The Institute Page #5

book on interdimensional

hopscotch should be there, of

all places.

I struck up a conversation with

the owner,

who happened to be

there, and I just asked her.

"This is kind of odd that you

have this here.

I didn't know that you had these

kind of esoteric interests.

As one acquaintance to another,

do you have any materials that

might be connected to this?

Do you have any...

Can you point me any further?"

And she said, "Well, Kelvin,

I've got a box of materials that

would probably interest you in

the back of the store.

Some ephemera... handbills,

posters, and so on. "

But down in the bottom of the

box was this book, which turned

out to be the diary of

Eva Lucien, who was, it seemed

to me, a really extraordinary

person.

You know, she embodied a kind of

transcendence and ephemerality

of youth at the same time, and

that was really what caught me

about her.

I had noticed in Eva's diaries,

there was references to the

S.F. Savants, which was a B-boy

crew that I had maybe heard of

years and years ago.

But it turns out they still had

a Myspace page.

These people are relatively

accessible, and I was fortunate

enough to get in touch with

Delsqui, who suggested... he

didn't want to talk about it.

But he suggested I get in touch

with Beth and gave me an e-mail

address.

And so, she and I corresponded

by e-mail a little bit.

I think she could see that I

understand Eva as someone more

than just another teenager who

disappears or another hip figure

of the San Francisco scene of a

certain moment, but, rather, as

someone who had something more

to say.

And so, I eventually wore her down.

I kept asking her, "Do you have

documents?

Do you have information?

Do you have more about this

person?"

And it turns out she had.

- Eva?

- Yeah?

What are you...

Your... your hair!

Oh, no!

No-o, you... oh, my god!

It's okay.

Are you sure?

Yeah, it's time to go.

I feel like I'm losing my mind.

Look at these f***ing pages.

Just read one.

I don't know.

It freaks me out to reflect on

it.

Makes me feel like I sound

crazy.

No. No, no.

You think I'm going crazy?

No.

"Up late, when I should be

sleeping, consumed with the

thought that the world is not as

it should be.

When I was younger, I believed

in a goodness, a kindness.

Yeah, it sounds sappy, but,

really, I feel like things were

a certain way, and now there's a

deep sadness of pain.

Was it always there, and I

couldn't access it?

Is this just a symptom of

growing older?

One becomes more aware of hurt?

Were my parents simply that good

at sheltering me?

Dad worked hard to raise me but

how he saw fit.

I admired him sometimes, but it

pissed me off, too.

He told me the world was safe,

or at least I thought I had a

safe place in it.

It's difficult to compute when

people just vanish.

How am I to maintain faith and

expectations when my mother's

f***ing gone?"

I think Eva in herself

embodied a certain way of being

that suggested the potential for

the world to be transformed.

She was flirting on the edge of

some insights into how reality

works.

You know, she had got it, and

that became either an

inspiration or a threat,

depending on how you understand

it, to the institute and the

agency.

Wow. How many are there?

Enough.

You guys want to take them

tonight?

I was gonna save them.

Save them for what?

The weekend?

Why?

You want to drop out?

You don't have school tomorrow.

Hey, what y'all talking about

over here?

Nothing.

Oh, y'all tripping again?

No!

Eva, aren't you on probation?

It's not like we're f***ing

doing acid.

It's not even really fair.

What sh*t?

Nothing.

# Freestyle kickin'

in the house tonight #

# Move your body

from left to right #

# To all you freaks,

don't stop the rock #

Whoo!

Yes!

# Freestyle kickin'

in the house tonight #

# Move your body

from left to right #

# To all you freaks,

don't stop the rock ##

# Yeah

Chloe... Get it together.

Chloe, how many beers...

# I feel emotion

Chloe, you're drunk.

I like it.

# Whaa

Eva, you okay?

What's going on, girl?

F***in' cops!

Dude, the cops are going!

Sh*t!

Let's go!

Eva, come on!

Eva!

You know, maybe there was

something more to the games of

nonchalance besides simply a fun

scavenger hunt.

Rather, than maybe whoever was

behind it was actually trying to

commemorate Eva in some way or

trying to share who she was with

people in San Francisco and

around the world, a kind of, I

don't know, maybe the whole

project, maybe the whole

experience was a kind of elegy

to Eva and what she represented.

You know, that's where the

"reconstructing Eva" project

came out of, because I wanted to

be able to say, "Well, look.

There's these people playing

these games, and there's a whole

wealth of information about what

they really mean. "

At the time, I was seeing a man

who was a police officer, and he

quickly learned about my

obsession with this particular

topic.

And I twisted his arm a little

bit, promised some favors if he

would help out and see if there

was anything in the police

department... archives, storage

rooms, whatever... that might

shed light on this.

Man, you were the last one to

see Eva,

and we need to know

exactly what happened that day.

On Sunday, the 16th, when and

where did you first see Eva?

We always meet at the garden.

And that's the place you

mentioned before, with the

bench and the parking meter.

Is this the spot where you said

Neil, a local vagrant, was

seen?

Uh, yeah.

So, did he ever talk to you?

No, but he talked to Eva.

And what did they say to each

other?

I have no idea.

Where did you see them

talking?

Up at Neil's little spot.

We call it the "Neil estate. "

Did you see Neil there the

night that Eva disappeared?

No, I didn't.

Did anyone else?

Well, I know that the others

might have seen him that night.

"Play to" did, I think.

Play to it is, then?

Yeah.

What else can you tell me

about this Neil character?

Did you see him on the evening

in question?

Yeah.

So, I seem to have heard that

you had some interaction with

him on that night yourself.

Am I right about that?

No, I never talked to him.

Tell me more about that

night.

Did you at any point in the

evening see Eva talk to Neil?

I don't think so.

But you did see him that

night.

Yeah, man.

He was hanging out around the

stone wall.

We seen the dude dipping around

that wall all the time.

Dipping around?

Yeah, you know, looking down,

poking around the crevices

between the rocks, looking back

up again.

Doing what?

Doing what he does.

Being a weirdo.

So, it was just yourself,

Eva, and Chloe around that

point.

Is anybody else there?

No one else, like, for

instance, this Neil character?

No.

So, what happened next?

The police were coming up the

hill, and we ran.

But... but when I went and

hid... when I got there, I was

hiding, and she was gone.

Chloe just kept running.

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