“Watch what you say, Neil,” Christy warned, “or I’ll come over there and look at your painting!”
“My masterpiece?” the doctor cried. “No one can see this until it’s ready. And if I have my way, it’ll never be ready!”
“I don’t know what else to do, Christy,” said Aunt Cora, wringing her hands. “I’ve spoken to everyone individually. I’ve scolded the whole group. This isn’t the first time they’ve pulled practical jokes on new cast members, but it’s definitely the worst. I just feel so awful.”
“Don’t. It’s not your fault.”
Aunt Cora checked the clock on the mantel. “Listen, I need to run a quick errand. You two sit tight. I’ll be right back.”
“Would you like some company?” Christy asked.
“No, no. You stay put. You’ve been working so hard.” Aunt Cora smiled at the doctor. “We’re having a surprise for dinner, by the way.”
“Maybe I could help—” Christy began.
“I won’t hear of it. Besides, this is my secret recipe. I think it will add a little down-home flavor you’ll like.”
“Sounds interesting,” Christy said.
“Oh, I think it will definitely be interesting.”
Christy walked Aunt Cora to the door, then returned to the parlor. “Neil, I didn’t want to say anything in front of Aunt Cora, but I’m starting to wonder if maybe I should pull out of the play.”
“Pull out! But you can’t!” Doctor MacNeill tossed aside his paintbrush and joined Christy on the sofa. “You’ve been doing so well, Christy. You said so yourself. Just yesterday you were talking about how much more confident you felt on stage.”
“Acting, yes. But how can I really relax when I keep waiting for the next practical joke? Somebody wants me out of that play, Neil. That’s all there is to it.”
“You know, at least some of those pranks affected other people. When that rolled-up curtain fell onto the stage yesterday, you and Gilroy were both there. And several people were near you when that other set toppled.”
“I know. But I think that’s just coincidence. I do seem to be the main target.”
Christy walked over to the wall where Aunt Cora had her theater posters displayed. “I keep thinking about what Miss Alice told me. About how I should ask myself what the worst thing that could happen would be. I thought it would be falling on the stage in front of people. Well, I’ve done that, and then some.”
“But you’re still worried?”
Christy touched one of the framed posters and sighed. “I’m afraid something even worse may happen opening night. I might even get hurt. Lots of people might.”
“Maybe you’re right to be worried,” the doctor said, joining her. He gave her a gentle hug. “I’ve been making light of all this because Aunt Cora said the actors often initiate new cast members with practical jokes. But if you’re afraid, I think you should pull out. They can always do the play next year.”
“I’d hate to disappoint everyone. Especially Aunt Cora. But I’m starting to feel like it’s my only choice.”
“Maybe if you give it another day—”
“Neil, the show’s in two days. I need to make a decision soon.” Christy started for the dining room. “In the meantime, if Aunt Cora’s making us a special dinner, the least I can do is set the table.”
“Want help?”
“No. You stay and finish your masterpiece.”
While she set the table, Christy practiced what she would say to Aunt Cora. I’m sorry, Aunt Cora, but I just can’t take the risk of performing. Maybe some other time. Maybe some other role . . .
But of course, there would be no other role. This was her chance. Her one big chance.
Christy was just setting the last plate into place when she heard the front door open. “Aunt Cora?” she called, but nobody answered.
She heard loud whispers, followed by a shrill giggle.
Christy headed toward the hall. “Aunt Cora, is that you?”
“It’s us, Miz Christy!” a childish voice cried.
Christy turned the corner and stared in disbelief.
There in the hall stood Aunt Cora, along with what looked like half the population of Cutter Gap.
“Ruby Mae!” Christy cried. “Creed! Little Burl! Miss Alice!” She counted eleven students, plus Miss Alice.
“Aunt Cora done paid for our tickets so we could come and see you actin’!” Creed explained.
“I made arrangements with Miss Alice before I left Cutter Gap,” Aunt Cora said. “Of course, then I thought you’d only have a small walk-on role!”
“I can’t believe you’re all here,” Christy whispered.
“I would have arranged for the whole cove to come if I could have,” Aunt Cora said. “But there just plain wasn’t room. So the children drew lots to see who would come.”
“David felt he could spare me for a couple days,” Miss Alice said, rushing to give Christy a hug. “We’re all so proud of you, Christy.”
“But I was going to—” Christy began. “Aunt Cora, I really don’t know . . .”
“No need to thank me, dear,” Aunt Cora said breezily. “It’ll be all the thanks I need when I see your friends applauding in their front-row seats!”
Fourteen
Well, look at you, Teacher! All gussied up so fancy-like!” Ruby Mae exclaimed the following afternoon.
The dressing room was filled to overflowing with Christy’s friends from Cutter Gap. They’d just returned from a tour of the theater with Aunt Cora. She’d brought them to the dressing room to see Christy in her “Juliet finery,” as Ruby Mae called it.
“You look just like a fairy princess, Miz Christy,” Creed pronounced. “But how come your lips are so all-fired red?”
“That’s makeup, Creed,” Aunt Cora explained. “All the actors wear makeup. It’s easier for the people in the audience to see their faces that way.”
“Christy, are you certain you don’t mind having all of us in the audience for the dress rehearsal today?” Miss Alice asked.
“I might as well get used to having a real audience,” Christy said gamely. Since it looks like I’m going through with this, after all, she added to herself. “Let’s just hope nothing goes wrong today.”
“I’m sure everyone will be on their best behavior,” Aunt Cora said. “After all, we open tomorrow. I doubt you’ll have any more trouble with your prankster.”
Arabella poked her head in the door. “I see the costume fits,” she said, smiling at Christy’s flowing blue gown.
“I’m all set, except that I can’t seem to locate those shoes I was supposed to wear,” Christy said. “I’ve looked everywhere.”
“Let me scout around,” Arabella said. “You go on ahead.”
While her Cutter Gap friends gathered in the audience, Christy joined her fellow actors onstage.
“Nervous?” Gilroy asked.
Christy nodded. “I seem to have swallowed a hundred butterflies.”
“I get that way, too, a little,” Gilroy admitted. “’Course, I’m even worse around girls I like. I get so nervous, I just start jabbering like a jaybird. Like when I’m around Marylou, for instance.”
“Gilbert, do you have a crush on Marylou?”
“She isn’t easy to talk to, like you are. But she does have the most beautiful smile. . . .” Gilroy shrugged. “Lately, this past week or so, she won’t even give me the time of day. I guess she has her eye on some other fella.”
“Where is Marylou, anyway?”
“Running around like a chicken with her head cut off.” Gilbert grinned. “Ol’ Ara-bellow keeps her hopping.”
Just then, Oliver tapped Christy on the shoulder. It was the first time he’d made an appearance backstage, although she’d seen him several times, watching the play from one of the rear seats.
“Oliver!” she exclaimed.
“I just wanted to wish you the best,” he said. “I expect you’ll need it, the way things have been going. So as we say in
the theater, break a leg, my dear.” He chuckled to himself. “Plenty of other things have certainly been breaking around here.”
Just then, Arabella appeared, carrying the black leather ballet slippers Christy was supposed to wear with her costume. “Here you go, dear,” she said, placing the slippers on the floor. “By the way, you look simply lovely.”
“Thanks, Arabella.” Christy eased her left foot into the slipper. “It really is a beautiful cos—”
“Is something wrong?” Arabella inquired.
“There’s something in my slipper! It . . . it feels sort of . . .”
Christy curled her nose. A smell—a horrible, stomach-turning stench was filling the air.
Instantly, she knew what it was—the smell of a rotten egg.
“What is that appalling odor?” Arabella pinched her nose. “Christy, don’t be offended, but is that you, dear?”
Christy pulled off her shoe, revealing the gooey remains of an egg.
“I think you know what that smell is, Arabella! You’re the one who brought me the slippers. It’s pretty easy to figure out that you’re the one who put the egg there!”
“I did no such thing!” Arabella cried indignantly. “Where would someone of my stature get a rotten egg?”
“Would somebody please tell me what that vile smell is?” Aunt Cora called from her seat in the front row.
“Can you smell it down there?” Gilroy asked, waving his hand in front of his face.
“They could smell that odor in California,” Aunt Cora said.
“Somebody put a rotten egg in my shoe!” Christy cried. She felt hot tears forming, but willed them to stop.
Aunt Cora leapt to her feet. “This whole thing has gone quite far enough!” she yelled. “I want whoever is behind this to step forward right this instant!”
Christy glared at Arabella.
“I had nothing to do with this, I’m telling you!” Arabella said. “Why, the smell is making me positively faint!”
Christy turned to Oliver.
“I said, ‘Break a leg,’” he said. “Not ‘Break an egg.’”
Christy surveyed the rest of her fellow cast members. They all seemed to be looking at her with complete sympathy. But that didn’t matter. One of these people was trying to hurt and embarrass her. And she’d had enough.
“That does it,” Christy said. “I am nervous enough about this without having to be afraid a prop’s going to fall on me. I’m tired of being humiliated this way.”
“Christy,” Gilroy said, “you know we’re all behind you.”
“Most of you are, I know. But I’ve made my decision, Gilroy. I am not going out on stage tomorrow night. You’ll just have to cancel the play.”
Fifteen
I just can’t help feeling like I’ve let everyone down,” Christy said.
It was evening, and Christy was sitting in Aunt Cora’s parlor with her friends from Cutter Gap. A fire crackled in the fireplace. Outside, light rain trickled down the windowpanes.
“Nonsense, Christy.” Aunt Cora squeezed her hand. “We all understand.”
“But the cast and crew . . . all their hard work will go down the drain.” Christy leaned back in her chair and sighed. “Yours, too, Aunt Cora. Plus, I’ll be disappointing all these friends who came from Cutter Gap just to see me.”
“Don’t you fret none, Miz Christy,” said Creed. “We got to ride a train and we got to stay in Aunt Cora’s fancy house. And we got to step inside a real, live theater.”
“Creed’s right,” said Ruby Mae in a comforting voice. “That’s plenty of fun for us. ’6Course, we was a-hopin’ to see you actin’ up a storm as Juliet.”
“I was, too, Ruby Mae,” said Christy. “But you all understand, don’t you? How could I go out on that stage tomorrow night, knowing something awful could go wrong? It was bad enough when I was just afraid I’d forget my lines or fall down. Now I have to be afraid it will start raining rotten eggs during the balcony scene. And what if someone got hurt?”
“That sure would be a sight to behold!” said Little Burl.
Christy managed a smile. “Back at the theater I felt certain I’d made the right decision. But now, I feel lousy about it. So many people were counting on me.”
“You know, the theater is a little like life, isn’t it?” Miss Alice reflected.
“Like Shakespeare said: ‘All the world’s a stage,’” Aunt Cora quoted.
“It seems to me that in our lives we can’t always predict what will happen,” Miss Alice said. “People get sick. Or they lose their jobs. Or bad weather strikes . . .”
“We’ve certainly seen our share of those things in Cutter Gap,” said Doctor MacNeill. “We’ve had typhoid, poverty, and floods.”
“But the way we get from one day to the next is to have faith that if we trust in God to help us, we can triumph over any adversity,” Miss Alice said. She smiled. “Even over a storm of rotten eggs.”
Christy looked at the hopeful, innocent faces of her students. She knew what Miss Alice was saying. She meant that this was Christy’s chance to teach the children something far more valuable than any grammar or spelling lesson.
“Aunt Cora,” Christy said firmly, “call the cast. I’m going to go through with this play, after all. Eggs or no eggs.”
“Miz Christy!” Little Burl cried. “You’re a-goin’ to be Juliet, after all?”
“I’m going to try, Little Burl.”
Aunt Cora hugged her close. “You won’t regret this, I promise. I’ll have the cast keep such a close watch on you, there won’t be a chance for anyone to pull another prank.”
“I’ll be fine, no matter what,” Christy said. “Miss Alice is right. I just have to have faith.”
“Are you for sure and certain, Miz Christy?” Ruby Mae asked doubtfully.
“For sure and certain. I promise I won’t change my mind again. I can’t let one person ruin the play for everyone else.”
“Was that the front door?” Aunt Cora asked.
“I’ll get it,” Ruby Mae volunteered.
A moment later, she returned with Marylou. “Hello, everybody,” Marylou said softly.
“Marylou! What brings you here?” said Doctor MacNeill.
“Hello, Neil.” Marylou smiled shyly. “I just came to bring Christy her coat.” She handed it to Christy. “I guess you left it in the dressing room today.”
“I was in a bit of a hurry,” Christy said. “Thanks, Marylou.”
“What a sweet girl, to come out in this rain!” Miss Alice exclaimed.
“I didn’t mind. I wanted to come and say a proper goodbye to Christy and Neil . . .” Marylou cast a quick glance in his direction. “I guess you’ll be leavin’ now, what with the play canceled and all. I just want you to know I feel right bad about the way things turned out.”
“Actually, there’s been a change in plans. I’ve decided to go through with the play, after all.”
“You have?” Marylou asked, clearly surprised. She hesitated. “Well, that’s really good news, Christy. Yes, it is.”
“Marylou, maybe you could help me get in touch with the cast and crew,” Aunt Cora said.
“Sure. I’d be happy to.”
Aunt Cora smiled gratefully. “You’ve been such a great help during this play, Marylou.”
“Thank you.”
“I left the cast list in the kitchen. I’ll get it and we can divide up the names between us,” Aunt Cora said.
“Bye, Neil. I guess you’ll be there tomorrow?” Marylou asked.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” He patted Christy’s shoulder. “I intend to have a front-row seat for Christy’s debut.”
“You might want to reconsider where you sit. There’s always the danger you’ll be pelted by rotten eggs,” Christy warned.
“I’ll take my chances,” the doctor said.
“Miz Christy? Would you help me brush these snarls outa my hair?” Ruby Mae asked that evening. “It’s so tangled up I’m afe
ared I’ll pull my whole head off if’n I tug any harder.”
“Sure.” Carefully, Christy began to brush through Ruby Mae’s wild, red hair.
“I’m awful glad you decided to be Juliet,” Ruby Mae said, wincing slightly.
“Me too—I think.”
“When I grow up, I might just be an actress, too.”
“You’d be good at it,” Christy said with an affectionate smile. “You certainly know how to act like you’ve done your homework when you really haven’t.”
Ruby Mae ignored the remark. “That gal who came with your coat today. What part does she play?”
“Marylou? She works behind the scenes, helping the director and the costume designer.” Christy tugged on a particularly tough tangle. “Sorry. I have to pull a little. You know, Marylou and the doctor were friends when they were younger.”
“Sweethearts?”
“I doubt it,” Christy replied. “She used to beat him up every chance she got!”
Ruby Mae laughed. “Oh, they was sweethearts for sure, then.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Well, when I was a little ’un, I used to beat up on boys regular as could be when I was sweet on ’em.”
Christy stopped brushing. “You mean it was a sign of affection?”
“Oh, yes’m. Nothin’ serious, mind you. No broken bones or nothin’. Just wrasslin’.”
“Really?”
“Sure. If I didn’t like ’em, why would I have bothered to take the time to whop ’em so good?”
Christy considered for a moment. “Ruby Mae,” she said, nodding, “I believe you’ve just provided me with a very interesting clue.”
Sixteen
Two and a half hours till show time,” Aunt Cora said to Christy the following evening. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m a nervous wreck,” Christy admitted. She was sitting patiently in the dressing room while Arabella applied Christy’s stage makeup.
“Try not to move your mouth,” Arabella grumbled.
“Don’t worry, Christy. You’re supposed to be a nervous wreck,” Aunt Cora said. “It goes with the territory.” She headed for the door. “I’ve got to go make sure the programs are here. Anything you need?”
Stage Fright / Goodbye, Sweet Prince / Brotherly Love Page 6
