by Cindi Myers
The procession continued down the street, growing larger and more raucous as more people joined in and more drinks were distributed. At last they reached the end of the street and the shrouded figure of the Grump.
With great ceremony, Casey pulled the drape aside. The crowd gasped. Before them rose a thick-bodied, long-limbed figure covered from shoulders to feet with pictures and small objects—a toy SUV, a picture of a gas pump, a stuffed mosquito and much more.
But the Grump’s face drew the most comments from the crowd. Instead of a head, the body was topped with a white screen, on which played a slide show of more gripes and annoyances—a condo development, a political commercial, a man talking on a cell phone in a restaurant and others.
While the crowd marveled at the slide show, Bryan sidled up to Tanya. “Where’s Max?” he hissed. “How are we going to pull this off with no Green Man?”
“I don’t know.” Tanya stood on tiptoe and scanned the area around the crossroads, hoping to spot Max. Casey would never let him skip out on the performance, so where was he?
A flash of green caught her eye and she turned to see a tall figure in green tights and jerkin striding toward her. But the man in the costume wasn’t Max—it was Jack!
“It is I, Sir Hapless!” Sword raised, Zephyr swaggered onto the raised dais beside the Grump. “I, Prince of the iPod, Baron of the BlackBerry, Tycoon of TiVo and Knight of all Modern Technology, vow to slay the Dragon of Dirt, the Beast of the Wilderness, the Monster of the Mountains.”
“What are you going to do—talk me to death?” Bryan, as the dragon, moved forward.
The two men began a duel of words and weapons. Bryan’s fire-breathing demonstration drew suitable gasps and applause from the crowd, while they rewarded Zephyr’s jests with laughter and more clapping.
But Tanya hardly noticed them. Her eyes were fixed on Jack. Even with green paint covering his hands and face, he was still the most handsome man she knew, the only one who could make her heart race this way and her feet lose all awareness of the ground.
A cry rose from the crowd as Sir Hapless fell under the dragon’s onslaught. While Zephyr hammed up his “death” scene, Jack worked his way around to Tanya’s side. “What are you doing here?” she whispered. “Where’s Max?”
“Max is doing me a favor,” he said.
“It must be a big favor if you agreed to be the Green Man.”
He gave her a look that warmed her to the core. “I volunteered to do this,” he said.
She had no time to question him further as their portion of the play had begun.
“The Grump is charged with causing irritation, depression and discontent among the populace,” Tanya declared.
“He shall be tried and justly sentenced,” Jack said, a little stiffly but loud enough for everyone to hear.
Thus commenced the trial of the Grump. The crowd laughed at all the jokes. They jeered on cue and applauded wildly after every monologue. Tanya fed on the energy and felt as if she was giving one of the best performances of her life. Building this kind of relationship with an audience elevated acting to pure joy. It was the thing she’d missed most in her years of television work.
She’d missed other things, too, and many of them were here today. When she looked in the crowd, she saw so many faces—faces that reflected love, admiration and support. Here were her true fans, the people who had supported her her entire life. They didn’t care if she was a success in Hollywood. To them she would always be a hometown star.
Various straw men, maidens and even some of the children gave their testimony as to the Grump’s crimes, and at last it was time to pronounce the verdict. This was the big finale of the weekend, the moment everyone gathered here had been waiting for. “Grump, we find you guilty of sewing discord and discontent,” Tanya declared.
Jack stepped out a little and faced the crowd. “Before I pronounce sentence on the Grump,” he said. “I have some things I have to say.”
Tanya frowned at him. That wasn’t in the script. He was supposed to say, “We sentence you to be burned—you and all the gripes and regrets the people have consigned to the fire.”
“Everyone, I ask that you indulge me for just one moment,” Jack said. “As you know, our Earth Mother here also goes by the name of Tanya Bledso. We’re so blessed to have such a talent in our midst. She directs our community theater and contributes in other ways to all sorts of projects around town.”
Whistles and cheers greeted this announcement. Angela, who stood with Bryan, caught Tanya’s eye and gave her a thumbs-up.
“Tanya has the talent to act anywhere in the world,” Jack continued. “But for the past few months she’s chosen to share her talent with us.”
He turned to face her at last, and she was shocked by the pain reflected in his eyes—pain and longing and other emotions she couldn’t interpret. “I know there are lots of opportunities for you in Hollywood,” he said. “Opportunities for fame and money and other things you may not find here. But I want to ask you to consider the other things we can offer you. Things I can offer you.”
And then this proud, strong man who had balked at ridiculing himself by dressing up as the Green Man, yet had done so in spite of his misgivings, dropped to one knee in front of her and took her hand. “Tanya, I love you,” he said, only the slightest tremor in his voice and in his hands betraying his emotion. “I let you leave before without telling you how much you meant to me—I won’t make that mistake again. If you have to leave, go knowing that you’ll leave a brokenhearted man behind.”
She swallowed hard, then somehow managed to speak around the lump in her throat. “Are you saying you want me to stay?” she asked.
“I want you to stay. Or I want to go with you. But I don’t want us to be apart again.”
Crested Butte was Jack’s home—the only home he’d ever had or ever wanted. Yet he was offering to leave his family and his business and his beautiful house—for her. Hot tears filled her eyes and overflowed. “You’d do that for me?” she asked.
“I’d do it for us,” he said. “We belong together. We always have.”
“I don’t want to leave you,” she said. “And I don’t want to leave Crested Butte. Everything I want is already here. Everything I love.” She held out her arms and he rose and pulled her close. “I love you,” she said. “I never stopped loving you, but I had to go away to find out just how much.”
She was dimly aware of the crowd’s applause as she and Jack kissed, but everything was secondary to the feeling of warmth and security and completeness only he could give her.
They reluctantly drew apart, each a little breathless, in time to hear the roar of flames rushing to engulf the Grump.
They turned to watch the fire catch and leap into the air. “You’re sure you’re okay with giving up your chance at this new television show?” Jack asked.
“Yes. I was already pretty sure I was going to call my agent on Monday and turn down the job,” she said. “The only thing I was really waiting on was you.”
“Me?”
“I needed to hear that you loved me as much as I love you,” she said. “That if I stayed here we’d have a future together.”
“I don’t even want to think about a future without you in it,” he said. “I’m just sorry we spent the past ten years apart.”
“We both needed those years apart,” she said. “We needed to grow up a little and learn how strong and solid love could be.” She smiled up at him. “I think it was your love that brought me back to Crested Butte,” she said.
“I thought you came back because of your parents and Annie,” he said.
“They had a little to do with my decision, but mostly it was the feeling I had the whole time I was in Hollywood that I’d left behind something important here. I came home to try to discover what that something was—and I found you.”
“And you’re never going to lose me again.” He kissed her once more, while the flames leaped up behind them and the crowd c
heered. Sparks floated up into a clear, starlit sky, and the mountains Tanya had grown up with watched over everything like friendly guardians, as strong and true and enduring as the love she’d found with the first man who had ever kissed her, and the only one who had truly touched her heart.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3612-1
THE DADDY AUDITION
Copyright © 2009 by Cynthia Myers.
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