She inhales deeply. “I was born a piece of art.”
“You are pretty great,” I start, not knowing how to respond to this.
“No, like a literal piece of art,” she clarifies, her tone unenthusiastic.
I’m confused. “Like your mom painted a portrait of you after you were born?”
Her posture deflates. “More like I was born in front of people, and it was recorded and subsequently sold for a good amount of money. Literally. My mom birthed me in a museum as part of a one-time be-there-or-you’ll-miss-it art exhibit.”
My jaw drops, and I’m grateful for the mask to cover it. “Seriously?”
“It’s calledBaby Being Born. I’m… the baby that was born. Her goal was to celebrate birth and women and to show the types of things you rarely get to see. Expensive art, people giving birth,” Rooney explains. “Long story short, it’s coming up for auction and I want to buy it back. For my entire childhood, it was the most interesting thing about me. I was always that baby, an exhibit.”
I’m exposed to big, new ideas every day at work but that is definitely something I haven’t come across before.
“Talk about being put on a pedestal in life. That must’ve been tough,” I say.
“People wanted to meet me because of it. It’s partly why I went into hiding as an artist. I didn’t want my success to come fromBaby Being Born. I wanted it to be because of what I create.”
“That’s why you go undercover as Red String Girl,” I say.
She nods. “If no one knows it’s me, daughter of Wren Gao, then I can find success on my own,” she says. “And they won’t rename the pieceNepo Baby Being Born. Anyways.”
I know she’s trying to make light of the situation, cracking jokes at her own expense. I clench my jaw. I don’t like seeing Rooney sad.
“It happened after our night in New York,” she continues. “Losing inspiration. All that talk about fate, us meeting in the way that we did, the destruction ofEntangled, it must’ve thrown me off. That was the installation that was supposed to change the course of my career. And maybe in a weird way it did, because now I’m here. I got a second chance for a big break, and I’m creatively blocked!”
I nod, understanding the feeling of having been thrown off after that night. “And our talk about fate impacted you? You don’t believe in the Red Thread of Fate anymore?” I ask.
“Of course I still believe in it… but the spark feels gone. Everything feels flat, empty. For my work, for any new ideas, and yes, sometimes even for fate,” she says, glancing up at me. “I’ve never been creatively blocked before. I just haven’t felt like myself in a long time, and now meeting you here just makes everything more confusing. Like I said, nothing is sticking. It’s difficult to know what anything really means right now.”
I look around to see who might be able to overhear us. I’m not used to having these types of discussions in here. It’s mostly empty, except for Dusty and another team at the computers. We walk around the equipment toward a different piece of machinery.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she says, staying close tomy side. Her defeated tone of voice makes the center of my chest tighten.
I can problem-solve this. Fix this. That’s what I’m good at. Talking about the technicalities and working through complicated issues. But my manager has been saying that there are soft skills involved, too. That I need to inspire. Maybe this is one of those moments.
Think, Jack. If this was a challenge on your mission, how would you find a solution? What can you say that might help? What can you do?
It comes to me so suddenly, I almost want to laugh.
“We’ll test it,” I say.
Rooney shakes her head. “What?”
“We’re going to get you creatively reinspired,” I tell her.
“I wish it were that easy,” she says.
“Would you be willing to try?”
“I don’t agree to anything without reading the fine print first, but at this point, I’ll try anything,” Rooney says. There’s intrigue behind her eyes.
“Red String Theory. The fate tests we came up while eating dumplings. We’re going to follow the list.”
Rooney lets out a short laugh. “You’re not serious…”
“You said you want to become creatively unblocked. And your belief in fate helps you do that. It’s what inspires you in your work.”
