Picking up after part 3:
Rehearsals for the Christmas play, “A Christmas Carol”, began in September of 2003. We met once a week after church services on Sunday and would spend about 2 hours learning songs, choreography, and going over scenes. I had a blast with all my friends as we went through everything from memorizing our lines to getting our sparkly costumes. Practice was always one of the highlights of my week.
Then there was one Sunday – October 12 – when we were eating lunch in a classroom together like we did every week before practice started when the main character – Ok, we’ll start calling him “Curtis” now – walked into the room with his mom. He was wearing a red and white striped long sleeved shirt. His mom said to the director, “Curtis can’t come to practice today, he has a sore throat.” An undeniable feeling of disappointment came over me, and I knew why. I was really enjoying being around him. I liked that I had several lines that required us “talking to each other”. At one part, I was supposed to grab his hand and pull him across the stage. We weren’t really friends and had no conversations besides what was scripted, but I found him fascinating to be around.
That was the only practice that he missed. After that, rehearsals continued and the play started developing more. The first Sunday in November, we started practicing the curtain call – where we run up, take our individual bows, then hold hands and have a big “group bow”. I was in the second-to-last group with the other 3 angels. Curtis was last. I would always try to make sure I was standing in the middle of the angels so that when we split and went to each side, I would be able to hold hands with Curtis after his bow. Real sneaky, right?! 😉
After 10 weeks of practices, the day of the performance – Sunday, December 14 – finally arrived. This was back in the days before I got stage fright, so I was very excited and ready. That morning, we had to sing in all 3 services for church. While we were all lined up in the hallway waiting, a friend of mine came up to me and handed me a piece of paper. “I stole it from Curtis!” She said proudly. I knew he was nearby, so I took the paper and went over to him.
“Here”, I said shyly as I handed it back to him. His friend standing next to him started laughing and pointed.
“You’re blushing!” he exclaimed.
“You’re blushing.” I replied as I hurried back to where I was – where I was safe from anyone thinking I liked that boy.
The play happened that night. The whole thing went great, and I had a blast. There was just one little “mistake” that I made: when the angels appeared to Curtis/”Kevin”, I was supposed to march forward, “Sound of Music” style, introduce myself, and march back. While marching back, I stepped on Curtis’ pillow and almost fell over backwards. In that moment, I glanced over at him, and he rolled his eyes at me. That moment changed my life.
He was watching me. He rolled his eyes at me. He knows I exist! He was supposed to be doing something else, but instead he noticed something I did! These thoughts went through my mind and filled me with excitement and wonder.
Me, telling Curtis a story about his future. I was in love with my “futuristic” costume.
Curtain call – so glad my mom took a picture of this moment. Little did she know how hard I worked for that spot. 😉
After the performance, it was all over, and I was a bit sad about that. But anyone who’s been in a play of any sort knows the feeling of being bummed once the show you’ve worked so hard for is finished. I saw Curtis around church briefly the following Sunday, but that was it for 2003. I had the cast party to look forward to, but for then all I had was a memory of the time that “Curtis rolled his eyes at me”.