Rum and Coke

Ellie walked confidently through the halls of the small community theatre that her step-brother was now a part of. She didn’t have to ask where she was going- she knew the corridors almost as well as her own. She didn’t have to run through her lines, either- even though she hadn’t spoken them in years. She knew that the words and the emotions would flood her senses as soon as she spoke the first line.

Brian was the only one who came with her.

“Little Sis!” Monty Pascal greeted as he tackled Ellie. “You’re never allowed to leave my sight again! It’s been too long!”

Laughing, Ellie pulled away. “Monty, it’s only been about four months…and you were the one who left, not me.”

Monty shrugged. “What is it with you and details lately? Obviously, dad has rubbed off on you and I don’t like it.”

Still smiling, Ellie ignored his comment. “Monty, this is Brian Haner, my biological father. Brian, this is Monty- Adam’s youngest son.”

Monty was the first one to step forward. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, and, might I say that it’s pretty ballin that you and your band are touring again. I hope you guys haven’t lost your touch.”

Brian laughed. “It’s always nice to meet a fan. I didn’t think anyone under the age of thirty actually saw us live.”

“Yea, well, my older brother snuck me in,” Monty confessed before turning back to Ellie. “I know you don’t have to, but, for my sake, can we run through the scene before my class gets here?”

“fine, if you insist,” Ellie said teasingly.

“Brian, would you mind stepping outside for a few minutes? I don’t want to spoil the scene for you. Have you ever seen her act before?”

“No,” Brian replied, he sounded a bit remorseful.

“Well, all the better, then. You can wander around the theatre if you would like. It’s really small, so you shouldn’t get lost.”

“That sounds like a good idea.”

After running through the scene twice, Monty and Ellie sat down on the stage and draped their legs over the side. They were catching up on each other’s lives and cracking jokes like they always did.

“…and Jay’s getting married in a few months,” Monty ended, speaking of his older brother.

“Damn,” Ellie said, exhaling loudly. “It’s like…everyone’s moving on, and I’m stuck”

“You’re not stuck, Ellie. You have time to fulfill your dreams. And, besides, you found your biological father, shouldn’t you be happy? I mean, that is a major accomplishment.”

Ellie shrugged, wishing that she could have a cigarette. “I don’t know. I look at him and wonder whatever dragged them together, ya know? And then I look to the future to see what could happen, and all I see is darkness. It’s…terrifying. I’m used to knowing all the answers. I’m used to having a plan for everything. And now? It’s like a have strings attached to me, and they’re tying me up in knots!”

Monty laughed. “You just quoted Beebee Festenger.”

“So I did, what of it?”

“Nothing. I’m just glad to see that some things haven’t changed.”

“A lot of things have changed.”

“Hey, don’t do that. Live in the Now, you’re an actor at heart- that’s what you’re supposed to do.”

Ellie would have responded if she weren’t interrupted by a petite young woman with blonde hair.

“Mr. Pascal, they’re all here.”

Monty smiled. “Thanks. Ellie, this is my stage manager, Jenny. Jenny, this is Ellie, she’s a very special guest from New York,” Monty said as he stood up.

Ellie smiled politely back before she, too, stood up and walked off stage.

“Class, today we will be working on emotions and movement. I asked a very special guest from my alma mater theatre to come down and help you all out. Her name is Ellie Patterson and she has to be one of the top three stage actresses of our time. And, so you’re not going into her rather odd technique of teaching, Ellie and I will perform a scene from Euripides’ “The Bacchae” just so you know the level of emotions that you need to be successful with her. So, pay attention.” He said before disappearing offstage.

“Come, all you who dwell is the fine-walled city of Thebes! Come and look at the big game we daughters of Cadmus chased and caught!” Ellie’s eyes were wide and she had a wild sense about her as she marched onstage, wielding a decapitated head with a porcelain mask that hid it’s face. “…With hands alone we caught this beast and tore it limb from limb. Where’s my father, the old man? I want him here. And Pentheus, my son- where is he? I want him to take a great strong ladder and lean it on the house so that he can nail this to the beam-ends, now that I’ve come with the head of a lion that I hunted down!” Ellie excitedly ran offstage left just as Monty, who was playing Cadmus, came onstage right.

“This horrible thing I carry is Pentheus. It took me endless trouble to find.” Monty said in a sorrowful voice as he cradled a bundle of cloth in his arms. He gently laid the cloth bundle down as he talked some more. “…But Agavé- someone said she’d danced her way down here I Bacchic style, and it’s quite true what I heard. I am looking at her right now, and what I miserable sight she is!” He exclaimed as he looked at her in horror.

Brian watched as the two interacted with each other. He had to remind himself a few times that it was actually his daughter up there and not some stranger. He had to remind himself that he was in an auditorium that had seats with lumpy cushioning.

“When you’ve known what you done, you’ll feel the most terrible agony of pain. But if you stay in the state you’re in forever, you’ll be unlucky to the end, and never have the faintest idea!” Monty said, his tone full of disgust and disbelief.

“What do you mean?” Ellie asked, her tone softening a bit in confusion. The wild light in her eyes was long gone.

“Let your eyes look to the sky,” Ellie did as she was asked. “Is it the same?”

Still clearly confused, Ellie continued to look up into the first beam. She articulated her lines carefully. “It’s brighter than before, a new glow comes through.”

“And that fluttering sensation, still have that in your soul?”

“I am somehow coming back to my senses. I’m moving away from the old thoughts.”

“ Can you listen now and answer clearly?”

“I’ve forgotten what we were saying father.”

“Whose face do you have in your arms?”

“A lion’s. At least what they said, the hunters.”

“Look closer this time.”

Ellie looked down and examined the prop in her hand. Curiously, she lifted the mask and let out a loud gasp. “No, it’s Pentheus, I have his head!” She said, scrambling to get away from him. She chocked back a few sobs. “Who killed him?” she asked, anger building behind her words.

“You killed him!” Monty yelled. “You and your sisters,” he added softly.

There was a brief silence before Ellie shook her head. A few seconds more, and she completely broke down and fell to the stage.

“You were mad. The whole city had gone into Bacchic frenzy. Dionysus was insulted outrageously when you did not believe he was a god,” Monty said wisely as he cradled he head in his arms.

“And my son’s body, that I loved so much. Where is it, father?” Ellie asked, crying through her lines.

“I brought it here, it was hard to find all the body parts.” Monty replied as he laid the bundle at her feet. He also grabbed a bowl full of fresh linens.

Ellie grabbed at the soiled bundle and let the body parts fall out of the cloth. She grabbed the nearest limb- a hand- and spoke as she sobbed through her lines. As she spoke, she kissed each limb and wrapped it tenderly up in a fresh cloth and assembled it before her. Ellie didn’t pay attention to the glistening eyes in the audience. She was focused on the body. When she was finished with the body, she looked up at Monty. “Come, old man, let us put back the head of this thrice blessed boy,” she said as she reached for the head. Monty gave it back. When she was done wrapping the head, she slowly stood up.

“He did turn out like you- with no reverence for the god. And so he tied everyone together in one insult to the god. As a result, he ruined my house and me. You know I have no male children , and now I see this offshoot of your womb, poor woman, dying the worst death possible, the most shameful…If there is anyone who despises the divine, he should look at this man’s death and believe in gods.”

Monty and Ellie waited a solid moment before they turned to their audience and took their bows. “Now, it’s your turn to bring me to my knees. As I said before, you need to project your emotions beyond the back row. I will let you do a normal run-through until I see something that needs fixing. I will warn you that my techniques- odd as they are- work. So, run with me for a second.” Ellie said before jumping off the stage and taking her seat in the middle of the house.

“Alright class, places,” Monty said, as he sat down next to the stage manager.

~*~

“Ellie,” Brian said after the class had left several hours later. “That was incredible. How- when- God, I was blown away by that performance. I had to keep reminding myself where I was and who you really were.”

Ellie laughed and shook her head. “You shouldn’t have. As I told those actors, you need to completely let yourself go. If you don’t, you’re just cheating yourself of the experience.”

“Yea, Ellie’s the best I know,” Monty said with a proud smile as he squeezed her shoulders. “I’ll brag for her, since I know she won’t . She made my dad cry every performance- and the show ran for two months…and my dad’s not really the emotional type- well, I mean to say that he’s really hard to move emotionally. I swear, this girl can make the toughest of men break down and bawl like a baby.”

Ellie just shrugged. She knew she was good, the best even, but she didn’t feel that gloating was necessary. She believed that her talent spoke for itself. It was the only way that she could stay happy since the critics tried to tear her down every time she stepped out on the stage.

“If you’re so great, then why did you stop? Mark told me that both you and Ryan don’t perform anymore.”

Ellie looked at Brian blankly. “Because, life has a nasty habit of killing young dreams and blossoming talent.” She said before she walked away.

“Don’t worry,” Monty consoled the older man. “She knows that the stage is her home, she’s just trying to deny it.”

“I swear, I’ll never get that girl. She’s just like her mother- always spinning me around in circles until I was too dizzy to know what was what anymore."

"Yea, Danielle did have a tendency to do that," Monty commented.

"Did? Did she finally grow out of it?"

Monty gulped, unsure as to what to say. "You could say that."