Pride turned to anxiety and panic as I walked towards the front gate.  What made me sally forth and onward I will never know, but I had the presence of mind enough to put the bouquet behind my back with my left hand, reaching forward with my right to ring the bell.  

Only there wasn’t one.  

I guess they did not have too many visitors and didn’t want to give the idea that there should be any.  After all it was a Hermitage.  I looked up and saw there was a camera overhead, staring down at me with what I swear was a glowing red eyeball, like that scene from the movie where the computer took over the spaceship and had to be unplugged.

I forgot the name of that movie.  

It had to have been close to a century ago.