Bit Players, Has-Been Actors and Other Posers: A Must-Read for Fans of Glee, High School Musical and Twilight (24 page)

“Now, you, over to the stairs, and take that last bit of rope with you.” He nodded at the rope on the barn floor. I obeyed quickly, not wanting him to see that Alex had already wriggled the pocket knife out of his jeans and was attempting to open it with his bound hands.

Mr. Lord, content that Mr. Ellison and Alex were helpless, lowered the gun a little, sighing and glancing at the stairs to the hayloft as if he wished for all the world that he could sink down onto them and have a rest. Instead, he addressed me by name.

“Sadie, Mr. Ellison never wanted to do
Twilight
. Bet you didn’t know that, did you?” I shook my head. From the corner of my eye, I saw Mr. Ellison shaking his head, too. “He doesn’t care what you kids want. He doesn’t want you to have any fun. And he certainly didn’t want me putting my stamp on the program. When Lucey quit, he wanted to cancel the show.” Mr. Ellison shook his head again, his eyes pleading with me. “Honestly, he has no perseverance at all, that man.

“I, on the other hand, always wanted the show to go on, for the kids’ sake. Yes, even putting my own aspirations aside, I knew how much
Twilight
meant to all of you, and I would never give up on your dream.”

All my acting skills were employed keeping an earnest face while I really wanted to barf in response to his bull. My cell phone interrupted both our performances. I whipped out the phone and looked at the caller ID. Lord, surprised by my sudden movement, fired a shot into the barn wall. I stared in panic at him, gulped, and tried to focus. The phone call…

 “It’s my dad. He’ll want to know why I’m not in school.”

“Don’t answer it.”

“I have to. If I don’t, trust me he’ll have the cops out looking for me in a heartbeat.”

“Her phone has a GPS. It will lead them right here,” Alex added. It wasn’t true, but it had the desired effect.

Mr. Lord’s eyebrows scrunched together. “Fine, but keep it short, and just say you overslept and you’ll be at school soon.”

I nodded and stole a look at Alex, wishing he could telepathically shoot me an idea for how to use this call to get help. I looked away quickly, though, not wanting to draw Lord’s attention to the fact that Alex was cutting his way through the rope, slowly but surely.

I hit the little green phone icon. “Hi, Dad.” The sound of his voice on top of the shot Lord had fired drove home the dangerous predicament we were in, prompting an involuntary heave of my chest. Tears pooled in my eyes. I barely heard his words, but it was easy to catch the gist before answering in a shaky voice.

“I’m sorry, but my alarm didn’t go off and I only woke up a few minutes ago. I’m almost ready and I should be there soon.” I casually stepped away from Mr. Lord, my mouth working faster than my brain. “And guess what? Mr. Lord called this morning – that’s what woke me up -- and said I get to be Bella in the show tonight, isn’t that awesome?”

Mr. Lord moved into my line of vision, slicing his index finger against his throat in the universal kill sign.

“Well, I gotta go.” I opened my eyes wide at Mr. Lord to tell him I was trying to end the call. “No, you don’t need to pick me up. I’ll take the shortcut through the woods and be there by next period. Bye.”

I hung up, my knees trembling. I didn’t dare look back at Mr. Lord, even when he snatched the phone from my hand. Mr. Ellison snorted with laughter through his gag, but Alex’s eyes were wide with horror and he was frowning at me. What had I done? If I didn’t show up at school soon, my father wouldn’t worry now that he’d spoken with me – he’d just be mad. But if Tony didn’t let me be Bella – for that matter, if I wasn’t at the show at all -- Dad would know something was wrong. So I’d guaranteed myself the lead. Plus, I would be in a better position to help Alex and Mr. Ellison from somewhere other than this barn, tied up with them. My brain gave my mouth a pat on the back.

“Hm. This changes things, doesn’t it?” Mr. Lord said, rhetorically, and surprisingly calmly, as if thinking aloud. “I can’t leave you on your own at school, obviously, so it looks like you’ll be hanging out with me all day today, Sadie. I’ll tell Zowicki you need to practice for the play given your sudden, unexpected thrust into stardom.” He waved the gun as he spoke.

 “As for you two,” Lord motioned toward Mr. Ellison and Alex with his chin, “you’ll stay here for the day. I suggest you not try anything funny, like trying to escape. After all, you do want Sadie to make it to the stage tonight, don’t you? Sit tight until tomorrow, when this will all be over.”

Mr. Ellison sat placidly, but Alex squirmed as if sharp pieces of hay were sticking him all over, which they may have been. Mr. Lord poked the gun in my back, steering me toward the door.

“Are you sure you want to do that, Mr. Lord? Have Sadie as the lead?” Alex’s voice was husky. Shocked, I stopped. Alex kept going.

 “You said this is your chance – the break you’ve been waiting for. Why take your chances with Sadie when you could have Bonnie as Bella?”

My face burned. I clenched and unclenched my fists. Alex was ruining my chance.

 “I hear this Bonnie’s pretty talented, and hot, too.”

Daggers of betrayal pierced me all over. Didn’t Alex understand I’d rather perform the lead under gunpoint than not at all? I could handle the extra pressure. Why wouldn’t he shut up? Mr. Lord turned to give Alex his full attention.

“The Central Mass. Music Hall is a serious theatre. It takes a lot to impress them,” Alex said. Mr. Ellison grunted in agreement. “If I were you, I’d stick with Plan A – Bonnie. Or maybe that’s Plan B. But you know what I mean. You only get one chance to impress these people. Go with your best. Plus, then you won’t have to keep an eye on Sadie all day long, and all night. By the time her father realizes she’s not in the show, it will be too late for him to do anything about it.”

Alex wouldn’t meet my appalled gaze, but Mr. Ellison winked at me. What on earth was funny or cute or otherwise wink-worthy about this?

“You make a lot of sense, Holman.” Mr. Lord picked up the last piece of rope and shook off the hay clinging to it. “Over there, by the stairs,” he motioned to me with the gun. I death-marched to the stairs, mildly aware that Alex’s fumbling was picking up steam behind Mr. Lord’s back. I obediently reached around the post of the staircase and intertwined my fingers, resigned to my suddenly altered fate. Mr. Lord rested the gun on the stairs, out of my reach, and wound the rope around my wrists.

Suddenly, Alex leaped up, followed clumsily by Mr. Ellison. Mr. Lord swung around at their movement.

“Get the gun!” Alex yelled, barreling toward Mr. Lord.

I reached and clamped my hand on the gun at the same time that Alex grasped Mr. Lord in a bear hug.

“Don’t move, Tony, or I swear I’ll shoot,” I heard myself say.

24: Desperately Seeking Alex

(SADIE POINTS THE GUN WITH RIGID ARMS, LIKE A TV DETECTIVE, EXCEPT THAT HER ARMS SHAKE. A ROOSTER CROWS IN THE DISTANCE. MR. LORD HEAVES HIMSELF FREE OF ALEX’S HOLD AND LUNGES AT SADIE, SNARLING LIKE A WILD ANIMAL. SADIE STEPS BACKWARD CLUMSILY. AFTER A FEW STEPS, SHE TRIPS. AS SHE STARTS TO FALL, MR. LORD REACHES FOR THE GUN.)

WHAM!

(THE SOUND OF METAL ON BONE RESOUNDS THROUGH THE TWO-STORY BARN. MR. LORD CRUMPLES TO THE DIRT FLOOR. SADIE GASPS. ALEX CROUCHES OVER MR. LORD, WHO DOESN’T MOVE. MR. ELLISON STEPS BACK FROM MR. LORD’S UNCONSCIOUS FORM AND LEANS THE SHOVEL AGAINST THE BARN WALL, LOOKING VERY PLEASED WITH HIMSELF.)

MR. ELLISON

THERE. THAT SHOULD TAKE CARE OF HIM FOR NOW. THERE’LL BE NO NEED FOR GUNS, MISS PERKINS.

(MR. ELLISON HOLDS OUT HIS HAND. SADIE GLADLY DISPOSES OF THE GUN IN HIS PALM. ALEX EXHALES LOUDLY AND SLUMPS AGAINST THE SIDE OF THE STAIRS.)

ALEX

THAT WAS INTENSE.

Rage rather than relief flooded my body. I hammered my fists against Alex’s chest, adding “you jerk” in case he wasn’t clear on my feelings.

“Whoa, Sadie, what’s wrong?” He tried to grab my flailing fists.

“What do you think is wrong? He was going to let me be Bella and you screwed it up!”

He got hold of my upper arms and held me at arm’s distance. I punched air for a few seconds before realizing I looked like a ridiculous puppet. I stopped and glared at him.

The corner of his mouth twitched. “Sadie, no role is worth you spending the day with a maniac with a gun.”

Everything in my system was on overload. I closed my eyes -- taking away vision helped me focus -- and let his words register. My senses settled.

“You said those things so I wouldn’t be alone with him all day? You didn’t mean them?”

“You know I think you’re a great actor. I just wanted him to leave you here with us. Plus I needed to stall. I needed to get him back into the barn so I could get a good jump at him. Get it now?” His green eyes begged forgiveness.

“Pretty good actor, isn’t he?” said Mr. Ellison, grinning ear-to-ear. “But let’s move on. Who’s got a phone? We need to call the police.”

I exhaled deeply, my frustration at Alex dissolving, replaced with a subtle trembling all over and belated tears of fear and panic.

“Here you go, Mr. Ellison,” Alex said, plucking my cell phone from Mr. Lord’s jacket pocket.

Mr. Ellison called 911 and explained the situation while Alex and I tied up Mr. Lord’s hands and feet. Practical Alex suggested he and I get going to school.

“I think the police will want to talk to you,” Mr. Ellison pointed out.

“Um, yeah, but I’m not supposed to be driving anyone else without an adult in the car, so I’d rather not talk to them right now,” Alex explained.

“Right, understood. Okay, then, thank you both. And I’ll see you at school. Oh, check in at the office and tell them I’ll explain why you’re tardy. And Sadie,” he nodded at me, “I’ll see you at the show tonight. You do realize you will get to be Bella after all, and save the show just as you saved me today.”

“Really? But what about Bonnie?”

“Something tells me Bonnie will be busy comforting her criminal boyfriend tonight, not acting in his show while he’s in jail.”

As Mr. Ellison walked with us to Mrs. Holman’s car, I had one more question for him.

“How did you manage to send me those text messages?”

“Hmm. The hardest part was remembering how to do it, and hitting those tiny buttons. It was easy convincing Tony to let me send them. I said my wife would worry unless I gave her some excuse for not coming home, so he agreed to that message. He didn’t know Ginny had passed on. I figured that would set off some alarm bells for Alex, if you happened to remember that fact.

“Then I told him I needed to get in touch with someone from the cast, or you would also worry. I said it was too out of character for me to bail like that, without a word. He thought my carefully crafted text message was gibberish, as if I were deranged with fear or some such thing, so he let it go. He’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, you know. Although he did think to take my phone when he first tied me up, so I couldn’t communicate with anyone.” He made a face as if annoyed at having to give Mr. Lord any credit at all.

With nothing left to discuss, although part of me wanted to stay and absorb the actions of the past hour, Alex and I drove off, leaving Mr. Ellison to watch over the unconscious Tony Lord.

“That was unbelievable!” Alex gushed as he turned onto the main road. “Better than any show we ever put together.”

“I know, right? Can you believe we actually saved a kidnapped teacher?” The whole episode was fuzzy and dream-like.

“Did you see me punch Mr. Lord? That was awesome,” Alex said, almost to himself. I glanced at his hands on the steering wheel. The knuckles on his right hand were bright red but he didn’t seem to be in any pain.

“Yeah, awesome,” I echoed.

We re-lived other details of the morning for a few minutes, and then rode silently. I re-played the rescue in my head a few times, trying to lock every detail into my long-term memory – trying to make it real. Alex was probably doing the same.

When we pulled into the school parking lot, he stopped the car and faced me.

“We did it, Sade. You and me, like old times.” His smile went through me like a beam of light. He held up his palm, which I high fived.

“Yeah, just like old times,” I repeated, suddenly feeling like crying again. Good thing my dream wasn’t to be a criminal investigator or even a crime reporter, since being in these situations made me so weepy. Luckily, active tear ducts came in handy for actors.

Once inside the school, I ducked into the restroom to collect my thoughts. Alex and I were officially friends again, which made my very molecules want to celebrate. But when he gave me the high five, it hit me that I wanted a lot more than that from him. I hadn’t wanted to admit this before, but I’d fallen for him the second I saw him unpacking his bags that day in August. What did that make me? That made me as shallow as every other girl who didn’t give him the time of day until he got all buff and hot. And that realization made me sick to my stomach.

The rest of the day was a blur. Alex and I were pulled out of class to speak with the police chief in the principal’s office.  We told the entire story twice and missed two periods, which I welcomed. When I got back into class, I immediately put my head down and fell asleep, exhausted now that the adrenaline had dissipated.