ChaPterone Pins and poking-sticks of steel What maids lack from head to heel Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale This place is crawling with mice whispered the back of the Horse I smiled in the darkness Both the front and back of the Horse six little Mice and I were all squeezed together in the left wing of the stage waiting for our entrance The stage manager said Cue one go softly into his headset The audience lights dimmed as the opening music to Cinderella began The back of the Horse bent over and gripped the waist of the front of the Horse Since only the front of the Horse gets to speak they switch places for every performance The tallest Mouse adjusted the saddle
2 PLAYING JULIET blanket covering the line where their costumes overlapped And the smallest Mouse Molly clenched her hands into fists and stared down at the floor This was her first play All the Mice wear bright pink circles outlined in black on the end of their noses When Molly was putting on her makeup I saw her clean off that circle and redraw it at least four times I leaned over to her and whispered Great nose circling my finger over the tip of my own She looked up smiled and took a step toward me Break a leg she said softly Before I could return with a Break a leg of my own Molly raised her voice I remembered it’s bad luck to say Good luck Shh The audience can hear We don’t want anything to go wrong on opening night And as soon as I said it I realized that something was already wrong You’re standing on my tail I whispered pointing frantically to where my fluffy fur tail was trapped under her black ballet slipper In the dim backstage light she couldn’t see what the problem was You’re standing on my tail I whispered even louder A surge of music drowned out my voice Molly stepped closer to hear what I was trying to tell her Her other foot landed on my tail just as I tried to pan tomime the problem by giving it a little jerk The music
JOANNE STEWART WETZEL 3 paused and we both heard the rip as the tail came off in my hand Beth what are you going to do Molly sounded terrified Don’t worry I said patting her shoulder The stage manager always has safety pins for costume emergencies I managed not to step on anyone else’s tail as I backed out of the crowd of animals and headed for the dim blue light on Austin’s desk Austin Santiago the stage manager was dressed in black like all the crew members He sat hunched over a copy of the script talking softly into his headset his dark hair sticking straight up as if it were standing at attention I waved my tail in front of him until I got his attention and mouthed Emergency repair What are you doing here Austin asked Actors are supposed to stay in the dressing room until it’s time for their entrance Busted Now there was no way I could finish watching this play from the wings Austin would be on the lookout for me He ran a tight backstage Austin’s only fourteen which is young to be a stage manager even at our theater but he’s really good at his job He picked up a battered black box from his desk shook it frowned then looked into it Empty he said I thought I checked last night He looked into it again Not a single pin
