Page 19 of Script Swap
Nora let out a peal of laughter.When I raised my eyebrows, she said, “He’s a young man.And he’s proud of this role.”
“She means,” Fox said, “he’s already got an enormous ego.”
“I don’t know,” Nora said.“Heisa young man.He’s excited.And he’s protecting what he thinks he’s earned.Not all that different from Jonni, really.It’s that Jonni can’t accept the fact that her star is setting, and it doesn’t help that—” Nora broke off.She looked down, picked at something on her sweats, looked up again, smiled.“It’ll all be fine.”
“What were you going to say?”I asked.“‘It doesn’t help that—’ What?”
“Nothing,” Nora said.“Really, it was nothing.I shouldn’t have opened my mouth.I find myself getting pettier with age, and it’s not a trait I particularly like about myself.Is there something I can help you with, Mr.Dane?”
I hesitated and glanced at Fox.
“Dash is helping investigate the events of last night,” Fox said.“He has a working relationship with the sheriff’s office, you understand.”
Both of those things were technically true, but the way Fox said them made it sound like they were connected in a way that they most definitely weren’t.
Nora’s expression grew serious.“My God, I should have—of course.I heard about the theft, but I don’t know what I can do to help you.”
“Did you see anything strange last night?”I asked.
Nora shook her head.“Nothing.But it was opening night, and you understand how stressful that is.It’s the busiest night of the run, usually.Everyone is tense.Last-minute fixes, things that still need to be done.No show is ever truly ready to go on stage, and the opening night is when all the seams start to pop, so to speak.”
“Really?”I asked.
“Oh yes.”
Fox nodded as well.
“I did notice that Tinny wasn’t happy with something about the set.”
For the first time, a hint of distaste crawled into Nora’s expression.“The color of the paint, yes.She was…vocal about that.”
“What paint?What didn’t she like?”
“The color of the wainscoting, if you can believe that.Of all the things to worry about opening night.There’s something wrong with Vivienne’s—er, Marienne’s desk, and the whole thing is liable to collapse if you bump it.They still can’t get the lighting right for the scene in the tunnels.My co-star can’t seem to learn his lines.And she’s worried about the color of the wainscoting.For heaven’s sake, it’s in one scene, and it’s not like anybody’s evenlookingat it; they’re supposed to be looking at me.”
“Do you know why she’s so, uh, fixated on it?”
“I don’t.If I understood anything going on in that girl’s brain, maybe we could have a moment’s peace around here.”
“Amen,” Fox said and crossed themselves.
“What happened with Kyson’s lines?”I asked.“You mentioned that he doesn’t know his lines yet, but Pippi and Terrence said they’d changed the script.”
“One line,” Nora said.“Maybe two.He should have had it down pat after reading the changes.”
“He seemed confident enough last night.”
“Good,” Nora said.“I’m happy to hear it.That’s the goal with every performance: you want the audience to believe that everything was supposed to happen that way, and I’m proud of him for carrying it off, truly.But—” A smile slanted across her mouth again.“There’s that pettiness again.”
“But what?”I asked.
For a moment, I thought she wouldn’t answer.Then she said, “Pippi and Terrence decided to change the lines because he kept messing up.That speech at the end of act two is important.It’s supposed to help the audience understand that Daniel has hit his low point.He’s afraid.He knows his life is on the line.And Kyson couldn’t land it.”
“What do you mean?”
“He kept fumbling it.Even when he could get the lines right, the delivery was off.That’s why they changed it.”
That wasn’t what Pippi and Terrence had told me, but I wasn’t ready to argue the point.“I understood that someone tampered with Kyson’s script.Someone changed the lines in it—again, I mean.What he said last night, right before the lights went out, it wasn’t what Pippi and Terrence put into the new version.”
