66 Epilogue

Epilogue The theatre, in the heart of Milan, was unbelievably beautiful. The six rows of balconies, arranged in a giant horseshoe around the stalls, gave every single person in the audience, all two thousand of them, a perfect view of the stage. Tonight, La Scala's world-famous ballet company was dancing Swan Lake. Mr Stone, wearing a black suit, sat in the centre of the front row. He turned to the woman sitting on his left. ' Tracey darling,' he whispered. 'Do you understand what's going on? I'm a bit lost, I'm afraid.' A dancer was spinning across the stage, perfectly executing a dizzying run of fouettés. 'Well,' said Peanut's mum, 'she is the nasty black swan.

And she's pretending to be the white swan, that we saw earlier. You know, the nice one that the prince is in love with. It's confusing because they're played by the same dancer.' Mr Stone's pale grey eyes glinted. Ah, so it's an old- fashioned good versus evil story, is it? Right up my street, he said. Nerys, sitting in the row behind them, looked up from her knitting. 'That's just one of the themes,' whispered Tracey. 'It's also about how power can destroy a person, and how having control over everything doesn't necessarily make you happy. ' Yes, well, I'm not sure about that said Mr Stone. Nerys's eyes narrowed. 'But mainly,' continued Tracey, 'the story shows us that people are often hurt the most by those that they're closest to.' Mr Stone smiled, revealing a set of perfectly straight white teeth. 'Never a truer word spoken, Tracey darling. Throughout history, humans have come up with all sorts of ingenious ways to destroy their enemies, but one simple fact remains...' He put on his white fedora, grabbed her hand, and looked her straight in the eye. 'There is no weapon more powerful than love.' To be continued...