Kubrick's Game by Derek Taylor Kent

Kubrick's Game by Derek Taylor Kent

Author:Derek Taylor Kent [Kent, Derek Taylor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781622534500
Publisher: Evolved Publishing LLC
Published: 2016-09-24T04:00:00+00:00


Shawn woke with a start.

What was the book Alice was reading to her daughter?

He opens his laptop and scans back to the scene in the bedroom: as Alice reads with her daughter, she looks up into the camera as if to beckon the viewer closer.

Shawn held the computer close, trying to make out the book title.

Eureka! He ran back to the couch. “Wilson, wake up. I think I got it!”

Five hours after Shawn’s discovery, all three stood outside the student store just before 8:00 a.m., waiting for the doors to open. Following the closing of 90% of bookstores in Los Angeles, the UCLA BookZone was, sadly, one of the largest bookstores left in the region. Shawn hoped they had one book in particular in the children’s section: A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Published in 1885, Robert Louis Stevenson’s collection of children’s poetry was meant to be read at bedtime to young ones. Many famous poems come from the collection including “Foreign Children,” “The Lamplighter,” “The Land of Counterpane,” “Bed in Summer,” and the one being read to Helena in Eyes Wide Shut, “My Shadow.”

As soon as the doors of BookZone opened, Sami rushed to the children’s section while Shawn and Wilson searched for a BookZone employee. They found a college-aged girl—who didn’t look thrilled to be working at eight in the morning—and asked if the book was in stock.

She searched the computer. “No. We don’t have that one. Would you like me to place an order for you?”

“Found it!” Sami shouted from across the store.

Shawn, Wilson, and the employee rushed over to Sami, who flipped through the book.

“Where did you find that?” asked the employee.

“It was right here in the children’s section,” said Sami.

Shawn grew nervous.

Wilson muttered, “The computer says it’s not in stock. That means—”

“It may have been planted there,” said Shawn.

“Well, let’s take a look,” said Sami.

The employee scanned it with a portable scanner.

“It’s not reading,” she said. “I guess you guys can keep it because it’s not ours.”

Sami flipped to the middle, searching for the words read by Nicole Kidman’s character to her daughter. “Here it is! Poem #16. It’s called ‘My Shadow.’”

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

They quickly read the full poem.

Wilson shrugged. “Anything jump out at you?”

“Nothing obvious,” said Sami.

“I agree,” said Shawn. “Maybe I was off base. I’m sorry I dragged you guys here.”

“Wait,” said Sami. “Do you think ‘My Shadow’ being the answer was too obvious? I mean, Nicole was reading it out loud in the film. I bet everyone will jump straight to it. But what’s the marker of this puzzle? HAL will solve it. What if we do a Caesar shift on this book? Maybe we have to read the poem before or after it.”

“No harm looking,” said Wilson.

Sami turned to the preceding page and read the title out loud: “The Land of Nod.”



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