All the Lights on You

“Oh god, what is he doing here?”

Christine looked over her shoulder to see who ever Amanda had made the remark about. She glanced past her to see a tall man with mousy brown hair falling past his ears. He was talking with Ryan’s dad and seemed to have a relaxed body image, almost as if he was a friend of Ryan’s father. She could see his skinny jeans hugging him and the loose V-neck seeming to fit.

“Who is he?”

“William Eugene Beckett, otherwise known as queen bitch here.”

Christine laughed walking away from her script over to Amanda, “What do you mean by that?”

Amanda looked away over to Christine tone filled with repulsion and detestation, “He was the one that was here when Brendon was and William was always trying to out do Brendon in every way. Obviously failing but it never stopped him. I swear, he was the one happy about the stage collapse. I’m surprised he’d show his face here, I thought he was going to Broadway or something on those lines. This city was too small for him.”

“So you’re saying he’d full of himself?”

“Understatement of the-”

Ryan’s father was now in front of the two women, cutting Amanda off, “Amanda! Christine! I want you too to meet William Beckett, I’m sure you remember him Amanda since you worked with him but Christine, this is the William that played Hamlet, those years ago that you crushed on.”

Amanda forced a smile to her face, “Hello again, how are you?”

William smiled at her before walking to her to embrace her in a hug, “It’s wonderful to see you again Amanda. I’m doing well, how are you? I hear you never left the place. How did that work?”

Amanda squirmed trying to get out of his hold, and very clearly making a scene to express her discomfort, “Life just happens.”

Christine tried not to laugh at Amanda’s behavior towards William but she cracked a smile being fully amused. William let her go and turned to Christine. He extended his hand and Christine hesitantly placed her hand in his. He shook her hand lightly, “It’s a pleasure to meet you finally. I hear you are going to be playing the female lead, congrats.”

She lightly pulled her hand away, “Thank you. Are you returning to perform?”

William beamed, “Actually I am. I have an audition today but by the looks of it I’ll be a lead too. If you need any help practicing lines, let me know. I don’t mind in the slightest.”

“Um, thank you William but I have my own pattern of learning lines but if I need any help I’ll let you know.”

The two males soon left and Amanda glared at the back of William’s head with her nosed crunched in disgust. Soon following was a rant of her hatred for the man and Christine finally let out a laugh. Christine was sure William couldn’t be that bad, even being a diva can’t be that unbearable. She sighed almost excited to learn more about and work with William. Sure she’d seen him as a kid performing like Brendon. Yes, she knew he was talented but she always like Brendon more. Brendon seemed to be performing because he wanted to perform, not for the fame but the experiences.

“By the way, he was hitting on you. I can’t believe he was still using the ‘let’s read lines together’ bit still.”

“I don’t think he was. I think he was being nice, or his ego got in the way thinking that he was going to get the male lead and want to work with me since I have the female lead part.”

Amanda placed her hands on his hips sighing, “Oh honey, you don’t know William. This man thinks he can get into anyone’s bed with a couple lines and a smile.”

Christine let out a light giggle, “He doesn’t seem that bad Amanda. I think you’re over exaggerating.”

Amanda shrugged, “Go on thinking that.”

Amanda soon left taking her lines and music score she had been helping to edit for the musicians in the pit. She was the one to go to if you needed a score adjusted. She wasn’t as good as Brendon but she managed. Christine knew Kelsey would probably be coming in to work with Amanda on it if Ryan didn’t take it back thinking he could do it all on his own. He knew some things but not everything and he believed in himself. Christine knew she’d probably have to take it from him. She could even do better than him.

She had experience with a few instruments but preferred acting, dancing, and singing, it was more her forte.

“Hey babe,” Ryan snuck up on her and pulled her into his chest, “How is my leading role gal?”

She turned to face him, “Good, I just met William Beckett.”

“Oh god he’s here?!” Christine looked past Ryan to see her best friend Spencer Smith, Dallon Weekes, and Ian Crawford of the music crew. Dallon was the one that had spoken and looked appalled at the thought of William being here. She was beginning to wonder if William was really that bad if Dallon had complained. She’d known Dallon for a while and she knew he could trust him. He was always honest and was a good friend. Spencer was hers and Ryan’s best friend and was now volunteering for some of the percussion parts in the play this time. Ian was just an extra that was looking for some more experience before leaving the city but was another smart and wonderful friend. She felt safe around them all.

“He’s auditioning now.”

Dallon shook his head, “Auditions were yesterday and the day before. If he wanted a part he should have been here. I hate that he gets to bend the rules. He did that all the time back then.”

Ian spoke up, “He’s probably shill shitty anyways.”

Dallon nodded, “I know right? He’ll get lead I’m sure.”

Ryan rolled his eyes letting Christine go, “Knock it off guys. He’s pretty much all we have and needed someone else. So he was willing so we inviting him down. Give him a break, he might be different now.”

Ian grumbled before walking over to the pit with Dallon, “When hell freezes over.”

Spencer looked over at Christine, “So?”

Christine went over and hugged Spencer, “I’m so glad you’re doing this with Ryan.”

Spencer shrugged hugging back, “I think it’ll be fun.”

Christine felt ecstatic. All of her friends were here working to help the first show since the collapse. She was happy that so many people wanted to be apart and it was helping her to work even harder. She wanted more than anything to rebuild what this theatre had been. It was all falling into place and starting to become a reality. The theatre itself had been rebuilt, stronger and almost identical. The chandelier above the audience had been replaced. How she’ll never know because the glass of it all was massive and had to have been expensive. This theatre was counting on this play to become a money maker.

She knew she could do it, she knew they could all do it. Sure, she had to sing a little bit but other than that she was confident on everything else.

Amanda walked past her, Ryan, and Spencer towards Kelsey who was coming in through the stage door that led outside to a back alleyway behind the stage, “Thank god you’re here. Keep this score away from Ryan. If he erases anything again, chop off his fingers.”

Kelsey looked up and placed down her cello, letting the instrument in its case to rest on the stage, “Alright, I do have to give it to him at some point.”

“Well, just make sure he doesn’t make any changes.” Amanda handed Kelsey the pages, “Come see me later, I have a piece I think you’ll like.”

Kelsey looked over at the small group staring at her, “”What?”

Ryan shook his head, “Nothing, and you’re right. I’ll need to be looking at that score.”

Kelsey picked up her instrument heading to the pit, “I know. Just don’t erase all her changes till we’ve gone through them this time. She’ll stop harassing you if you’d at least give her tips a try.”

The boys start walking away from Christine with Ryan still talking, “Well, it’s not even fair since we won’t being having a full run through for at least two weeks.”

Christine let them continue to argue as more members of the pit came in excited to be working on new music. Some were old performers here as well as a new crowd but after auditions everyone knew they were a strong group. Christine felt overjoyed that after all this work it had finally become a reality. The theatre was here, rebuilt and ready to captivate an audience.

As Christine started to come back to reality something fell a few feet from her crashing against the stage. She flinched and saw it was a stage light from the cat walk. It attracted everyone’s attention and Christine looked up at the cat walk as members of the pit came up to see what had happen. Christine squinted and could see something moving up there as well as causing the cat walk to shake. She walked past the crew examining the light and making her way in back towards the door leading to the cat walk.

She tried the door and it was unlocked. She slipped up the stairs slowly, “Hello? I know you’re here. I saw you.”

As she climbed the stairs the darker the path became. She made it up to the top and stepped onto the cat walk hesitantly and made her way towards where the light had been and leaned down to examine it. Where it had been attached on the base had now been unscrewed and the cable cut. When they put in the new cat walk they used two different systems to secure the lights, a screw base that would hold the light and then a cable to help adjust and be able to move freely to alter directions. It was more complicated then it needed to be but this wasn’t supposed to happen. Someone had to have done this because screws can’t just loosen themselves up and out of the hole they were in. Christine stood up and the crowd looked up at her.

Ryan furred his eyebrows, “How’d you get up there?”

“It was unlocked. Ryan you need to see this, the light’s cable was cut as well as the screws taken out. They’re all right here.”

Ryan shook his head, “That’s nonsense,” and made his way to come up to the catwalk to examine for himself.

Christine heard a shuffle near her as she stood tall and headed towards the other end of the catwalk, “Hello?”

Ryan had made his way towards the scene and bent down to look as Christine kept walking. She made it to the other side and just felt wall. She couldn’t see up here. The stone felt cold under her hands as she moved along knowing she heard something over here.

“Christine, it looks like you’re right.”

She turned back towards Ryan ignoring her current search and headed back to Ryan, “I told you.”

“I don’t understand how the catwalk is unlocked; I’m the only one with keys today.”

Ryan stood up, “Come on, we need to find my father. Ask him about this. See if he had any maintenance guys come in or something.”

Christine did follow him, “Well I did thought I saw someone up here when I looked up.”

“Yeah, but they’d probably say something.”



Amanda sighed as she headed back towards her small house attached to the theatre. She had always lived here and fought for her place when the town wanted to take down the theatre instead of rebuilding. She fought with all she had and started with the community to help her keep her home was well as the theatre. It worked, and she was ecstatic. This was all she knew as home and refused to let it go.

Well, there was that other reason she had but no one really knew except for Brian.

She heard a whisper, “Amanda.”

She leaned against the thin wall where the voice had come from, “Nice stunt today. Do you know how much that will cost this place to get that fixed?”

“That’s not what we should be worrying about. It’s the fact that-”

Amanda cut of the familiar voice, “I know. I saw today as well. Don’t worry, you’re plan is working. Let it fall into place.”

“I will.”

Amanda examined her nails trying not to attract attention if someone had decided to walk down this hall connecting to her house, “Are you joining me for dinner tonight?”
“I will try, I want to examine more of the stage sets tonight as well work on a new piece.”

“I do need you to work on the score for me if you have time.”

She could practically see the other nodded, “I will look at it for you.”

Amanda pushed off the wall resuming her walk, “Thank you Brendon.”