Read The Pineville Heist Online
Authors: Lee Chambers
“What are you doing after?” Marissa asked, stroking the back of her arm, looking shyly in the opposite direction. She was pretty. Very pretty and her direct stare was intoxicating.
“Uh… nothing.” Aaron shrugged again. He felt his heart actually skip a beat.
“Cool. Maybe we could do something?” Marissa said with a smile, which Aaron could feel shine right through him. This was going better than he could've hoped.
He opened the door for her, and carried her smile on his face for the rest of the day, and the rest of the night. Opening night.
Things looked very different from the last time Aaron was on the same stage. Beside him, Mike was dressed for the part of Horatio, in an equally frilly outfit as Aaron was wearing.
Pete, dressed up nicely as he could in Goth attire looked relieved to be sitting in the front row. With trusty Charlotte by his side, looking bored out of her mind, silence fell over the packed house. All eyes forward, watching the action unfold. No one truly knew what evil took place on this very stage. But, Aaron did and he channeled it all into giving the best performance he could.
Aaron's Hamlet was bent down on one knee, looking up at Horatio.
“Oh, I die, Horatio. The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit,”
Aaron–in character–quivered for a second.
“I cannot live to hear the news from England, but I do prophesy the election lights. On Fortinbras, he has my dying voice, so tell him, with the occurrents, more and less, which have solicited. The rest is silence…”
With that, Aaron keeled over on the stage–“dead.”
Mike continued the play's finale, turning to another boy from their English class.
“Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince… ”
The curtain began to lower in front of Aaron's half-closed eyes. As the audience eclipsed in front of him, he scanned the faces–searching, searching, searching, but not finding the one that he sought. Suddenly, he heard the thunderous applause and the curtain had touched down, blocking his view.
Aaron looked to Mike, who reached out a hand, lifting him to his feet. “I'm sure he tried to make it,” Mike said, reading his friend's mind. They shuffled to their positions with the other actors and waited for the curtain call.
The clapping continued as the fabric rose, revealing the players again to the crowd. Aaron nodded to the applause and cheers of the audience; however, his scanning eyes settled on a single empty chair, his father's chair.
Suddenly above the steady clap, Aaron perceived another pair of hands, vigorous and extra loud. There at the side of stage right stood Derek Stevens and beaming with great pride, as he started a standing ovation.
Aaron couldn't contain the grin spreading across his face. He savoured the moment, one unforgettable harmonious sound to be forever treasured.
The rest is silence.
Lee Chambers is an award-winning writer and director. Born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, Chambers now makes Thunder Bay his home after living in Los Angeles and England.
FOLLOW PINEVILLE HEIST MOVIE AND BOOK NEWS AT:
www.pinevilleheist.com
Copyright © 2011 by Lee Chambers
Pineville Heist Inc.
c/o MISFP Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the written prior permission of the author.
ISBN: 978-0-9864943-2-1
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication details upon request.
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.
Edited by Julinda Morrow
Cover photo by Shutterstock
Formatting by
ebookpartnership.com
For Alex and Lesley. My parents.
While this debut novel is based on my original story and characters, it could not have been written without Todd Gordon, with whom I share the writing credit on the award-winning screenplay, from which this novel is based. Designed as my feature film directorial debut, the process of crafting the book version further cemented my ideas about the characters and allowed me greater freedom to explore much more than the screenplay would permit.
I am also grateful to Julinda Morrow, Elle Andra Warner, Toby Osbourne and John Halasz for assisting me in this process of turning this story into a book.