Chase the Stars

Charlie remembered the obnoxious overacting. That hadn't changed a bit. The eccentric acting troupe hadn't changed much either, besides looking twenty years older than Charlie remembered. Mila seemed to sense how tense he was, clutching the pocketwatch in his hand with his eyes glued to the less than mediocre performance of Richard III. And then, there he was. Lewis Graham, playing the lead role of Richard himself. Charlie looked almost exactly like his father. If he had any features from his mother, he wouldn't know about them. They had the exact same icy green eyes.

“Was ever a woman in this humour woo’d?” Lewis recited with a dramatic cackle. “Was ever a woman in this humour won? I’ll have her; but I will not keep her long!”

Mila kept glancing over at Charlie, then back to the play. She leaned over, but Charlie still hadn't moved a muscle.

“Is that him?” she whispered.

Charlie just nodded, not once looking away. He wasn't sure why he felt so nervous all of a sudden. Twenty years ago, Charlie was lost in Etherport. He was seven years old and was separated from the rest of his father’s troupe as they left a tavern in the middle of the night, drunkenly deciding to take a walk in the cool evening air. When Charlie lost them, he wandered dangerous streets by himself, not sure where to go.

He remembered his father telling him that if Charlie ever got lost, he should stay exactly where he was until they came back to get him. And he should never approach the authorities. So Charlie settled in a spot he found in an abandoned clock, and he stayed where he was, waiting for them to come back. And the time when he finally left, he found his father.

When the play ended, Charlie got up and immediately started going towards the stage. Mila curiously trailed after him, but he wasn't very concerned about her at that moment. He was stopped by a burly security guard when he tried to go backstage.

“I need to see them,” Charlie said, still in a daze.

“They won't be signing autographs at this moment,” the man told him.

Charlie stared at him for a few minutes, his arms dropping limp at his sides.

“Bubble?” he asked hesitantly. “Do you still go by that name? Bubble?”

The guard narrowed his eyes, studying Charlie, then lit up.

“Wait a minute,” he chuckled. “Ain't you Lewis’s boy?”

Charlie just nodded. It was a strange laugh that Bubble made, as if he was greeting an old friend. Not a child that the troupe had lost so many years ago.

“Go on in, they'll be in the back,” he said, stepping aside. “This girl is with you?”

“Yeah,” Charlie said, moving past him absentmindedly.

Bubble just nodded, eyeing Mila up and down with a sort of sleazy grin. Mila glared back at him, jogging slightly to catch up to Charlie and stay a little closer to him. He went to the dressing area backstage, where the rest of the troupe was still in their costume and makeup, laughing loudly and passing around bottles of liquor. Charlie recognized most of them. There was Mandy, who was looking twice as old as she probably was, but still dressed like a 19-year-old prostitute. Charlie didn't have very good memories of her, since most of the time she was pretty vocal about what a waste of space she thought he was. And then there was Otis and Arthur, who were brothers. They usually played background roles, so no one would pay much attention to them and they could go into the audience to look through purses and whatnot. Sitting in a corner and counting out the money they’d made with that performance was Olive, who was around Charlie’s father’s age and was probably the only other one in that troupe who ever acknowledged Charlie’s existence. She used to give him candy, but usually it was to quiet him down when he was talking too much and annoying everyone else. Finally, in the center of the crowd, there was his father. There was a giggly girl sitting in his lap who looked younger than Charlie, probably more around Mila’s age, that he didn’t recognize. It didn’t look like she was “just friends” with Lewis, either.

They noticed Charlie standing there and all turned to look at him, and he found himself speechless all of a sudden. He wasn’t sure what he even wanted to say to them. Lewis didn’t seem to recognize Charlie at all, but Charlie figured it was just because of how much he’d grown since they last saw each other. Mila was hovering near Charlie, sort of staying behind him so they didn’t stare her down. She gave him a slight nudge forward, and Charlie awkwardly cleared his throat.

“Um… hi,” he said.

“You looking for autographs?” Mandy asked, unamused. “We’re busy here, if you couldn’t tell.”

Charlie glanced back at his father, but Lewis was quietly saying something to the girl that was making her smile. Olive was the one who seemed to recognize Charlie right away, and she stood up, pointing to him with wide eyes.

“Lewis, look!” she exclaimed.

Only then did Lewis look at Charlie, squinting slightly. He pushed the girl off him and stood to come closer, getting right in Charlie’s face. He just stood there in silence, waiting to see how Lewis would react.

“Hey, you’ve got my eyes,” Lewis remarked.

“I’m your son,” Charlie finally said.

There was some mumbling coming from the troupe as they stared at Charlie in shock, but it still didn’t seem to register in his head. And then he lit up, laughing.

“That’s right! My son!” he laughed.

“You have a son?!” the girl gasped, eyes wide.

“Right,” Lewis said, waving the girl over. “Ellyn, come meet my son. Uh, Chester!”

Charlie felt a pain in his chest, brow furrowed and hardly paying the girl any attention as she came over. She looked Charlie up and down, then gave him a flirtatious smile that made him incredibly uncomfortable.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Chester,” she said.

“It’s actually… Charlie,” he said quietly.

“Charlie,” Lewis said with a nod. “That’s what I said.”

Charlie didn’t say anything, but he felt a hand touch his arm and looked over to see Mila giving him a concerned look. Ellyn took Charlie’s other arm, coming unnecessarily close.

“Look at you!” Lewis said, taking a step back to take the sight of his son in. “You’re all grown up! And you’re not fat anymore! Look at all that muscle. See, I told you, all you needed to do was eat less. Glad to see you’ve taken my advice.”

“Yeah,” Charlie muttered. “I guess I lost some weight…”

“Is this pretty girl with you?” Lewis asked him, looking at Mila.

“I’m a friend,” Mila responded, a cold tone in her voice when speaking to Lewis.

“Just a friend,” Lewis repeated, unfazed by her coldness and seemingly not too concerned about his girlfriend hanging off of Charlie since his attention was on Mila now.

“We were just having a few drinks,” Ellyn told Charlie. “Won’t you join us? You’re part of this troupe too, after all.”

Charlie hesitated, looking back at Mila, but she was letting him make the decisions.

“Yeah, a drink,” Charlie said.

He looked back at Mila, who reluctantly followed him when Ellyn started leading him away. He lowered his voice to speak to her, out of earshot of the others.

“He said Charlie. It just sounded wrong at first, but he did say Charlie.”