The Juliet Spell (10 page)

Gillinger shrugged.

“Frankly, it reads like Shakespeare got to a certain point and couldn’t figure out what to do next. The second half of this thing might as well be called The Comedy of Errors II. Except that a couple of overexcitable teenagers end up dead. But, we have managed to assemble a cast that I believe can take this Elizabethan turd and put a decent polish on it. Of course, a polished turd is still a turd. Nonetheless, let’s be.gin. Act one, scene one.”

And he pointed a finger at Bill Meisinger, who was Cho.rus.

Bill Meisinger was a fat middle-age guy with thin, greasy hair, but he had a beautiful voice. I’d heard he’d done radio commercials a few times. It was probably true, because that’s just how he read his lines.

“Two households, both alike in dignity

In fair Verona where we lay our scene

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny—”

I could just see the two households: a couple of ranch houses in a really nice development. Something like 1593 Capulet Drive and 1593 Montague Court. But he did have a warm voice.

We whipped through the reading in a little under two hours. By the time it was over, everyone who hadn’t already seen Edmund at tryouts was as blown away as the rest of us. It was like his reading had picked us up and carried us along with it. Everyone felt good about him, and about themselves, everyone except Vivian, who was pretty clearly not happy about being cast as a Citizen, a Gentlewoman and a Masker and nothing else, and Bobby was still mad. My—Juliet’s— parents were Doris Lawson, whose voice was so soft I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to hear her onstage (I wondered how the audience would) and Bill London, who had done a lot of community theater. He read with a very bad Brit.ish accent. Romeo’s father, Old Montague, was Jimmy Ma.honey, who had been my eighth-grade science teacher. Lady Montague was Vivian’s mother, Maria. She was a stunning, strong-looking German blonde. She read her lines like they were orders, and Bill played his like they were jokes.

Juliet has a nurse who raised her from a baby and can’t stop talking about it. She was played by Ann Millard, who had a real British accent and read every line as if she expected to get a laugh.

But the most important adult role in the play is Friar Law.rence. He’s Romeo’s spiritual advisor, and an herbalist. He’s the one Romeo and Juliet will both go to for help when they’re in trouble. Sort of like a guidance counselor who deals drugs on the side. And that part was played by Phil Hormel.

He was thirty-something, a tall blond guy with no chin, who turned up in all kinds of plays in Guadalupe and the towns around. He claimed to have been a Broadway chorus boy, and liked to begin conversations with lines like, “You know, when I was in Cats—” but he had a gut on him that could have been cast in a show all by itself, so his dancing days, if they’d ever been, were long behind him.

He wasn’t a bad actor, but he wasn’t nearly as good as he thought he was. In fact, besides Hormel, there was only one person who seemed to think he was brilliant. That was Gil-linger. They never missed a chance to work together.

It was just a little after nine when we broke up, and everyone who didn’t already know Edmund came over to introduce themselves and tell him what a great job he’d done.

Drew put his hand on Edmund’s shoulder. “Coffee?”

“Aye, sure,” Edmund said.

“Where are we going?” Vivian said, smiling.

“The bookstore, I fancy,” Edmund said. “That’s where the coffee is.”

Vivian laughed. “Oh, Edmund, there are lots of coffee places. You don’t have to go to a bookstore. Don’t they have coffeehouses in England?”

“Sure. The bookstore,” Drew repeated. “Follow us there, Vivian.” And he edged in between her and Edmund and sort of eased us toward the door.

But Edmund said, “Friend Drew, I will ride with Viv.ian. Her car, I think, will be more easeful to me. And I call shotgun.”

“Great,” Vivian said, and practically threw Edmund over her shoulder.

“See you in fifteen,” Drew said. Then to me and Bobby he said, “Shall we go?”

Fifteen minutes later, we were standing in line at the bookstore café, waiting for Edmund and Vivian to show up.

“An interesting rehearsal, I thought,” Drew said.

Bobby shrugged and fluttered one hand. “Just a read-through. Not a rehearsal. The real work starts now.”

“Edmund certainly was impressive,” Drew continued. “Has he played much Shakespeare?”

“I think so,” I said.

“I heard a rumor that he played Juliet,” Bobby said. “Is he gay?”

“Not hardly.”

“Just asking,” Bobby said.

“My good friend, I think you are feeling the gnawing bite of jealousy,” Drew said.

“You know what you can bite,” Bobby replied.

“Temper, temper. I’m here for you,” Drew said and gave him a fake hug.

“I’m here for coffee,” Bobby said, and ordered a mocha.

“Bobby has always harbored a strange affection for Viv.ian,” Drew said. “Well, maybe not so strange. But affection, nonetheless. Or maybe not so much affection as unbridled lust.”

“Like you don’t,” Bobby said. “Like any guy wouldn’t.”

“I admit the girl is stimulating—double espresso, please— but only until she opens her mouth. Then I feel my desire leaking away into the vast, empty caverns of her total vapid.ity.”

I laughed. Good old Drew. If he could see what a ditz Viv.ian was, then Edmund would, too. He was probably figur.ing it out right now. All I had to do was give it a little time.

So why weren’t the two of them here already?

“What are you having?” Drew said.

“Oh, nothing,” I said.

“I’m buying.”

“Now you tell me,” Bobby said.

“Thanks, Drew,” I said. “I’ll have what you’re having.”

Double espresso. Not a good idea when you’re already a little wired from waiting for a guy who isn’t showing, I found out. After the third sip, I was so twitchy, Bobby said, “Calm down, Miri. He’s fine. Viv’s a good driver.”

“I am calm,” I almost yelped.

“I fear Vivian may have taken our leading man on a long detour.” Drew smiled. “As she said, there are so many places to get coffee.”

Bobby snickered. “Oh, ha-ha,” I said. “I never knew you had such a hate on for Vivian,” Bobby

said. “What’s up with that?” “Nothing. I don’t hate her. But—he’s my cousin, you

know?” “On which side?” Drew asked. “My father’s…” “The German Jewish side?” Drew said. “How does that

work, if it’s any of my business?” “I mean, my mother’s,” I said. “That’s the Brit side. Any.

way, how did you know my dad’s Jewish?” “I heard you mention it once,” Drew said. “Huh? When?” “Long time ago.” And with that, he tipped his cup back. That was funny. Before this week, I hadn’t talked to Drew

more than a dozen times, except to say hi. When would we

ever have gotten onto the subject of my family? “When did we—” I began, but Drew interrupted me. “I don’t remember. Just something you told me once.” “Whatever,” I said. “Listen,” Drew said. “Let’s have a deep intellectual con.

versation about our parts and why Shakespeare wrote this thing the way he did. I’ll start.”

“Screw that,” Bobby said, and pulled out a deck of cards. “Let’s play thirty-one.”

So we played thirty-one. Three hands, then four. And I won every one of them.

But where was Edmund?

“I don’t suppose either of you have Vivian’s cell-phone number, have you?” I asked as Bobby was shuffling the next hand.

“If I had Vivian’s cell-phone number, I’d be a much hap.pier guy,” Bobby said.

“What about Edmund’s phone?” Drew said. “Or is he technologically challenged in that way, too?”

At that point, Edmund and Vivian came around the cor.ner of the coffee bar.

“Sorry we’re late,” Vivian sang in a phony voice.

“’Twas a wrong turn we took, so deep in talk were we. But d’ye know, cuz, I think I could learn to drive a car, as ye said. Vivian does it right well, and she is no older than I. ’Tis all a matter of pedals and wheel, I believe.”

“So cute,” Vivian said. “Like you’ve never heard of driv.ing.”

In a coffee place, you’re supposed to buy coffee. I had two dollars with me, which I shoved into Edmund’s hand. “Go get yourself something.”

“Oh, let me,” said Vivian. “What are you having, Ed.mund?”

“I will drink whatever ye think best, Vivian,” Edmund said. “And the next time we drink coffee, ’tis I will buy it.”

When Vivian got back, she sat down between me and Edmund and said, “Let’s get back to you driving, Edmund. Doesn’t your family in England have a car? I thought every.body over there did.”

“Not everybody,” Edmund said. “Some of us—” He stopped.

“Anyway, I’d love to give you some lessons,” Vivian said.

“So are we gonna talk, or are we gonna play thirty-one?” Bobby said.

“Thirty-one,” I said. “Hit me, Bobby.”

Playing cards, I was almost certain, was something that Edmund must know something about. And he did. In fact, he learned the game in about two minutes and then he won the hand. Plus, Vivian hated card games and had to pretend she didn’t. Nice.

But it got late, and we had to break it up.

Vivian gave us a ride home.

We tiptoed in just after midnight. Mom had left a light burning in the living room when she went to bed. I got ready for bed, but I was awake. Wide awake. The espresso, no doubt.

I got up and opened my door when I heard Edmund com.ing down the hall.

“Hi, Edmund.”

“Ah, cuz. Did I wake ye—you? I am sorry if so.”

He came into my room and sat down in the chair by my desk.

“She is a strange creature,” Edmund said. “I’ve never met her like in England. She is like your kitchen. Familiar in some ways and a world different in others. I know not how to take her.”

“Do you know what a piranha fish is?”

“No,” Edmund said and cocked his head to the side in cu.riosity.

“Then I don’t have anything to compare her to.”

“She talked most earnestly.”

I wasn’t sure how much more I wanted to know.

“She opened her heart to me,” he went on. “She is most distressed that she is not Juliet. She told me how little Gil-linger must value her to part her so small, and how hard she had worked for him in the past. She asked me if there were not some help I could give to make her shine even in her small roles. I told her I had had such parts, and always found something to do that made them worth the doing. She asked what I might suggest, and I told her a few things that might help. Then we came to the bookstore.”

He pursed his lips. “There was one more thing.”

I could feel my heart hit the floor.

“She kissed me. She said ’twas by way of thank you. But ’twas a long kiss.” Edmund looked up at me. “How ought I to take such a thing, cuz? In England it would mean much.”

I didn’t answer.

“One moment she is almost weeping, as a girl would. The next, she is as a friend, or much the same as one. The next, she is a woman in my arms.”

“An underage woman,” I said. “Just remember, Edmund, this ain’t England. She’s under eighteen and you could end up in a lot of trouble with her if you’re not careful.”

“Even so?” Edmund said.

“Yeah, even so. Very big even so. Huge even so. Don’t even think about it.” I hadn’t realized until after how much I’d been raising my voice.

Jeez, I was going over the top. Vivian was Vivian. She hadn’t had the entire football team, but you could have put together a pretty good offensive line with some of the guys she had hooked up with. And by school standards she wasn’t even a tramp.

“I will be wary,” Edmund said. Then he sighed heavily. “When a man is taken by the fairies and brought to live in their world, he does not know the laws of the place. He may come to great harm ere he learns them, ’tis said. Good night, dearest cuz.”

He got up and went to the door.

“Edmund,” I said.

“Aye?”

“I’m glad you’re here. Real glad.”

He smiled and went out, and left me alone on my balcony.

Chapter Ten

“I must get money. A man cannot sit about all day doing nothing but waiting for rehearsals,” Edmund said next morn.ing at breakfast. “I want to make myself serviceable. And I want to help earn my keep.”

“Edmund, you can’t just go out and get a job here,” Mom said. “You’ve got to have ID. Besides, you’re under eighteen. That means there’s a lot of restrictions on what you can do. But you’re right. You need to be useful. Miri and I will come up with a list of skills you’re going to need.”

“But what of today?” Edmund said.

“Today is Friday,” Mom said. “I’ve got to work and Miri’s got school. Can we trust you not to get into too much trou.ble for one day?”

“Indeed I will not…. I can practice. That needs four hours a day. But whatever else ye would have me do, that ye will find me apt and ready for.”