest of the public in Vivien’s story is still growing, however, only till tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow evening we have to open the sky-window to the masses and show Vivien to millions of TV viewers in order to prepare them for the main part of the plan that will follow later. After this meeting we must know exactly what Vivien must look like on the screen, what she should wear, what colour her clothes must be, what she will have to say and how she will have to say it. We must formulate all the questions she will be asked and discuss with her the suitable answers she is supposed to give. We must record the first rehearsal this afternoon and watch it together with Vivien tomorrow morning. After that she should be left alone till evening. Tomorrow evening we shall know if we have been successful in preparing Vivien for the greatest and most important exam of her life,” he said.
Somebody tried to say something, but Mr Corner ignored him and continued.
“It is true that there have been some flaws so far. In fact they happened at the very beginning and they were caused by unsuitable questions put to Vivien by people without the necessary tact and skill, without even a trace of social intelligence,” he said.
The words ‘social intelligence’ caused with Professor Frederic to feel more irritated, because Mr Corner had again used a term created by psychologists for psychologists, something that in his opinion unauthorized people shouldn’t have been allowed to use at all.
“You have mentioned flaws made at the very beginning. Could you please explain what you have in mind?” asked Ms Panther, because she felt she was being personally attacked by Mr Corner’s remark. She knew that she was the first person to have a real conversation with Vivien. She was aware that she must have put numerous questions to Vivien, however she could not remember having asked her a single unseemly one. Being a lawyer whose task was to protect the rights of young people she knew that she could afford to ask even personal questions if she considered them to be of benefit to the client. She did that every day and she did that also while she was speaking to Vivien. She had asked her, for example, who from her family she would like to see first and what her immediate plans were for the future.
It was difficult for her to conceive that such neutral, general questions might have caused problems.
“I shouldn’t like to go into details and try to find out who put those unsuitable questions to Vivien. The fact is that they must have been put to her otherwise she wouldn’t have given those unhappy answers,” Mr Corner said.
“Which answers do you mean?” asked Ms Panther.
“Well, I have been thinking of Vivien’s answers that she did not love her mother, that she did not want to see her or speak to her, that she could never live with her again and so on, and so on. We could all read her answers in the newspapers, couldn’t we? Of course, she is not to be blamed for that, however, such flaws can spoil virtually everything,” Mr Corner answered.
“Couldn’t we . . . ?” Ms Panther tried again, but Mr Corner ignored her and continued.
“In the interview tomorrow evening we will have to rectify those flaws.”
“How are we going to do that?” asked Ms Panther.
“We shall have to ask her the same questions again, that is clear, but we will have to explain to her that this interview is of paramount importance for her future. She will have to understand that this interview can open but also shut all the doors in front of her. We must take advantage of the psychology of the masses, particularly of the psychology of parents. We must make them feel touched by Vivien’s words,” Mr Corner added.
At the word psychology Professor Frederic stopped nodding and moving his hands.
“All grown-up people in general and all parents in particular do not like children who hate their parents,” Mr Corner continued. “They can only like children who love their parents. After the interview hundreds of millions of TV viewers will be acquainted with this unique case that we have the privilege to manage. Thousands of articles and comments will appear in the press all around the world and that is exactly what we need. For after that we shall have to look for suitable means to raise Vivien’s case, our case, to a higher level of fame. But there is one thing that must not happen!”
While speaking, Mr Corner was shaking his index finger in a threatening manner at everybody, visible and invisible, who might dare to interfere in any way whatsoever in their business.
All the members of the team stopped breathing and stared at him without stirring.
“This is our case and we will not allow anybody to steal the precious golden egg just laid!”
All, except Professor Frederic, breathed a sigh of relief.
“Everyone