Tags
acting, bratty kids, cars, diary, entertainment, humor, journal, kids, lies, life, memories, new school, play, plays, power wheels, school, toys, transportation, truck
My cast of many didn’t like the idea of being on stage in front of not only the entire school, but the school’s parents too. One by one people bailed out until there were only four actors left. Myself (sister number one), Cory (sister number two and my best friend thank you very much), Blythe (Mother), and Megan (customer number 1, 2, 3, 4, ………).
Megan is kind of her own story; she was morbidly obese before we had a term for it. During P.E. students were weighed at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year, all of our weights were read out loud, except Megan’s. Had her number just been called out I think most of us wouldn’t have taken a second thought to it, but the fact that it was hidden from us made us all lean in real close, then look sadly at her as we were all aware of her weight, but acknowledging it wasn’t entirely her fault. Her Mom was our bus driver, and she looked just like her Mom.
***
My parents let me borrow tons of stuff to use as props; the only thing missing was a car. I desperately wanted a power wheels car and to my amazement Megan had one, well Megan’s brother, but we were allowed to use it.
What I imagined the boy’s power wheels to look like.
***
The day of the show Megan and I rode together with all of the props, her Mom drove a truck with the power wheels truck in the back. “Hey can I see it before we go in?” I asked Megan.
“Oh, won’t you have to set up everything else?” She asked.
“I suppose so; I will just see it on stage. Man it’s really nice of your brother to let us use it!”
“He had no choice.” Megan’s Mom said, winking at me.
***
The second I got out of the car the music teacher aka coordinator of the entire event ran up to me with horrible – awful – terrible news. “Blythe is in the emergency room, something about her brother and her teeth.”
I was devastated for a multitude of reasons.
“Do you want to go on, or should I pull your play from the set?” She was a bit frantic like we fit into some crazy time slot and if our play wasn’t there, everything would come to a sketching halt.
“We will go on.” I said; as long as my parents were in the audience, my play was going on.
***
Megan was now playing the part of the girl’s Mother and every single customer. It already had disaster written all over it, I was just terribly optimistic.
When Megan established herself as our Mother and then returned as customer number one to buy a dress, people stirred uncomfortably in their chairs. Moments that were meant to be funny went by without laughs because people weren’t sure what was intentional and what wasn’t. We pressed on.
***
A little while later Cory and I began yelling “Car wash, car wash.” Megan’s cue to come on stage; Cory and I were pacing back and forth while we ‘waited for a customer’ and I turned around just in time to see Megan squatting, knees to her face, scooting a toy van that could fit only barbies. I tried so hard but I couldn’t stop myself I laughed quite loudly into the microphone.
Then Cory started laughing, so hard in fact her shoulders bounced up and down. Then everyone in the audience started laughing. Megan seemed oblivious to the situation, and acted just as she was supposed to. Finally we had the audience and when our play was over we got a standing ovation. I honestly think it had nothing to do with the play itself, the dialogue, nor our acting skills, we provided what no other act would or probably will again, a large child sitting on top of a Barbie car, pretending it is a power wheels.
Let’s go for a ride.
-ducksoup- 