Reign

and turned to face her. 'This is all by way of asking you to have dinner with me tonight. Dinner. Nothing more, except for talk. Despite all the hustle and bustle that's been going on around here, I feel very lonely right now. I'd like your company.'

She began to speak, but he held up a hand. 'Again, if you don't want to, just say no. It'll make no difference in your work here.'

She laughed. 'When have I ever been able to say no to you?'

'You did once,' he said without a smile.

'Yes. I know. And that was a mistake.'

'Then don't make it twice.'

They looked at each other for a long time. Then Ann said, 'I'll have to go home and change.'

'You look fine.'

'No I don't. I look like a production assistant.'

He laughed. 'All right, go home and change if you want to. But this time I'll pick you up at your house.'

Immediately the thought of Terri leapt into her mind. 'Oh no, Dennis, you don't have to -'

'I'm quite capable of driving myself, and I asked you, not the other way around. I'll pick you up and take you home and not another word about it, please.'

It was stupid to be concerned about it, she thought. Terri would have to know anyway. There was no way to keep it a secret. And why would she have to? There was nothing wrong with having dinner with Dennis. They had done so before, and the evening had ended innocently enough.

When she told Terri over lunch that she was having dinner with Dennis that evening, the girl made a face that was half a sneer, half a grimace of anger. 'Not wasting any time, are you?'

'That's a crude thing to say.'

'It's a crude thing to do, in my opinion.'

'I don't recall asking for your opinion.'

They finished their respective lunches in silence.

~* ~

'What do you think of Terri Deems?'

'I try not to think of her at all.' Curtis Wynn put his shoulder to a flat and shoved it into its bin, then turned to accept the mid-afternoon Coke that Evan Hamilton handed him. In the few weeks they had been working together, Evan felt that he had developed a certain camaraderie with Curt. The older man was still taciturn, but talked more than he had when Evan had started. He thought that was due in part to Curt's pleasant surprise over Evan's expertise at backstage work.

'What, you don't think she's cute?' Evan asked.

'Sure, she's cute. I just don't want to get involved with her.'

'Why not?'

Curtis gave Evan a sidelong look. 'First of all, I'm indifferent to that girl. In fact, I think she could be kind of a pain in the ass, given half a chance. The second reason is that I have no idea of what's cooking between her mother and Dennis.'

The muscles of Evan's face went taut. 'What do you mean?'

'Like I said, I have no idea. I don't know. But you asked me, I told you. Let's let it go at that.'

'Ann and my father?'

'I've already said enough, okay? It's none of my business, but I wouldn't do anything until I found out which way the wind was blowing.'

Evan could feel his cheeks turning red. The thought of Ann and Dennis together infuriated him. Despite the loose moral climate of his parents' world, the values he had learned were those of private schools and the armed services – old style discipline and respectability. After the initial shock of her age, he had treasured Robin as a stepmother, because he found very quickly that she had shared those values. And now to learn that Dennis had probably been cheating on her right under her nose was more than he could bear. The fact too that she was Terri's mother added fuel to the fire, but he consciously ignored that aspect as he whirled around and headed toward the steps of the stage.

'Evan!' Curt called after him. 'Where the hell are you going?'

He didn't answer, but ran up the aisle, through the lobby, and to the flight of stairs that led to the second floor. He was too impatient to wait for the elevator. He ran down the hall until he was in front of the door of Dennis's suite. Ignoring the doorbell, he hammered on the oak panels.

In a moment, Dennis opened the door. He looked startled by the pounding, then confused to find his son there, so obviously upset. 'Evan, what is it?…“

“It's Robin, that's what it is – Robin, and the way you treated her!”

“What -'

'Ann Deems, huh? And I thought those tears at the funeral were real. God, what a terrific actor you are!' Dennis's face went white, and Evan knew then that Curt's suspicions were true. Having drawn blood, he went in for the kill. 'What the hell is wrong with you? All the time I was growing up, you were grabbing every -'

'Be quiet,' Dennis said. 'Come in here. Come in and we can talk.'

Seething with what he felt to be righteous indignation, Evan glared at his father, then pushed the door open and entered the suite, while Dennis gently closed the door behind them. 'What do you want to talk about?' Evan went on. 'You want to rationalize cheating on her?'

'I didn't cheat on her,' Dennis said. 'I never cheated on Robin.'

'Why should she be any different from your other wives and lovers?'

'You know damn well I only had one wife before Robin – your mother. And yes, I did cheat on her. And she cheated on me too. You read that trashy biography of her, you know the stories. Why do you think I didn't sue? I couldn't. Everything they said was true.'

The accusation toward his mother sobered Evan somewhat. 'You never told me that before. But even so, so what? So fucking what? Why should I believe you about Ann Deems?'

'I was faithful to Robin.'

'Sure. Sure you were. But if you weren't, you're the lowest piece of slime that ever walked a stage.'

'Don't you speak to me like that.'

'Why? What'll you do, fire me? The tabloids'll eat that up, won't they?'

'Get out, Evan.' His father sounded terribly weary, and for a moment Evan almost pitied him. He walked to the door.

'You know, Dad, there was one lesson you taught me – not right out, but by example, and I'll never forget it. Seeing you taught me never to think with my dick.'

He turned his back on his father, opened the door, and stepped into the hall. He didn't close the door behind him, and he didn't hear his father close it either.

The scene is the fly space fifty feet above the stage floor. It is an hour later. The area, a space in which large scenery pieces 'fly' up out of sight above the proscenium arch, is in semidarkness, lit by the work lights twenty feet below. EVAN HAMILTON is standing on a catwalk, and is examining the condition of the fly ropes with a flashlight he carries. His attention is so fixed on his work that he does not hear THE EMPEROR, dressed exactly as was Dennis in the suite, come up behind him.)

THE EMPEROR

Evan… (EVAN, startled, turns, almost losing his balance. He is grasped by THE EMPEROR.) Don't fall. I would not want to be deprived of the joy of dropping you myself. (He grasps the boy by the belt and the collar and holds him over the rail of the catwalk so that Evan's upper body is hanging above the stage floor.)

EVAN

(Terrified) Dad! Jesus, what are you -

THE EMPEROR

Speak when you're spoken to, you little bastard, and maybe not even then. You are a bastard, you know. I didn't tell you that, either. I have no idea who your real father was. That whore I married would fuck anyone in breeches.

EVAN