A beauty contest went wrong.

The beauty stage lights were suddenly out, and the host was holding the microphone in a panic, and the audience was screaming, and the final girls were wearing their evening dress, and they were standing on their heels, and a judge in a black dress was rushing up to the stage, reaching out to hold the winning candidate who was about to fall, and her hands were on her waist, and her palms were passing through thin cloths, and the palms were passing through the palms, and when the lights were almost clattering, they were still at a dangerous distance, and the lips were bending and the eyes were pulling out of each other, and there was so quiet that there was only a heartbeat.