CHAPTER 5: AMY
I knew the bills were overdue, but I had no way to know how badly they were until I woke up the next morning and found that my cell phone was not charged, nor did the lights in my room turn on.
“Dad?” I called, hearing his voice in the kitchen as I headed down the stairs. He was on our house phone, furiously arguing and scribbling something onto the back of an envelope. I headed to the stove and switched it on, hoping to make breakfast, but my hopes were quickly killed when the red light remained unlit.
Finally, my father hung up, continuing to write things on the back of the envelope.
“What’s going on?” I asked finally, and he sighed.
“We’re just…a little behind on things, Amy, that’s all. I had the bills set up to be withdrawn automatically, so I wouldn’t forget them…but it appears…”
“We don’t have enough money,” I filled in. “It’s not surprising. You’re missing a week or more of pay.”
“Thank you for reminding me,” he glared at me, as I sat at the table, mentally calculating how much we would be missing.
“Dad, let me come today.”
“No,” he said, sharply. “You missed yesterday, and that was enough. You should stay home, Amy and…”
“Work with an abacus and a pencil and paper?” I asked, unimpressed. “My computer won’t turn on, there’s no heat in the house, it’s Tuesday, so the library is closed, and I can’t even use my cell phone.” I knew I had a point, so I continued to talk. “So unless I can call into an online school and get all the information faxed over…without a fax machine…its better that I come with you. I can do homework on the school’s wireless, and work for half a day, make up the missing wages faster.”
“How are you feeling?” He gave me a long hard look, and I did my best to match it. I felt a bit tired from yesterday, but that was normal.
“Fine,” I replied. “It’ll only be for half a day. Adam said that I could have a few shifts a week any time. Anything is better than staying here, and the faster we get everything turned back on, the faster I can stay home and rest.”
Dad sighed, relenting. “Fine. But if you start to feel overtired at all, you’ll come back home right away, agreed?”
“Yep,” I shot upstairs, to grab my cell phone, charger and laptop, packing a bag with everything I thought I would need. Of course, I had no intention of doing homework, but I had to create the illusion of doing so. The senior theater class had rehearsal today, and I wanted to catch that. I could charge my phone at the school, keeping Sarah in the loop.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes,” Dad was increasingly impatient and I knew that he wasn’t happy about the idea of me going to work with him. However, he couldn’t argue with my logic, and so off we went, arriving at the school only a few minutes before his shift was due to start.
“Back again?” Adam said, teasing as he saw me. I nodded, but Dad wasn’t in the mood for jokes.
“Clock her in for half a day please, Adam, nothing more.”
“Aye aye, Captain,” he said, making a face at me behind his back. I giggled, as I headed towards the changing room. “We’ve got more props to cook, Amy, come on over here.”
“Yep.” If there was one thing I was happy to do without protest, it was that. Adam led me to a corner, where there was a list of food props that the various shows needed. Everything from fake blood to turnip cake. As I was making them, I spent my time wondering what they were for, imagining the scenes and characters they could be useful to. The turnip cake, I imagined, was for a young girl, falling in love, and wanting to bake for her boyfriend. However, she didn’t have very much money, and so all she could make him was a turnip cake. The fake blood was for the knife slipping and cutting her hand off on stage, leading her to die a dramatic death, all for love.
I almost cut my own fingers off, imagining this scene, and it made me realize I wasn’t paying attention to my work at all.
“A permanent cake?” I looked at the next item on the list. “What’s that?”
“That’s a prop that is real, but has to last. Maybe a sugar glaze or something,” Dad said, looking over my shoulder from where he was preparing lunch for the students. “Those are for Beauty and the Beast next term, it’s a feast scene, so we have to get started now in order to have it ready in time.”
“Beauty and the Beast?” I asked. The audition suddenly came rushing back to my mind. “Is that what they are doing?”
“It’s a media stunt. Liam will play the lead, opposite a senior girl. Looks like he’s dying to get back into acting,” Dad rolled his eyes.
“Right,” I replied, looking at the list. There were several pages of what I thought were instructions, but were actually a list of props. “Wow, there’s a lot of food to cook. This will take me until next term for sure.”
“No, it will take us until next term,” he said. “You’ll be doing homework and preparing for college.”
“Right,” I mumbled, heading for the ingredients cupboard. Liam was playing Beast? That’d be interesting indeed. Especially the scene where the Beast becomes a prince. Despite his attitude, I couldn’t deny Liam was handsome, nor could I deny his talent. There was so much to learn from him, so much talent in just his little finger. Whoever got to play his Beauty would be a lucky girl indeed.
My luck, as small as it was, held out, when, the next day, Dad allowed me to go to work with him again, and again the day after. I was showing him I could do my school work, work, and even sneak off to a theater class or two, without issue. Every day, I checked my email, but found no audition results notice, so slowly, hope shrunk from my thoughts. I assumed if they couldn’t reach me through my cell phone, which had been suspended by the phone company, they would email, but there was nothing. And I knew that the first rule of acting was never to seem too eager, so I didn’t inquire. It was probably safe to assume that I wasn’t getting the part. I was, somehow, alright with this conclusion. The experience that I had gotten, the warm feeling of fulfillment when I stood in front of all those people, was enough to keep me afloat for years to come. It was a dream come true, to read those lines in front of a live audience—and with Liam, even though I didn’t admit it to anyone but myself.