His favorite grandchild was a teenage girl. Her best friend, Burnette Burle, had recently been violated and murdered. Ever since the tragedy and seeing his granddaughter crying over it, the professor had spent several hours each day reading through his collection of ancient Latin texts. He was confronting a question that he had wondered about ever since his undergraduate days. "Who or what were the ancient nymphs and satyrs?" For some unaccountable reason he felt that the answer to that question was related to this recent tragedy.

While his evening meal was warming in the oven, the professor summed up in his mind what his last few days of research had suggested. The ancient gods and goddesses did not really exist, but because nymphs and satyrs were sometimes actually seen, the stories about gods and goddesses, in which nymphs and satyrs had minor parts, were believed. The nymphs were beautiful feminine beings who looked almost exactly like young women. The satyrs were ugly masculine beings who looked like men with goat legs. Although nymphs and satyrs were spiritual beings, they could take on physical natures. The satyrs seemed to delight in their own revelry. They were seen eating, drinking, and dancing to rowdy music. The nymphs, however, showed kind concern for the well-being of the plants, animals, and humans within their haunts. They also loved music and dancing, but of an exalted artistic kind. Nymphs and satyrs stayed apart from each other, despite some human imaginations to the contrary.

As the oven timer buzzed and the professor moved to the kitchen, he whispered to himself the conclusion he was reaching. "Nymphs were once young women who had been violated and killed, and for some reason had been allowed to have haunts on Earth until the times of their resurrections. Satyrs were once men who violated and killed young women, and who had been condemned to await the day of judgment in their less-than-human spiritual condition."

The professor filled his plate with hot food and moved to the kitchen table. As he did so, he suddenly felt that someone was in the living room. Yet the door to his apartment had been locked all day. He slowly edged around the corner to see if anyone was there. At the far end of the large living room, seated in his favorite padded chair, was a beautiful young woman dressed in creamy white clothing covering all but her head and arms. Because her ears and her nose were strangely elongated, the professor wondered if she might be a nymph. While intently watching her, he slowly moved to the living room chair furthest from her and sat down with a questioning look on his face.

After several minutes of silence the nymph began speaking in Latin, which the professor readily understood. Yet the pure musical tones of her voice were so captivating that he had to force himself to concentrate on understanding the meaning of her words. When the message, meant to be conveyed to his granddaughter, was completed, the nymph stood up, danced about the room in a manner obviously unaffected by gravity, and then vanished into the natural light streaming in through a window.

After thinking about all that had just happened, the professor moved to get writing materials. While his intended meal was getting cold, he carefully translated the message in Latin into English so that his granddaughter could understand it. As he completed that work, and glanced over at his cold meal, he suddenly felt very sleepy, so much so that he could barely keep his eyes open as he folded the message for his granddaughter so that it would fit in the envelope upon which he had written her name. As he licked the adhesive he felt faint. He sealed the envelope, set it down by the untouched food, and staggered to his bedroom.

Beryl Harrington was a pretty little redhead with greenish eyes. Her best friend Burnette Burle had inspired Beryl to join her in studying, practising, and performing artistic dancing. But now that Burnette was dead, Beryl had lost all interest in dancing. Beryl wanted to visit her grandfather. Her mom called on the telephone to make sure that he was there, but his telephone kept ringing. "I'm sorry, Beryl, but your grandfather doesn't answer."

Beryl's father then spoke. "Dad's health has been declining lately. I'm going to drive over to make sure he's all right."

When Beryl's dad returned, his eyes were reddened, and he walked as if in a daze. Her mom asked him, "Is your father all right?"

He glanced at Beryl, then said to her mom, "Dad is dead."

A look of horror came over Beryl's face, and she ran to her bedroom, from which pitiful moanings could be heard. When the moanings had subsided, her dad tapped on her door. When she opened it, he handed her an envelope with her name written on it. "I found this on Dad's kitchen table." He hugged her and left.

Beryl stared at the wavy handwriting on the envelope and cried until she fell asleep exhausted. When she awoke, she carefully slit the envelope open and read this message:

"Tell Beryl that Burnette is happy in paradise, but that it would make her sad to be told that Beryl had abandoned dancing. Tell Beryl that if she will come to this apartment at a time when no other mortal is here, I will teach her certain aspects of artistry in dancing that if practised will enable her to make important contributions to the art of dancing in the near future."

To this was appended a note by her grandfather. "Beryl, this message was spoken to me in Latin by a spiritual being whom I believe is one of the nymphs written about in ancient Latin texts."

After reading and rereading this strange message several times, Beryl thought that it would be unwise to share it with anyone, so she hid it away. When her dad asked her what was in the envelope, she answered that it was a request that she would not give up dancing because of the death of Burnette. That seemed to satisfy her dad. He made no request to see the letter, and her mom's failure to ask about it indicated that her dad had not said anything to her about it.

After the funeral of her grandfather, Beryl asked her dad if she could spend some time alone in what had been her grandfather's apartment. When her request was approved, Beryl became very nervous. She was afraid that nothing would happen, but she was also afraid that she would see the nymph that her grandfather had written about.

When the time came, and she was left alone in the apartment, she took out of her purse the letter from her grandfather and softly recited it. She then silently looked and listened for anything that might indicate the presence of a spiritual being.

When her dad returned to pick her up, he noticed that Beryl had an air of confidence about her. "I don't know exactly what you were searching for by being alone in this apartment, but you seem to be coming away from it happier than when I dropped you off here."

Beryl answered, "Dad, I now realize that Grandfather's message was true. I must return to dancing, and I must excel at it. Someday, Mom and you will be proud of me."

After a pause, her dad said, "Beryl, your mother and I are already very proud of you."

To a hidden glade in Italy that had somehow escaped both the wars and the advancements of human civilization, her haunt for over two thousand years, the nymph had now returned. She was bidding farewell to the animals and birds in her haunt. She touched or patted some of the creatures and lifted some of the birds to fly off from her fingers. She stroked the bark of the surrounding ancient trees. Removing her footwear, she padded barefoot across the mossy ground. Then, as the shadow of a cloud rolled past, and the glare of the afternoon sun again pierced the darkness of the surrounding woods, she looked upwards and slowly ascended through the foliage into the light.

However, before marrying, Eliot wanted to complete a major project to promote the fine arts of the city. He wanted to use some of his wealth to produce a motion picture that while telling a good story would also be a showcase for the authors, actors, painters, musicians, and dancers of the city. From his attendance at nearly all fine arts events in the city, he knew who was especially good at one's art, and he began recruiting such persons for his project.

When the filming finally began for "Hillside Mansion", Eliot convinced his director that it would be nice to have solo dancing interludes between some scenes, and since the movie was to have a happy ending, a final joyous dancing scene that would continue through the credits at the end.

The director smiled. "I think I know who the solo dancer would be."

Eliot snapped back, "There would be tryouts for the part, and I would not be making the choice."

The director apologized. "I am sorry about my suggestion, but you have been dating a certain ballet dancer lately."

At the tryouts for the solo dancing part were a number of young ladies vying for the role, one of whom was also vying to become Eliot's wife, the ballet dancer he had been dating. The judges, however, chose another young lady, who had recently graduated from college, Miss Beryl Harrington. The judges were impressed with the graceful confidence that Miss Harrington exhibited, and when the ladies were asked to express joy through their dancing, none of the others came anywhere near to matching the pure exuberance displayed in Miss Harrington's performance.

When finally completed and presented, "Hillside Mansion" was praised by the local media as a wonderful expression of the spirit of the community. Although it barely made a profit, it achieved all that Eliot Jacobson had been hoping for. Attendance at cultural events in the city definitely increased after the movie had been experienced by nearly a third of the city's population.

The only one unhappy about the success of the film was Victoria Sloan, the young ballet dancer who had been dating Eliot Jacobson. Not only had she failed to get the solo dancing part, but Eliot had stopped dating her and had begun dating Miss Beryl Harrington. When the media reported that Mr. Jacobson and Miss Harrington were engaged to be married, Victoria Sloan was livid. A confrontation with Beryl Harrington had to come, and it did. "First you stole my part in the movie, and now you are stealing my millionaire!"

Soon after their honeymoon, Mr. and Mrs. Jacobson approached Miss Victoria Sloan with a request that stunned her. A second film was already in the works that would also have dancing scenes, and they wanted Miss Sloan to be the solo dancer for them. Victoria was so surprised and delighted by the request that she was speechless. Eliot added to her delight by saying, "By the time the new movie is ready for filming, Beryl should be nicely pregnant, and since you were the runner-up at the previous tryouts, I want you for the part."

Victoria was of course aware that Beryl's performance in the film had resulted in numerous requests for Beryl to teach girls the art of dancing, and that Beryl had established the Burnette Burle School of Dance, named to honor the friend who had introduced her to artistic dancing.

The normally arrogant Victoria was tearfully humbled by this marvelous opportunity so surprisingly offered to her. She even expressed worry that after Beryl's brilliant performance in the first film, the public might sense her own performance as falling off from the high standard set by Beryl.

Beryl gently put a hand on Victoria's shoulder and said, "You are already an accomplished dancer, and I am willing to show you all the motions that I was taught, if you want me to."

Victoria asked, "Who taught you those wonderful combinations of motions?"

With a curious smile, Beryl answered, "Someone with thousands of years of experience at dancing."

Victoria burst into laughter. "Oh, Beryl, you are too much! Yes, show me whatever I can learn, and I would very much like to be the solo dancer for the new film!"

One evening at the Burnette Burle School of Dance, which had recently moved into its own building, Beryl had been teaching Victoria the complex moves that Beryl had learned from the nymph. Victoria wanted to stay after Beryl left, to practise the moves, promising to lock up the building when she left.

As Beryl drove away, she vaguely noticed a pickup truck parked near the building with a man sitting in it. After a few minutes her memory of the man sitting in the pickup truck began to bother her. Victoria was alone in the building, a building bearing the name of a young woman who had been violated and murdered. Beryl began driving back.

When she saw the pickup truck, she noticed that no one was in it. The lights of the building had been turned off. Yet Victoria's car was still in the parking lot.

In a grassy area near the parking lot she saw a man ripping off the clothes of Victoria, who was struggling to escape from him. Beryl sped her car across the grass, maneuvering it so that she could scare the man away. When he tried to jump out of the way, Victoria was the one now grasping him so that he could not escape. In a flash of inspiration Beryl maneuvered her left front tire over one of the legs of the man. As she felt the car rise up over his leg, she brought the car to a stop in that very position. Masculine screams of agony told Beryl that the tire was not somehow mistakingly on top of Victoria, who stood up to nakedly thank Beryl for rescuing her, and to warn Beryl that the man had a gun.

With the man's leg still pinned beneath the tire, Beryl and Victoria, taking a route blocked by the cars from the aim of his gun, reentered the building. While Beryl used the telephone to call the police, Victoria found a dancing outfit to replace her ripped off clothing.

As the first police car arrived, the sharp sound of a gun being fired was heard. The man under the tire had shot himself. The police got Beryl's keys so they could move the wheel off of his leg and rush him to a hospital.

Although it was a terrible experience, that was the night that Beryl and Victoria became best friends.

A week later, two police detectives came to the house of Mr. and Mrs. Jacobson to share some information with them. "Because the man who shot himself to death at your school of dance had a pickup truck parked near your building and the truck was loaded with arson materials, we thought he might have been planning to burn the building down. While speculating on why he might want to burn it down, we remembered that the Burnette Burle you named your school of dance after had been the victim of an unsolved violent crime seven years ago. We got permission to compare DNA samples between the dead man and that of the rapist who killed Miss Burle. There is a one hundred percent correspondence. We thought you would like to know this before it is shared with the media during a special news conference tomorrow morning."

Beryl's mouth dropped open. "You mean the man whose leg I drove my car tire on top of is the man who violated and murdered Burnette Burle?"

"That's right, Mrs. Jacobson. We discovered that the sign on your school of dance building is visible from the freeway that the man drove on to get to and from work. Apparently, seeing the name of Burnette Burle every day had become an irritation to him, so he decided to burn the building down. Apparently, assaulting Miss Sloan was not a part of his original plan. It is lucky for her that you returned when you did."

After the detectives left, and the Jacobsons had discussed the situation for some time, Beryl became silent and stared off into space. After she had ignored several questions from her husband, she finally spoke. "Remember when Victoria asked me who had taught me some of the more innovative combinations of motions in my dancing?"

"Yes, and I remember your answer. 'Someone with thousands of years of experience at dancing.' What did you mean by that?"

"I have a letter that I think you should read."

Beryl went to their bedroom and pulled out of its place of hiding the envelope containing the letter written by her grandfather just before he died. She handed it to her husband, who read it.

He then asked her,"Did a nymph teach you how to dance so joyfully, as you did at the tryouts and in the film?"

"Yes."

"Have you seen her since?"

"No."

"Do you expect to see her again?"

"Not as a nymph. She told me, in English, that she had been a teenage girl who had been violated and murdered in the days of the Roman Empire. In the spirit world she was invited to join the order of nymphs. Her haunt has been in Italy for over two thousand years. She told me that she was about to leave her haunt to prepare for her coming resurrection."