Dream Chaser (28 page)

At the end of the song, Sophie leaned over. “You sound really great!”

I heard respect in her voice, and I could have jumped up and punched the air in celebration. Eli caught my attention and winked.

Yes!

*
 
*
 
*

Saturday night, Eli and I faced a bit of a problem. Tyson invited us to join him after our full day of rehearsal. It started out harmless and fun, but now, the man had turned into a wreck.

“Tyson, are you okay?” Our awesome director, the guy who could make just about anything happen, held his hands over his face and mumbled incoherently from our booth at the Great Dane Brew Pub. The Saturday night crowd buzzed with energy.

“I think he finally broke from all the stress,” I whispered as I sat next to Eli with our legs pressed close together.

“Tyson?” Eli leaned close to him.

We exchanged a worried look when he didn’t respond right away.

“I need another beer,” he muttered and raised his glass as the waitress came by. She scooped it up and promptly brought a fresh one.

Tyson had been here a while before we'd arrived, so who knows how much he'd already had to drink.

After fortifying himself with half the contents of his glass, he leaned his elbow on the table to hold his head up; a little beer foam glistened on his razor stubble.

“I’ve created a nightmare. This whole project has become a house of cards. If one more thing goes wrong, the whole thing will fall apart.”

“What are you talking about? Everything is going great,” Eli said.

“No, I bit off more than I can chew this time. Dreamers beware!” He raised his glass in the air for a mock toast. “You just might get what you want!”

“I’m playing, director, producer, fundraiser. I’m trying to coordinate set design, lighting, union workers, sound mixing, publicity, interviews...” He raised his glass and took a long swig.

“And you're doing a great–” Eli started to say.

Tyson held up his hand to stop him. “I’m not done. I’ve got to handle the stage manager, staff, orchestra, plus bring in and impress the New York producers, agents, investors.” He shook his head. “And that doesn’t include trying to control my underage cast of drunk, horny students.”

“Come on, the cast isn’t that bad,” Eli said.

“I’m talking about the two of you!” He focused his droopy, intoxicated eyes on us.

“We’re doing great. You said so yourself,” I added, and Eli squeezed my hand.

“Yeah, well it’s all a big ticking time bomb waiting to go off.” He stared at his glass as the beer bubbles slid to the bottom.

“Tyson,” I said to distract him and maybe lighten things up. “I promise, I won’t let you down. It will all be okay.”

He drained his beer and raised his hand for another. Eli and I cringed.

“Are you just really thirsty or are you trying to get drunk?” Eli asked.

“No, actually, I wasn’t; but it’s a great idea.” He held his glass outside the booth for the waitress, but thankfully she was waiting on another table.

“Why don’t you let us drive you home? It’s getting late, and we have an early call tomorrow,” I said.

“Seriously? You want to drive me home? How apropos.” He gazed at the bottom of his empty glass. “You guys go on. I’ll hang out for a while and sober up.”

Eli shook his head. “No, I think it’s time to go. Tomorrow’s another big day, and we need our fearless leader.” Eli and I stood up.

“Ha, that’s pretty good kid.” Tyson followed our lead and got to his feet. He reached for his wallet, fished out some bills and tossed them on the table.

We walked to the parking lot. Tyson staggered. Even drunk he still looked good.

“Hand me your keys, man.” Eli held his hand out expectantly. Tyson dug around in his pocket for a while, swaying on his feet. “Got ‘
em
.” He tossed them to Eli.

I tried to hide my grin. Who would believe we’d be driving our director home drunk?
Too funny.
Eli handed me his keys while keeping a close watch on Tyson.

“Careful now, it’s leased.” Tyson fell into the car. Eli waited for him to pull his legs in,
then
shut the door and got in the drivers’ seat.

I hopped in Eli’s car and followed as he pulled out and headed toward the highway to a newer condo development. When we arrived, we had to wake Tyson up to get him in his building and up the elevator to his door. While I tried to find the key on his jumbled key chain, Tyson kicked the door repeatedly and yelled.

“Hey John, open the door!”

“
Shh
, you’re going to wake up all the neighbors,” I said.

“
Shh
,” Tyson mocked me. Then he leaned forward to talk to us. “I love you guys. Did you know that?” he whispered.

“Yeah, back at
ya
,” Eli laughed.

“No. I really mean it. Forget the
drunk
shit. You two have made this thing so much fun. You’re such sweet kids and so cute together.” He patted my cheek. “I really love you guys.”

“Thanks, we love you too,” I said. He probably wouldn’t remember in the morning, but it still was nice to hear.

“Hey John!” Tyson yelled and pounded the door again.

“
Shh
,” I giggled. “You have to be quiet.”

“But I
gotta
take a leak,” he whispered.

We burst into laughter.

Suddenly the door opened and Oh! My! God! A guy wearing boxers, and I mean only boxers, squinted in the bright hall light and rubbed his face.

If Tyson was the GQ cover model, John was the swimsuit guy. His muscular arms and flat abs stared back at us. I quick turned my head away and looked wide-eyed at Eli.
Oh my god!
A half naked man stood in the hallway! Eli choked back laughter.

“John!” Tyson cheered.

John nodded acknowledgement and yawned. “I’ll take him from here.”

We stood back so Tyson could stumble forward.

“Come on, party boy. Let’s get you to bed.” He took Tyson’s arm and led him in.

“I love you, John,” Tyson swayed and spoke in a sappy puppy dog way.

“Yeah, I know.”

“Here are his keys.” I handed them over with my body angled away and eyes averted.

“Thanks for bringing him. You kids should get home now, too.”

“We’re on our way,” Eli said.

“See you opening night.” John closed the door.

Eli and I stared at each other. “You thinking what I’m thinking? ”

“Yup, I think so,” I giggled. “He loves John.”

Eli put his arm around me as we walked out. “Yes, he does.”

The next morning I flashed a grin at Eli and climbed into his jeep. “Hey.”

His smile flipped on an electrical current that hummed through me. Can you die from overwhelming joy? God, I hoped not. Please don’t let me die and miss one second of time with Eli. It's like when you worry about some random tragedy striking you dead and making you miss something. I felt that way about the Harry Potter movies. I prayed at night that I wouldn’t die of some freak accident and miss the next movie. This was a lot like that.

Eli leaned over and kissed me. Oh heaven, thank you. He smelled so damn good, a combination of soap and aftershave. Why did we have to go to rehearsal when all I wanted to do was make out?

“Good morning,” he said, his voice low and breathy.

“Morning.” I gazed into his beautiful blue eyes. Eli could have anyone, but he wanted me. How did I get so lucky?

He pulled out and took off downtown for the Overture Center, our new home for the next week. He parked in the ramp behind the theatre, a quick half block away. He slid his arm around my waist and held me close as we walked to the stage door, where we signed in and were given passes for the duration of the show.

I’ve danced on a lot of stages over the years, but never anything like the Capital Theatre. It’s a block from the actual Wisconsin State Capitol and almost as old. It’s been refurbished a couple of times and has fancy ornate decorations, antique chandeliers and an old historic pipe organ.

We were directed straight to the house to wait for the others. In the theatre, a tech table was set up midway back over the top of the seats. Tyson spoke to a couple of people I didn’t recognize. Stretch lights and a microphone were attached to the table.
Binders
lay open near crumpled papers, several coffee containers and a
walkie
talkie, among other things, lay strewn across the table. Looks like he’d been here for a while.

Ten minutes later, with most the cast assembled, Tyson joined us, switching from his usual intense gaze to an animated one.

“Welcome to the Capitol Theatre. What do you think?” He lit up as he spread his arms wide to show off the historic venue. “Not bad, eh?”

We all nodded, giddy to be there. Chloe, McKenna, and Alex walked in.

“You’re late,” he said in a stern tone. “You’re excused this time, but don’t let it happen again.” We could tell he was serious.

“We’ve had a lot of fun the past couple of months, and you guys have worked your tails off. Today everything switches gears. We have a team of professionals who have come in to get this show up.
 
When one of them asks or tells you to do something, I expect you will listen and obey. I want you to give them every ounce of respect and make me proud. I am no longer the only person you report to. In a minute you will meet Jerry, the stage manager. What Jerry says is law. He has a team of assistants, and their word is law too. You’ve met your costume director and will meet the lighting director and all the others as the day goes on.”

The tone of the production was definitely changing. Everyone sat up and paid attention.

“The good news is that you’re in great hands. The bad news is that all the horsing around and goofing off has to end. You are now a small cog in the machine of this show. If you don’t have the right cues for lighting, set changes and music cues, there is no show.” Tyson grabbed a clipboard and glanced down at his notes.

“Today you’re going to start with a tour of the theatre, including back stage, stairs, entrances, lines of death. You will receive every possible safety note you may need. Pay attention. You’ll be getting your dressing rooms and learning about the make up room, trap room, backstage sound systems and more. After that we’re going to start our tech rehearsal, so be patient and ready to do a lot of standing around.”

I looked at Eli and some of the others.
We weren’t in Kansas anymore
.

“Ah, here he is.” Tyson pointed. “This is Jerry Block, your stage manager. Please listen up and make me proud. Jerry, they’re all yours.”

“Welcome! I’ve been looking forward to working with all of you. We’ve got a great show to put on, so let’s get down to business.”

Jerry split us in two groups, and we toured the whole place meeting different theatre veterans along the way. Each one had
their own
area of expertise.

“Are you half as intimidated as I am?” I whispered to Eli.

“Oh yeah. Now I understand why Tyson was freaking out last night. If we screw this up, there’s an army of people we’ll bring down with us.”

“I’m glad I’m not you, lead of the whole shebang!”

“I thought I was ready for this, but now I think I need another month.”

“You’ll be great.” I squeezed his hand.

“At least you’ll be with me half the time I’m on stage.”

After Jerry’s talk, we spent hours working on light checks. For each scene, we had to stand and block each spot on stage for lighting cues. It was tedious waiting while they adjusted the lights for color and intensity over and over. Suddenly there were far more important things we needed to do. Like practice!

Finally, at the intermission point of the blocking, the lighting director called a half hour break for lunch. The house lights came up, and Tyson walked out to the aisle with Jerry.

A tall woman with a mane of honey blonde hair, skinny jeans tucked into knee high boots and a designer bag entered through the back doors and sauntered up behind Tyson.

Those of us still on stage watched, transfixed by this new arrival.

“Who’s that?” I asked Eli.

“I don’t know, but looks like she’s here to see Tyson.”

“Maybe it's his sister,” Alex said eyeing the leggy beauty.

The woman stood with a devilish smirk, just out of Tyson’s view. Jerry took one look at her and forgot what he was saying.

Tyson turned and his face lit up like the night sky on the Fourth of July. She stepped into his arms and he held her in a way that suggested much more than a polite acquaintance. When he released her, he kissed her quick on the mouth and then introduced her to Jerry who appreciated the display as much as we did. He smiled wide, shook her hand, and then stepped away.