Status: Updates Eventually.
It's Been a While
Theater Kids
“You can stop trying to send me to hell now, Ma’am,” I spit out as politely as I could. Four hours of an old lady shooting her disapproval straight through my brain. “I’m not a stripper, or a prostitute. There was a family emergency and I didn’t have time to change from my theater outfit. Theater. Musical theater. Surely you don’t hate the arts.” It had gotten way too uncomfortable with both the shorts and sweatpants, so I had to take the latter off. The shorts were too difficult to wriggle out of in an airplane bathroom.
I didn’t wait for an answer, because the plane landed and after growling at the teenager for staring at my ass I exited as swiftly and gracefully as I could. The address was the same from when everyone had lived there all those years ago, so I knew in which general direction I had to go. My issue was that it was far from the airport and I was still wearing an outfit that turned heads with enough makeup on to deem me emotionally unstable.
I shuffled through the airport until I got to a waiting area. If I could find a payphone or something I could get a taxi.
“Oi!” My head snapped to the voice. “Columbia!”
Theater kids. You could tell it from a mile away. They were sitting in a circle with Chinese food and playing some sort of clapping game.
“Join us!” It was sort of ritualistic, I’d learned through my own theater experiences. So I sat with them, learning names and roles and declining every offer of some of their food.
“I’m trying to get to this house,” I said finally, pulling out the paper with the address. “I’ve got a family reunion to get to, but my phone got cancelled about three months ago.”
Some of them, the college kids, nodded in understanding. The high schoolers smiled sympathetically.
“We’ve got a few cars between us, I’m sure we could squeeze you in somewhere,” the unofficial leader spoke for her group. She went by Mama in the theater scene. “Where did you come from?”
“Chicago. I had to leave my troupe for this.”
“Tough break. Here, why don’t you come with me and Tania, she can fix your hair while I drive. Sound good?”
“You have no idea how good that sounds,” I replied, sliding into the back seat and Tania went about fixing my hair.
“Your family know about this?” Mama spoke from the front, looking at me in the mirror. I stopped briefly to wonder why people kept asking me that. It was a respectable way to make money.
“Not yet. I don’t think they’ll be too surprised though.”
I didn’t wait for an answer, because the plane landed and after growling at the teenager for staring at my ass I exited as swiftly and gracefully as I could. The address was the same from when everyone had lived there all those years ago, so I knew in which general direction I had to go. My issue was that it was far from the airport and I was still wearing an outfit that turned heads with enough makeup on to deem me emotionally unstable.
I shuffled through the airport until I got to a waiting area. If I could find a payphone or something I could get a taxi.
“Oi!” My head snapped to the voice. “Columbia!”
Theater kids. You could tell it from a mile away. They were sitting in a circle with Chinese food and playing some sort of clapping game.
“Join us!” It was sort of ritualistic, I’d learned through my own theater experiences. So I sat with them, learning names and roles and declining every offer of some of their food.
“I’m trying to get to this house,” I said finally, pulling out the paper with the address. “I’ve got a family reunion to get to, but my phone got cancelled about three months ago.”
Some of them, the college kids, nodded in understanding. The high schoolers smiled sympathetically.
“We’ve got a few cars between us, I’m sure we could squeeze you in somewhere,” the unofficial leader spoke for her group. She went by Mama in the theater scene. “Where did you come from?”
“Chicago. I had to leave my troupe for this.”
“Tough break. Here, why don’t you come with me and Tania, she can fix your hair while I drive. Sound good?”
“You have no idea how good that sounds,” I replied, sliding into the back seat and Tania went about fixing my hair.
“Your family know about this?” Mama spoke from the front, looking at me in the mirror. I stopped briefly to wonder why people kept asking me that. It was a respectable way to make money.
“Not yet. I don’t think they’ll be too surprised though.”