Reign (33 page)

The muscles of Evan's face went taut. "What do you mean?"

"Like I said, I have no idea. I don't know. But you asked me, I told you. Let's let it go at that."

"Ann and my father?"

"I've already said enough, okay? It's none of my business, but I wouldn't do anything until I found out which way the wind was blowing."

Evan could feel his cheeks turning red. The thought of Ann and Dennis together infuriated him. Despite the loose moral climate of his parents' world, the values he had learned were those of private schools and the armed services — old style discipline and respectability. After the initial shock of her age, he had treasured Robin as a stepmother, because he found very quickly that she had shared those values. And now to learn that Dennis had probably been cheating on her right under her nose was more than he could bear. The fact too that she was Terri's mother added fuel to the fire, but he consciously ignored that aspect as he whirled around and headed toward the steps of the stage.

"Evan!" Curt called after him. "Where the hell are you going?"

He didn't answer, but ran up the aisle, through the lobby, and to the flight of stairs that led to the second floor. He was too impatient to wait for the elevator. He ran down the hall until he was in front of the door of Dennis's suite. Ignoring the doorbell, he hammered on the oak panels.

In a moment, Dennis opened the door. He looked startled by the pounding, then confused to find his son there, so obviously upset. "Evan, what is it? . . .“

“It's Robin, that's what it is — Robin, and the way you treated her!”

“What —"

"Ann Deems, huh? And I thought those tears at the funeral were real. God, what a terrific actor you are!" Dennis's face went white, and Evan knew then that Curt's suspicions were true. Having drawn blood, he went in for the kill. "What the hell is wrong with you? All the time I was growing up, you were grabbing every —"

"Be
quiet
," Dennis said. "Come in here. Come in and we can talk."

Seething with what he felt to be righteous indignation, Evan glared at his father, then pushed the door open and entered the suite, while Dennis gently closed the door behind them. "What do you want to talk
about
?" Evan went on. "You want to rationalize cheating on her?"

"I
didn't
cheat on her," Dennis said. "I never cheated on Robin."

"Why should she be any different from your other wives and lovers?"

"You know damn well I only had one wife before Robin — your mother. And yes, I did cheat on her. And she cheated on me too. You read that trashy biography of her, you know the stories. Why do you think I didn't sue? I couldn't. Everything they said was true."

The accusation toward his mother sobered Evan somewhat. "You never told me that before. But even so, so what? So fucking what? Why should I believe you about Ann Deems?"

"I was faithful to Robin."

"Sure. Sure you were. But if you weren't, you're the lowest piece of slime that ever walked a stage."

"Don't you speak to me like that."

"Why? What'll you do, fire me? The
tabloids'll
eat that up, won't they?"

"Get out, Evan." His father sounded terribly weary, and for a moment Evan almost pitied him. He walked to the door.

"You know, Dad, there was one lesson you taught me — not right out, but by example, and I'll never forget it. Seeing you taught me never to think with my dick."

He turned his back on his father, opened the door, and stepped into the hall. He didn't close the door behind him, and he didn't hear his father close it either.

~ * ~

The scene is the fly space fifty feet above the stage floor. It is an hour later. The area, a space in which large scenery pieces "fly" up out of sight above the proscenium arch, is in semidarkness, lit by the work lights twenty feet below. EVAN HAMILTON is standing on a catwalk, and is examining the condition of the fly ropes with a flashlight he carries. His attention is so fixed on his work that he does not hear THE EMPEROR, dressed exactly as was Dennis in the suite, come up behind him.
)

Evan . . . (
EVAN, startled, turns, almost losing his balance. He is grasped by THE EMPEROR
.) Don't fall. I would not want to be deprived of the joy of dropping you myself. (
He grasps the boy by the belt and the collar and holds him over the rail of the catwalk so that Evan's upper body is hanging above the stage floor
.)

(
Terrified
) Dad! Jesus, what are you —

Speak when you're spoken to, you little bastard, and maybe not even then. You are a bastard, you know. I didn't tell you that, either. I have no idea who your real father was. That whore I married would fuck anyone in breeches.

Dad. . .

Whining now? Whining suits you. You've whined your whole damned life, haven't you? Whined at home, whined in your little schools, whined in the Marines, didn't you? I wonder if you'll whine as you fall through the air. Robin didn't, you know. She shouted her anger. But you only shout your anger when you think you're safe, don't you? Will you shout your anger now?

Please . . . please don't . . .

(He
jerks EVAN back up onto the catwalk, but hangs on to his collar
.) Then you don't. You don't ever talk that way to me again. Not to the Emperor. (
He emphasizes each word
.) Do you understand?

Y . . . yes.

Yes what?

Yes . . . sir.

Yes, your majesty!

Yes . . . your majesty.

Good. (
He releases Evan
.) Now get down from here . . . before you have an accident.

(
EVAN moves quickly away to the narrow stairway and climbs down
.)

~ * ~

My God
, Evan thought,
my God, he's really crazy, he's really gone off the deep end
. . .

He slipped more than once in his rush down the stairway, but he managed to regain his footing. At the bottom, he crossed the last six steps in one leap, and came down hard on one knee, grunting with the pain.

"What's the matter with
you
?"

Evan looked up into the narrowed eyes of Abe
Kipp
. "You okay?" the man said. "Hard fall there."

"I'm okay," Evan said, standing straight despite the pain.

Abe looked up into the flies. "Who you
talkin
' to up there?"

Evan looked up too, but could see no trace of movement in the shadows above. "My father," he said at last.

"Mr. Hamilton?" Abe looked up again, took a few steps to one side, then back again. "I don't see nobody.
Mr. Hamilton
?" he called, but there was no answer. "Don't hear
nothin
' neither. Catwalk squeals like a bitch. Somebody
walkin
' up there you'd know it. Hey, Mr.
Hamilton
!" he called again, but there was no reply, no sound of anyone moving above.

"He must have left another way," Evan said. He was still trembling, and hated himself for it, hated himself for not dying if he had to, not taking the old man over the rail with him.
Your majesty
! Jesus sweet Christ, what was wrong with him?

"Other way? Only other way's across the ceiling into the projection booth," Abe said. "
Lights're
off and it's dark as hell up there.
Man'd
have to be a fool to go
walkin
' on the
ceilin
' catwalk in the dark. One wrong step and . . ."

Abe didn't have to say any more. The picture of Robin's crushed body was vivid in both their minds. "I don't know, Abe. Maybe . . . maybe he had a flashlight," Evan said, looking at his own flashlight he had somehow hung on to through his ordeal.

"Maybe so," Abe said. "Don't know, though. Still seems crazy."

Crazy was the word
, Evan thought as he went to find Curt. He wouldn't go up in the flies again. He didn't think he could bear to climb those stairs, not now, not after what had happened.

Halfway up the aisle of the theatre he changed his mind. It was Sid he would look for, not Curt. He had always been able to talk to Sid while he was growing up, and he wanted to talk to him now, to tell him about how crazy Dennis had acted. Sid's suite was just across the hall from Dennis's, but he would be careful. He didn't think he could bear to see his father again, not so soon after that horrible confrontation.

Terri Deems was in the lobby as he passed through it on his way to the elevator. He thought she looked different, then realized that it was the first time he had ever seen her smile. "Hi," she said, and stopped as if she wanted to talk. He slowed, unsure of her intentions. "What are you up to?"

"Uh . . . looking for Sid."

"He's in the office. I just came from there."

"Thanks."

He started off, when she called after him. "Hey, why the hurry? I wanted to ask you something."

"Uh, okay. What?"

"I was just thinking maybe we could go out."

"Go out?"

"You know — boy, girl, go out, date . . . what you mentioned to me a few weeks ago."

Was this the same girl? "That was a few
months
ago, and you . . . didn't seem too thrilled with the idea."

"That was then, this is now. I was rude. I'm sorry. I've had second thoughts.”

“Well . . . sure. That'd be great."

"How about tonight?"

"Tonight?"

"You have other plans?" she asked in a tone that told him he would be a fool to.

"No, no, not at all. Dinner?"

"Fine."

"Shall I pick you up?"

"With what? You don't have a car."

"Oh. Yeah."

"I'll be at your place. You're in a third floor suite, right?"

"Right." He thought for a second. "How about the Kirkland Inn?"

She smiled a smile that would have melted butter. "That would be perfect," she said, and headed out the door.

God
, he thought,
yin and yang
. It seemed that whenever something awful happened, something good happened too.
Curt may be right
, he thought.
Terri Deems might be a pain in the ass. But what a nice ass it was
.

He tried to clear his head of her, and went to find Sid.

As Terri had said, Sid was in the office talking to Donna Franklin. When Evan told him that he'd like to see him in private, Donna told them to stay there in her office while she stepped into Steinberg's. "Sid," said Evan when they were alone, "I'm worried about my dad."

"Nothing's changed then. You've always worried about him."

"This is different. He was up in the flies today. He threatened to throw me off.”

“Are you sure? You didn't misunderstand him?"

"I'm sure. He wanted me to call him 'your majesty.'"

Sid shook his head. "Did you do anything to piss him off?"

"I . . . well, yeah, I guess so." And briefly Evan filled in Sid on the confrontation in Dennis's suite.

"That wasn't very smart, kid. You dad's private life is his own affair, you know that"

"Yeah, I know. But
goddammit
, I just saw red. So soon after Robin's death and all."

"It's been six weeks. And your dad's always been one to pick up pieces quickly. The Emperor in him, I guess."

"That was the weirdest thing, Sid. That was what really . . . scared the hell out of me. He called himself the Emperor. Up in the suite he was one way, but on the catwalk — it was like he was somebody else."

Sid put an avuncular hand on Evan's shoulder. "Kid, your dad's gone through a helluva lot lately. We all have. You take three deaths — one your wife — and combine them with this project we've all gambled our lives on, and you think you're gonna be totally normal? It's just a job to you, pal. It's Dennis's life. Give him slack."

"Sid, he threatened to
kill
me."

"He's done that before. Not to you, maybe, but to other people who pissed him off. He's never carried it through, though." Sid smiled. "Leastways, not that I know of. He flies off the handle . . .” The smile turned to a puzzled frown. "Or he used to. God, I haven't seen him explode in ages. You must have touched a sore spot.”

“He even said . . .” Evan paused.

"What?"

"That I wasn't his son."