'Great! Nobody leave,' he commanded. And to Jesse: 'Stay right there'. He gathered some sheets and adressed his unsuspecting audience. 'Okay, this is what I was thinking... Here is my idea. In addition to all the songs which already are in this wonderful play, I would like to put in some folk music! Yep, the music of weird old America. How great is that?' he exclaimed cheerfully, perfectly aware the cheerfulness was all his. He looked out on blank or puzzled faces, whereas Grace's face stiffened with indignation. Alexa schrugged and seemed otherwise unconcerned. 'Okay. Well, trust me, it's at least really really good'. It was true, he had done it before. Shakespeare and folk music: it sounded insane, but it worked wonderfully well, unless you took it too serious. 'As you like it' was an unpretentious - tongue-in-cheek - pastoral comedy, extolling simple country life and simple, unrestrained feelings. In short, it was more or less predestined to go with folk songs of weird old America. What you got, was some sort of mild camp resulting into the seriousness of a second order, the one which lurks behind irony. And he could use Donovan's 'Under the Greenwood Tree', finally. He passed out sheets with text and music.

Ajay, sitting next to Grace, was genuinely confused: 'Mr. Dimitri? Nobody told us we would have to sing.'

'I know. I'm telling you now!' He wasn't really improvising on the spot, the sheets laid prepared on the desk and would have been distributed anyway - to be taken home for practice. Except now he felt a curious urge to find out how far he could go in enforcing spontaneity.

Grace, starting to panic: 'Do we have to sing today? Like, right now?'

'Yes. We're going to go backwards through the order.' He looked at Grace neutrally, passed her the sheets and turned to Jessie who stood completey lost on the stage: 'You're the first.'

'You want me to sing?' - 'That's right!' Jessie was clearly taken aback, but, unlike the rest, not at all horrified by the idea. And a few moments later it became clear why.

'I don't think I know any of these...Wait... I think, I guess, I kind of know this,' she said, still hesitating.

'Just do a little bit. Whatever you're comfortable with.' Jesse took a moment, and when she started, every sign of hesitation disappeared at once. A simple wonder happened, her voice - her soul - was pure, clear and strong, it freed itself from its fragile flesh and, fearless, filled the stage. For a moment, it was Jessie who held everyone's full attention, just like Grace did a few moments ago, except for Grace it was clearly a norm, and for Jessie - a tremendous achievement. For a moment, the real Jessie stood in the highlights, and her fears were locked away behind the scenes, and not vice versa - as usual.

If you miss the train I'm on, you will know that I am gone. You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles. A hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles. You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles...A silence.

'I love this. I love it!' But, again, nobody shared his opinion. Chiefly because it was the only thing that could be said.

A disgruntled Cynthia McCormick immediately raised her hand: 'Mr. Dimitri?'

'Yes, Cynthia?'

'I really have to say, I think this is totally unfair that we have to do this...'

'How would you like to do it?'

Cynthia hesitated a second, and Grace took over, eagerly and fervently: 'We should be given time to practice. Because it's a little strange to assume that people would be comfortable just singing - ' she threw her hand up fiercely, pointing towards Jessie, - 'like that.' The gesture held so much disdain that he suspected there was something else here, between these two, besides the normal 'artistic' rivalry.

'Obviously you feel strongly about this?' he asked softly.

'Well...' She looked around. 'I think we all do.' The heads nodded, although he was quite sure that, while everyone saw it as a game, only Grace had come with an explicite intention to win. Grace had the highest stakes and she refused to play unless she was in full control of the situation. Very well, he thought and said:

'Fair enough. I'm not a complete sadist. Yet. Okay. Those of you who are called back will be required to sing one of those songs. And if you don't get called back, you should learn these songs regardless - for your own enrichment, if nothing else.'

The next day, he hanged out the lists with three names for the role of Rosalind: Cynthia McCormic, Grace Manning, Jessie Sammler.