“That’s how many the theater holds,” I interrupted. “There’s a little placard on the wall by the main entry door that tells you.”
“Oh.”
For an actress who was supposed to be good with words, she worried me sometimes. She seemed more than a little rattled. Then again, this was our first
“In act two, when am I supposed to come in?” I asked.
Halle scrunched her forehead and then told me. I asked her a series of questions about my lines, which irritated her more. But soon she was no longer worried about how bad she would do, she was now concerned I was about to make a fool out of myself. I smiled inside when we heard it was time. We crept to the side of the stage to listen to the Stage Manager deliver his opening monologue.
I didn’t make my appearance until the middle of act 1. Halle was on as Emily before I was. The crowd began to clap when Halle first appeared on stage. She and the others on stage had to wait to say their lines. Finally, Halle and Dana, playing Emily’s mother, got to have their on-stage conversation.
I was on right after that when the scene switched to me speaking to my mom. When the lights turned on us, the crowd began to clap again. It was a little annoying that they would interrupt the play, but we waited until they quieted down. Then it was time for me to say my lines. I think I nailed it.
◊◊◊
Time flew, and I couldn’t believe it when we reached the final scene in act 3, Emily in childbirth. During practice, we’d hammed it up and made light of the final scene.
Emily talks to her fellow dead when George appears. I dropped to my knees, and my shoulders shook. I surprised myself when I was able to create real tears for the scene. The look of sorrow on Halle’s face about did me in. Somehow, she managed to get through her lines, allowing the Stage Manager to come out and do his final monologue.
When it was over, we were both laughing and crying at the same time. We let everyone have their moment of applause, and then we walked out hand-in-hand. From the crowd’s response, we must have done well. I was glad Halle had talked me into this.
◊◊◊
After the play, we all drove to Halle’s house to unwind and eat pizza. Rita was a proud mother.
“You two were wonderful. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when you were done,” she shared.
“The big goof didn’t tell me he was going to actually cry,” Halle complained.
“That was acting,” I said proudly.
“Whatev … I think you cried like a baby,” Halle said.
I just shrugged it off and wore a big smile on my face. Mr. Dutton arrived and declared our show a resounding success. I ate a few pieces of pizza and loved-up Bandit before calling it a night. I had a baseball game and our play again tomorrow.
◊◊◊
Chapter 31 – Jacob Jeffrey Dawson Saturday April 9
I’d given my tickets for the play to my dad. Last night Greg and Angie had gone with Grandma Dawson and Peggy. Tonight, Mom and Dad were going with Uncle John and Aunt Bonnie. This morning Dad had gone to Granny’s and gotten cinnamon rolls and then stopped at the Quickie Mart and picked up copies of all the newspapers. We’d made the first page of the entertainment section in our local paper, who only had good things to say. The campus paper for State wasn’t as complimentary. Some college student ran down the rest of the cast. He said the performances were uneven, and it was apparent who the professionals were. Even though he was complimentary about Halle and me, he pissed me off. I thought we all did well.
Peggy came down and handed me Little David. He was just the distraction needed to get my mind off the critic. I had to smile when I realized how much his opinion mattered to me. It was silly. It was a high school play, and the audience was entertained and hadn’t fallen asleep. I considered that a win.
◊◊◊
We met at the school and loaded onto the bus to travel to State. They were having an art fair this weekend to coincide with our game. It amused me that State also had a game today, but theirs had been pushed back so we could play at one.
We were early, so Moose let us wander the fair. I was hungry, and among the art booths, I found a stall selling steak sandwiches. Now that I was on a budget, I didn’t offer to buy all the guys sandwiches. I did loan some money to those without any cash on them. Jim offered to act as my collection agent for a percentage, but I didn’t think there would be any problems getting paid back.
While we goofed off, we found ourselves surrounded by sorority girls.
“Hello, boys,” their leader said.
I rolled my eyes when all the guys stepped back and left me to talk to the cute girls.
“Hello, girls,” I said back.
“You’re David A. Dawson.”
“Is that your best pickup line? Surely you can do better than that,” I teased.
“Here we go again,” Jim moaned.
