were red.
Paul laughed. Standing close behind Keri, as if he would hug her from behind, he leaned his head over her shoulder and pressed his face against hers.
I saw Keri's shoulders relax, her body rest back against him.
But the glimmer in Paul's green eyes told me he didn't feel any real affection for her; he was just yanking her chain.
'I don't like Jenny,' he said, his mouth against Keri's cheek. 'She's not my pet.'
Keri turned her face toward his, letting her mouth brush his mouth.
Paul's hands cupped her shoulders and he pushed her away. 'You try too hard.'
Keri spun around to look at him.
'The girls who are worth it don't try,' Paul told her. 'They are helpless to stop a guy from wanting them.'
Keri's eyes flashed. 'Liza was never helpless,' she spat. 'Only you were.'
They walked off in opposite directions. Shawna, Mike, and I stood silently for a moment.
'Walker sure is good at casting people,' Shawna observed. 'It won't be hard for anyone to believe they're a quarreling couple.'
'I don't know why he can't let go of Liza,' Mike said.
As much as I didn't like Paul, I knew how Liza could haunt a person's thoughts. 'It's not easy when you love someone,' I said. 'A year is not enough time to get over anything.'
Mike's eyes met mine.
'Unless you're acting, of course.'
'Of course,' he replied stiffly.
'Did I just miss something?' Shawna asked as Mike strode away.
'Like what?'
'Well, you can begin by explaining to me why you just defended Paul, who's being ignorant and creepy. You know, he has pictures of Liza hanging in his room, hanging all around it, that's what Andrew told me.'
I wriggled my shoulders at the thought of it-a museum for the dead.
'Paul needs to get on with his life. It's not like he and Liza were the love story of the century. The guy Liza was hot for was Mike.'
'So I heard.'
'Not that she was alone in that,' Shawna added. 'How 'bout you, girlfriend?'
'How 'bout me what?'
'What do you think of Mike?'
I shrugged. 'He's okay.'
Shawna grinned. 'This place is just full of actors.'
The acting began in earnest shortly after that. Walker required that we all be attentive to the blocking that was going on whether we were in the scene or not. It was slow work as we highlighted our lines and noted Walker's directions in our books-the cues on which we were to enter, or rise, or cross over, that kind of thing.
We dragged through Act 2 with the fairies. Having doubled them in number, Walker had created more parts and a lot of confusion. But the pace picked up when Oberon and Titania-Paul and Ken-began to quarrel. I watched them from the wings, waiting for my cue. Walker folded his arms over his chest, looking very satisfied when Titania finally exited with her fairies.
I waited in the wings.
' 'Well go thy way,' ' the angry Oberon said to Titania's back. ' 'Thou shalt not from this grove till I torment thee for this injury.' ' I began to move.
'Wait! What are you doing, Puck?' Walker barked.
I stood still. 'Entering?'
'Has Oberon summoned you yet?' Walker asked. 'Has he? He's king. You don't emerge till he tells you to.'
I backed up.
'I want you in at the end of 'My gentle Puck,'' Walker added in a milder voice, 'and I want you to move close to him. You're conspirators. That line again,' Walker said to Paul.
' 'Well go thy way. Thou shalt not from this grove till l-' ' The lights flickered, — torment thee.
The lights blinked off. We were swallowed by darkness. Someone screamed, then muffled it.
'What the…?' growled Walker. 'Arthur!'
Our only light was the glow of the emergency Exit signs and the strings of tiny floor lights that marked the way to them.
'Everyone stay where you are,' Maggie said. 'We don't want an accident.'
'Brian, find Arthur!' Walker ordered.
'Does anyone have a flashlight?' Brian asked. 'Even a small one on a key chain would help.'
Two girls seated in the audience volunteered theirs.
'Pass the flashlights toward the center aisle,' Maggie instructed.
There was whispering and nervous laughter as Brian retrieved the flashlights, then crossed the stage to the steps that led to the ground floor hall.
Suddenly the whispering stopped.
'What's that?' someone asked, her voice thin with apprehension. 'What do I smell?'
'Perfume,' a guy answered.
I sniffed and my skin prickled. I knew the scent.
'Smells like jasmine,' said another girl.
Liza's perfume. I remembered the weeks after she'd died, packing her sweaters in a Goodwill bag, smelling the jasmine. I had felt as if she would walk into our bedroom at any moment. It was a scent that haunted.
The lights suddenly came back on.
'Nobody move,' Maggie commanded. 'I'm doing a head count.'
The vets exchanged glances-perhaps they recognized my sister's trademark scent.
'Look at Paul,' someone whispered.
His eyes were shut, his lips closed and smiling. He was inhaling deeply, as if he loved breathing in Liza's scent, as if he couldn't get enough.
I felt sick to my stomach. Turning away from him, I discovered Mike watching me.
Walker paced up and down the stage, obviously irritated.
'What was the problem?' he asked when Brian emerged from behind the stage.
'I don't know. The power came back on before I reached the electrical room.'
'Did you see Arthur?'
'No, but I came right back.'
'All of us are accounted for,' Maggie reported to Walker.
Placing his hands on his hips, Walker eyed Paul and me, then Keri in the wings with her fairies, then the kids in the rows of seats below.
'It was a nice bit of theater,' he said. 'We might even incorporate it in our production, releasing a certain scent through the air duct system when Puck does his magic or Titania sweeps through. That said, I don't wish to be entertained by further improvisation. Got it?'
Kids nodded and looked suspiciously at one another.
I wanted to believe it was a piece of theater, but I couldn't shake the eerie feeling I'd had the day I arrived here, the strong sense of Liza's presence. I had thought I came out of my own need for closure; now I wondered if Liza had summoned me.
What do you want, Liza?
