“We seek the path forward, though the way is hidden to us,” Erica responded. “Wherewithal can we reach road’s end?”
“I have no idea what you’re trying to say, but here’s a dad joke. I hated the one that was originally written, so I made one up that I think is better. I hope my boys like it.”
“Go, Dad!” I heard a teenage male voice call from the back of the auditorium.
“What is he doing? He’s going off script again!” Marcus hissed.
Stefan took a big breath. “What did the dragon shifter say to his hatchlings? Stop dragon ass, get it— AHHH!”
Grant was still breakdancing. One of his legs kicked out and knocked Stefan over. He tumbled to the side in the middle of his joke and fell into one of the sets, smashing the background to pieces and yanking down an entire backdrop. The crowd booed.
“Now, everyone, I’m sure that was intentional! After all, he’s the entity of comedy!” Cameron shouted.
Sure, let’s go with that. Takahashi rushed to usher the girls into the next scene as Grant dragged Stefan backstage. “To the entity of aging we go!”
My time to go on stage was coming up. I adjusted my costume, which was nothing more than a simple white gossamer dress. Charlie’s matching white shirt was crooked. “You want me to fix that?”
“Fix what?” He had no clue.
I reached out and adjusted it for him, straightening the buttons and smoothing down the fabric. “Never mind.”
Professor Amber was onstage right before us. I expected the Demigod Guardian to go all out for her part, as she’d been almost as excited about this play as Marcus, but I wasn’t prepared just how far she’d go to serve her role. Amber waltzed onstage with a stack of crystals, placing them in various areas around the broad stage before letting her long curls fly free as she began spinning within the stone circles, humming a tune as bangles shone on her wrists and a boho maxi skirt spun out over her bare feet.
And she was completely topless. Sixty-year-old Professor Amber was twirling half-naked onstage without a care in the world, dancing under the spotlights and wearing a daring smile.
My parents, and none of their friends, looked surprised. They’d all been her students, so this was common behavior from free spirit hippie child Professor Amber, I guess. More power to her, but was this really the time?
“Marcus, what is going on?” I said, gesturing to the stage.
“This is what she wanted! She’s the entity of aging— a portrayal of the transition into the role of the elder! I wasn’t going to stifle her artistic interpretation!” Marcus demanded. “I am a director, not a dictator!”
“Your theater kid bullshit is what’s going to get us caught! No one is going to believe this is a real show!”
I was proven a liar when Cameron started clapping from the first row, cheering out, “This is amazing! It’s the most incredible performance I’ve ever been to!”
Well, at least he liked it, and that’s what mattered most. He was the one person we had to make sure remained distracted, and Professor Amber sure was distracting. Amber finally finished her performative art, gathering her crystals in her arms before she pirouetted offstage.
“The entity of aging has found you worthy of venturing on!” Takahashi announced. “Go forth into the vacant void, the land of emptiness and sorrow that awaits before you!”
That was our cue. Charlie bent down and extended his arms. “This okay?”
I grasped his forearm, running my fingers over the muscles there. “Yes.”
Charlie lifted me into his arms, and the heat of the spotlight shone upon us as we stepped onstage. A piano ballad struck up from the orchestra pit, and we entered into a dance. Charlie spun in circles around the stage, and a fog machine placed at the corner coated the area in a light mist. I moved my arms in flowing movements, wrapping them around Charlie’s neck before drooping one in an arc behind me, performing intricate movements as we twirled.
We hadn’t rehearsed this at all in practice, and Marcus had skipped this part every time we got to it in the script, acting like it wasn’t there. Charlie had outright refused to speak any lines of dialogue, and I just wanted to get my part over with as quickly as possible, so this was the role we’d been assigned. We freestyled the dance, none of the steps choreographed or planned.
It didn’t matter. It was like we’d rehearsed this scene a hundred times and knew exactly what movements the other person was going to make next. Charlie flowed into my body like I poured into him. He knew when to dip me, when to shift my legs so I could wrap around him, lifting me into a spiral, a floating embrace. His breath rushed across my mouth as I put a hand against his cheek, running my fingers through his hair, and my legs spanned out behind me before he scooped me up by the knees again, boosting me by the hips and lifting me higher so I could stretch my arms out toward the lights above.
I’d had this dance a hundred times within my dreams since I’d given Charlie those divorce papers. The dream always started the same. I was floating in a realm in between space and time, the world void of feeling, before Charlie appeared within the fog. He lifted me into his arms, and we began an elaborate, intimate dance where our bodies tangled together and our hearts beat as one. I always woke up far too early from the dance, the breath stolen from my body and my limbs aching for someone who wasn’t there. Each night I had this dream, I’d longed for it not to end. In some strange twist of fate, the universe had manifested my dreams into reality within this theater.
Oberi ran around the stage with a flowing cloth in his mouth, resembling the clouds as Charlie and I danced inside the fog. We might as well be ghosts depicting what our relationship had once been… and what had died.
“Who are they?” Alana asked.
“Lost souls, trapped within the isle’s haunted shores,” Takahashi said ominously. “Take care that you reach the end of your journey, and avoid their heartbreaking fate.”
“What happened to them?” Erica questioned.
