Stagefright (23 page)

They couldn’t put it off any longer. It was time for the band to go out and take their places.

“Oh, God.” Velvet’s nerves, which had disappeared while she was tending to Hailie, suddenly came back and paralysed her.

“Have some chewing gum,” Taleb said.

She took the gum, but couldn’t get her fingers to undo the wrapper. Taleb undid it and handed the gum to her.

He smiled at her for the first time in six weeks. “You’ll be okay.”

The band walked out onto the stage to some half-hearted applause and ironic cheers from the second row. Velvet had insisted that they all wear their costumes from the beginning. Even Taleb was wearing his doublet. He ignored the wolf whistles from his classmates and concentrated on getting his petrified band to actually play. He counted them in and conducted them as best he could for someone with both hands busy. The others watched his every movement as if their lives depended on it. It was easier to watch him than look at the audience. When it came to the piano improvisation, Velvet chewed hard on her gum and tried to imagine that it was just another practice session. The overture finished, the curtains opened, and Drago came onto the stage. He started his speech and various boys in the audience called out. Taleb played the introduction to the soliloquy song and Drago did his tough-guy impersonation and half-sang, half-shouted his song to the whoops and cheers of the audience.

It was Taleb’s turn. He sang the prophecy song to loud heckling from the audience. Then it was time for Lady Anne’s entrance and Velvet walked on, sleeves trembling. Drago entered from the opposite side of the stage. It was the scene where Anne starts off saying how much she hates Richard and ends up saying she’ll consider marrying him. At first the reactions of the audience stunned her. People laughed, shouted insults, and booed Richard. It wasn’t really the reaction they wanted, but it was a response to their performance and after the initial shock had worn off, the adrenaline of performing started to kick in. A spotlight shone on Velvet, and she sang her song confidently. Drago finished the scene by grabbing Velvet and kissing her on the mouth, much to her horror and the audience’s delight.

The audience was stunned into silence by Mei’s song, but cheered loudly when she finished. The dream sequence looked effective. To the sound of eerie music programmed into the Yamaha, dreaming Clarence fought his way through Roula’s ragged streamers, which were bathed in blue and green light and were blowing about, thanks to Miss Ryan directing a fan on them. Everyone gasped when the cardboard angel came swooping onto the stage bathed in blood-red light. Taleb’s death scene in the barrel of wine got some laughs.

At interval the audience hadn’t gone home, and the excitement level backstage was rising. Velvet could see her mother, wearing a last year’s Country Road dress, selling coffee and trying to strike up polite conversation with Jesus’s mother. Peter’s parents clung to each other like a pair of timid animals. Hailie’s mum was wearing skin-tight jeans with rips in them, a low-cut sequinned top and a bolero made from fake fur. She was standing between Drago’s tiny grandma and Roula’s Uncle Dimitrios, laughing at a joke she’d just cracked, digging them both in the ribs.

“Didn’t you tell her about the feud between my family and Drago’s?” Roula asked.

“I told her. She bet me five dollars she could get them talking to each other.”

No one went out to join their parents. They didn’t want to break the mood.

Act I had gone pretty well. The audience had laughed in more or less the right places. The scenery had worked and the songs sounded good.

Hailie sat backstage holding a hot water bottle against her stomach and groaning. “I feel sick.”

“This is it, Hailie, what you’ve been waiting for,” Velvet said unsympathetically.

“Seriously,” Roula said, “this is your life every month till you’re ancient.”

Hailie groaned again.

Drago produced a small bottle.

“Want some of this?”

“What is it?”

“Rakia. My grandma brews it from plums.”

“I thought your breath smelled of alcohol!” Now Velvet knew why he’d been so confident in the first act.

Hailie took a swig.

Velvet opened her mouth to yell at them both, but before she could get any abuse out Taleb came up to her.

“I want to talk to you, Velvet.”

When she didn’t move, he took her by the hand and led her away from the others, out through the side door and onto the oval. Led her in fact to the very same spot where she’d thrown up in the rubbish bin five months earlier.

Velvet felt weird being outside in her long dress and sleeves. It was a strange night – hot and still, but with occasional flashes of lightning.

“Velvet …”

“Yes?”

“So …”

“So what?”

Silence.

“You’re the one who dragged me out here.” Velvet’s heart was thudding again. “And I’m supposed to do the talking?”

“You know.” Taleb stared at the orange freeway lights in the distance.

“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t, but just for once I’d like you to say what you’ve got to say, and not just wait for me to say it for you.”

Velvet’s outburst was followed by another silence while Taleb cleaned out his fingernails with a plectrum.

The orange freeway lights reflected off the layer of low cloud that hung over the city like a ceiling. Even though the sun had set, Velvet could see everything in fine detail – the dandelions on the oval, the woodgrain on the bench, the pearl buttons on Taleb’s doublet. It was like they were in a scene from a futuristic movie.

Taleb looked at Velvet. He hadn’t put his glasses back on after the first act. His brown eyes were dangerous without the glasses in front of them. What remained of Velvet’s anger drifted up to join the clouds. She reached out, grabbed Taleb’s doublet and pulled him towards her.

She kissed him on the mouth.

He slid his arms under her voluminous sleeves and around her.

Ah, well
, Velvet thought, as his tongue gently explored her mouth,
maybe some people don’t need words
.

The audience members were all in their seats before Act II started. In contrast to his previous reluctance, Mr MacDonald decided to milk his death scene and staggered around the stage before dying to loud applause. They’d picked the smallest Year 7 boys they could find to be the little princes, and Miss Ryan had made sure they turned up. They came on wearing green tights and embroidered vests (borrowed from the Indian shop where Hailie’s mum worked) and looked petrified, which was fine as they were about to be murdered. Velvet was watching from the wings. The routine with Richard admiring the crown was going well.

“Oh, no!” Velvet grabbed Taleb’s sleeve.

“What now?”

She was pointing to the back of the hall, but Taleb couldn’t see what was bothering her.

“It’s Slinky.”

Mr MacDonald had overheard. “It can’t be.”

“It is.”

Mr Kislinski was standing at the back of the hall with his arms folded. Everyone panicked for a moment, but he didn’t do anything to stop the performance. Peter’s fans in the audience cheered when Buckingham pledged his loyalty to Richard, and then gasped in horror when he came back on stage with Hastings’s head to prove it.

Then things started to get out of hand. Drago went into full overacting mode while Peter was convincing a crowd (the audience) that Richard should be king. He acted out exaggerated modesty and reluctance in the background.

When Drago left the stage, Mei was waiting in the wings with a jug of water, which she threw over him to sober him up. The sequence for the coronation song kept skipping and Hailie decided to do a solo dance and fell off the stage. Two parents picked her up and chairlifted her out of the hall with Miss Ryan running behind them.

Velvet was convinced that the show was about to grind to a halt. But Taleb got the Yamaha working again and they all (minus Hailie) sang the coronation song harmonies and did their choreographed movements around the stage. A rather damp King Richard re-entered and finally got to wear the crown.

Things settled down again in the next scene. Hailie came back. Miss Ryan told them her ankle was sprained, not broken. She joined the other girls on stage for the queens’ song, and was only slightly hampered by the moon boot on her left foot. The audience clapped along, cheered and wolf-whistled. Lady Anne announced she wasn’t well and died quite gracefully. Buckingham, who hadn’t got his promised earldom and who was regretting helping Richard become king, played a sad flute melody. Everyone booed when Drago came back on and ordered Buckingham to be beheaded.

Paranoid King Richard sat worrying in his tent. Then came the scene with the ghosts, which Sofia somehow managed to make look genuinely spooky. Jesus had decided to make the most of his muscles and oil up his arms with some salad dressing he’d found in the staffroom fridge. The sword fight looked exciting with strobe lighting. Drago couldn’t resist a final flourish by pretending that Jesus had stabbed him in the balls, staggering around holding his genitals and taking a full two minutes to die. Jesus found the crown behind a tree, put it on and declared himself the King of England. Drago crawled off the stage to put on his mauve ghost outfit (Velvet hadn’t been able to find another white sheet) and came back to join the rest of the ghosts on stage. Velvet and Taleb played the backing music for the finale which, considering they’d only rehearsed it three times, sounded pretty good. Then they sang the finale song together.

Taleb stepped forwards and his soaring guitar solo filled the hall. He caught Velvet’s eye and she flicked a switch on the Yamaha and joined him with an improvised organ solo, complete with the famous chords from
Phantom of the Opera
. Taleb smiled at her. On stage. In front of practically the whole school.

They all sang the chorus again.

“
Live, love, dream, strive
.

Be proud of who you are
.

Be brave, be true, be strong, be you
.

Be yourself and you will star
.”

Velvet wasn’t the only cast member with tears in her eyes.

Everyone in the audience was on their feet clapping and cheering. Without anyone saying a word, the members of Stagefright all held hands. Even Drago. He grabbed Jesus’s hand and they all bowed together as they took in the applause and the cheers and Eddy yelling “Drago, you loser”. They did three curtain calls.

When they had taken off their costumes (except for Drago who refused to be parted from his doublet), parents and friends gathered round congratulating everybody. With all the excitement, they’d forgotten that the main reason for the performance was to raise the money they had to pay back to the school. Mrs Anagnostopoulos counted up the takings. They’d made over five hundred dollars.

Velvet and Taleb held hands. Even when Velvet’s St Theresa friends came to congratulate her. Even when Taleb introduced Velvet to his parents.

Hailie’s mum had sent out for pizza and she went around handing it out to everyone.

“Come on, Dimi,” she said to Roula’s uncle. “No time to be a sourpuss. We should be proud of these kids, all of them. They did a great job, didn’t they Maria?”

Drago’s grandma nodded. Within a few minutes, Hailie’s mum had them both laughing and talking to each other.

“The music was wonderful, Taleb,” said Velvet’s mum. “Just like Andrew Lloyd Webber.”

Taleb smiled graciously. Velvet’s father offered to lend him his Bon Jovi CDs.

They nominated Drago to hand over the $150 to the principal. With everybody watching, Mr Kislinski was forced to shake Drago’s hand. Then he had to say a few words himself and he announced rather bitterly that Mei’s parents, who were there nodding and smiling as always, had been so impressed with the play that they’d decided to sponsor a new music and drama program instead of the electronic scoreboard. It was to be called the Golden Pigeon Electrical Products Arts Program after Mr Qian’s company. Mr Kislinski smiled grimly and declined the offer of the last slice of capricciosa. Mr MacDonald did a little dance. He was the music teacher again.

Hailie had mistaken Peter’s concern for her wellbeing for romantic interest and clung to his arm like she owned him. Her mum was busy flirting with Mr Axiotis.

Taleb told Eddy he was leaving Toxic Shock to start a jazz trio. Eddy asked Mei if she would be the band’s singer, and she said yes. The greasy singer sulked until they decided he could be the new guitarist, even though he didn’t own a guitar yet.

After Slinky had slunk off and all the parents and admirers had left, Stagefright gathered by the Hawker Hardware swimming pool. Predictably, everybody got thrown in, except for Hailie who was spared because of her delicate condition. They all signed each other’s programs. Velvet sat between Taleb’s knees on the steps while they dried off and finished the pizza. Sometimes it seemed as if it had been the longest night of her life, then a few minutes later it seemed like it had all happened in a flash.

Mr MacDonald and Miss Ryan went to make coffee. Drago’s crown ended up at the bottom of the pool and Jesus stripped down to his undies to dive for it.