“I had to grab a blanket off the bed on the stage and put it around him and pull him close to me during the scene so that he didn’t moon the entire audience,” Caitlin said.
“You saved the show,” Meg said. “And the innocence of that senior citizens’ group sitting in the front rows.”
Caitlin snorted. “Can you give me a guarantee,” she said, “that I am never going to have to see Brad Murray’s butt again?”
“I’ve been on the phone with the fabric company this morning giving them an earful,” Meg said, “and I’m using our strongest material right now to make him a new pair of breeches for the next performance. They will not rip.”
“Thank you,” Caitlin said. “With all my heart.” Then she paused. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance I can keep the Juliet costume at the end of the season?”
“No,” Meg said. “Not a chance. Festival property.”
Caitlin sighed. “I know,” she said. “But I had to try.”
“She seems nice,” I said after she left.
Everyone turned to look at me and I flushed. “I haven’t ever been around her before.”
“She’s one of the good ones,” Meg said. “You should have seen Brad Murray down here earlier. He was yelling at me right and left.”
“He’s a jerk,” said Emily.
Privately, I agreed. Sometimes Brad Murray came over before the show to get some food from concessions and he liked to walk away without paying the bill. Gary always swore under his breath when we told him what had happened but he never made Brad come back and pay.
“What’s that look on your face?” Meg said to me, so I told her what I was thinking about.
“That little snot,” she said. “Is he ever wearing his costume when he’s pilfering food?”
“Um,” I said, because one time he had been and even the fancy actors were not supposed to eat while in costume.
“Little snot,” she said again. “He thinks now that he’s been cast as a lead he owns the place. But I remember him when he was a bratty kid running around at the Greenshow. Trying to steal food then too. He hasn’t changed.”
“I didn’t know he was from here,” I said.
“Oh yeah,” said Emily. “I’m surprised you hadn’t heard. Everyone’s been making a big deal about it. He’s the first local cast as a lead since Lisette Chamberlain.”
An icy hush fell over the room. Or did it? Maybe only I felt it. The other assistants didn’t seem to think anything of Emily throwing Lisette’s name out there.
“I’ll tell you one thing,” Meg said. “Lisette Chamberlain would never, ever have yelled at a coworker the way Brad Murray yelled this morning.”
I felt brave. Daring.
“Would she have eaten food while in costume?” I asked.
Meg didn’t get mad. She smiled. “Depended on the costume,” she said. “And the food.”
And then we all went back to work.
When I finished in the costume shop I took the steps two at a time. I couldn’t wait to get to concessions and tell Leo about Brad Murray and the wardrobe malfunction. And to share the Lisette information. It wasn’t much. Almost nothing. But Meg hadn’t seemed annoyed when I’d asked about Lisette.
Leo was standing right inside the door of the building, looking out, with his arms folded.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
Then I saw them. The boys on the bikes. Making gestures at Leo through the glass. Cory was with them.
“Let’s go somewhere else,” I said. “Into the Portrait Hall. Maybe they’ll be gone when we come out.”
“I’m already enough of a coward for coming inside,” Leo said.
“They’ll leave you alone if you walk away,” I said. “You have to ignore them.”
“You sound like my parents.” Leo sounded mad. “Like every teacher ever. That doesn’t work. You can’t walk away every time they bother you. Sometimes there’s nowhere to go.”
The boys had seen me come up next to Leo. One of them pulled up his eyes. Like he was pretending to be Chinese. Making fun of me.
I heard Leo draw in his breath.
And someone else behind me.
I turned around.
Meg.
“Those little brats,” she said. “I’m going to go say something to them.”
“No,” Leo and I said at the same time.
“You two have to cross the courtyard to get to work,” she said.
“They’ll go away,” I said. “Soon.”
“Come with me,” Meg said. And as we turned away from the window she called out to the security guard standing near the Portrait Hall, “You’ve got some kids on bikes out in the courtyard. Get them to clear out.”
He jumped to it.
Meg took us back downstairs and to a door at the end of the hall, past WIGS and MAKEUP and COSTUMES. She opened it with a key. I saw another doorway in front of us but she had us turn to the left and opened a final door. “There,” she said.
“Wow,” Leo said. “Is this one of the tunnels?” Right after he said it he looked like he wished he hadn’t.
“You’ve heard about the tunnels?” Meg asked.
“Yeah,” Leo admitted.