“There’s nothing I can do,” Donna said. “That’s well out of my hands. I’m sorry.”
“O’Hara,” Mrs. Amberson said, her face a muddy mess. “As much as it pains me to say this, I just don’t think we’re going to find a…”
Scarlett held up a silencing hand.
“I already know where,” she said. “The only question is how. This is where the two of you come in…”
FAMILY BONDING
A plan this bold, this ridiculous, required a total rewriting of the rules. This is why Scarlett walked past the Orchid Suite door and went down the hall to the Jazz Suite, where Marlene was engrossed in some show about a high school where everybody sang all their feelings to one another. She dropped down on the couch next to her.
“Listen,” she said, “want to come down the hall and be in a secret conference with Lola, Spencer, and I?”
Marlene gave her a suspicious look.
“What?” she asked.
“Do you want to come down and talk with us?” Scarlett said plainly. “We’re planning something, and we need you.”
This direct approach confused Marlene, and she sat silent for a moment, chewing a cuticle.
“What is it?” she finally asked.
“Spencer’s show is in trouble,” Scarlett said, in a breathtaking show of honesty. “So we have to do the show at the hotel. And if Mom and Dad find out about this, they will have us killed, first individually, and then as a group. I’m asking you to help us pull this off.”
“What will you give me?”
“I don’t have anything to give you. I’m just asking you to do it because we need you.”
Marlene ground her jaw a little before replying.
“You never ask me to do stuff with you,” she said, still clearly not believing that there wasn’t some catch.
“I know. But I want to change that, starting now. You can come with me, or you can go tell on us, whatever you want. The choice is yours. The door is unlocked.”
Marlene made no move except to turn back to the television. Scarlett’s stomach lurched, and she got up and went back to her room. Either Marlene was going to be lured in, or she had just destroyed the whole idea, and possibly Spencer’s life.
Not that he looked too worried. Neither of them did.
Spencer and Lola were sitting on the floor of the Orchid Suite. Scarlett’s clothes were everywhere, and Lola’s dresser drawers were pulled out. The dresser itself was leaning frighteningly to the left.
“It’s the anti Jenga,” Spencer explained. “You add things until it falls over.”
“We need to talk about the show,” Scarlett said.
“I told Lola. She knows.”
“I know,” Lola said, carefully shoving a handful of Scarlett’s underwear into the middle drawer. “That’s why dresser Jenga seemed okay. Today’s the day when things fall apart.”
“I never thought I’d be able to get her to do it!” Spencer said. His worry had made him giddy. “Oh, I can so top that. Watch…”
Spencer reached for Scarlett’s pajamas, but she snatched them out of his hand.
“You,” she said, pointing at him, “on my bed, now. Over there. And you…”
That was to Lola.
“…get on yours. I need you to listen.”
Like Mrs. Amberson, they were both so shocked at Scarlett’s sudden change in demeanor that they did as she said.
“This show is going to happen,” she said. “It’s ready. There are over fifty agents, writers, and producers coming to see it. All it needs is a place to exist for a few hours. Now, let me explain the whole thing before you interrupt. Our dining room fits a hundred people. Not well, but it does…”
Spencer raised his hand, like you would in class, but she ignored it.
“We can use half the room for seating, and half for performance,” she went on, thinking it through as she spoke. “You can have the entire rest of the hotel for a backstage. It’s empty, for a start.”
Spencer shook his hand impatiently.
“We can put the stage and the platforms on the far wall, under the windows. And with the sliding doors open between there and the lobby, there’s plenty of room for you to ride your unicycles around.”
Spencer couldn’t hold his thought in any longer.
“You may be right. We could probably fit. And it is nice. But—and I don’t think you’ll argue this point—if I said to Mom and Dad, can I bring home the entire cast of Hamlet and maybe do the show right here, tonight, with fighting and unicycles riding around on our nice, shiny floors…”
“They aren’t that shiny.”
“…they would look at me and laugh. Not a funny ha-ha laugh, either. It would be one of those laughs that you make when you’re really sad.”
“They’ll never allow it,” Lola said.
“Of course not,” Scarlett said. “We don’t tell them.”
Spencer and Lola looked at each other.
“We did this already,” he said. “In the basement? Remember how it didn’t work? Remember how we got caught? I think if we did it in the lobby, right in front of them, they might notice even more quickly.”
“They aren’t going to be here,” Scarlett said, quickly grabbing the side of Lola’s dresser as it suddenly realized that it was horribly off-balance.
“Where are they going to be?” Lola asked. “They never go anywhere.”
“They’re going to be on vacation,” Scarlett said, shoving one of her sneakers under the short leg.
Spencer was intrigued by this point.
“Vacation?” he said. “Where did you have in mind? Florida? The Alps? Grand Canyon?”
“Nope.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll bite. Where?”
She turned to Lola with a toothpastey smile all of her own.
“Remember how you owe me?” she asked.
The door to the Orchid Suite creaked open, and Marlene poked her head in.
“Oh, Mar…” Lola said. “Now isn’t…”
“I invited her,” Scarlett said.
Marlene proudly took a seat next to Lola. Spencer tried not to look alarmed by this turn of events, and failed miserably.
“This is a big favor,” Scarlett said. “And it involves both you, Lola, and you, Marlene. We need to get Mom and Dad out for a solid twelve hours or more. And the only way I can think to do that is to put them in or on something that they can’t get back from. Like a boat…”
“Chip has a boat,” Marlene said, catching on immediately. “He said he would take me on it.”
“The good ship Chipster,” Spencer said.
“You’re not serious,” Lola replied.
“You wouldn’t have to go,” Scarlett said.
“Well, why else would he take Marlene? And Mom and Dad for that matter?”
“She’s got a point,” Spencer said. “But you love boats, Lo!”
“I actually hate boats. They make me ill.”
“Love, hate…” Spencer said. “Interconnected emotions.”
“And you haven’t puked on a boat since you were twelve,” Scarlett added. “It was on the Circle Line.”
“I remember,” Lola said grimly.
“Chip has a nice boat. Fancy boat,” Spencer went on. “And he did promise Marlene a ride.”
“This is my ex-boyfriend we’re talking about,” she said.
“I know,” Scarlett said. “It’s asking a lot. I’m not asking you to get back together with him…”
“She’s definitely not asking that…” Spencer cut in.
“This is just asking him to take a little boat ride,” Scarlett finished.
“You mean you want me to use him.”
“Stop it,” Spencer said. “You’re making me love you more.”
“Look,” Lola said, squaring off to Spencer, “just because I broke up with him doesn’t mean you can still be mean.”
“Mean? When have I ever been mean?”
“You were always mean to him.
Do you know how scared he was of coming here?”
Spencer looked like he was going to swoon with joy on hearing this, but Lola had lost her earlier playfulness.
“I’m serious, Spencer,” Lola said. “It hurt me. It really did. All those things you said about him. The two of you always thought it was funny, but it wasn’t. I would never have said anything like that about someone you were dating, and you brought home some crazy ones.”
Obviously, Lola had been holding this in for a while, and it stunned all three of them when it came flooding out. It certainly shocked Scarlett, who was still in the middle of delivering her amazing plan. Marlene loyally squeezed in next to Lola and wrapped her arms around her waist.
“I think half the reason I broke up with him was because you guys hated him so much,” Lola said, sniffing a little. “Especially you, Spence. You never gave Chip a chance. I’ll bet if Scarlett went out with someone you didn’t like, you wouldn’t pick on him.”
Spencer looked down at his hands quickly.
“Don’t be so sure,” he said. “I think you’d be surprised.”
“I liked Chip,” Marlene said.
“I know you did, Mar. He liked you, too.”
Spencer looked to Scarlett nervously. He swung over to the side of the bed to face Lola.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t like him, but I never meant to make you feel bad. I didn’t think you were paying any attention.”
“Not paying attention?” she asked. “How could I not pay attention?”
“Because you think I’m an idiot,” he said, as if this was completely self-evident. “Seriously. I had no idea you cared at all about what I was saying.”
Lola was shaking her head, unable to comprehend what she was hearing.
“Spencer,” she said, “you’re my older brother.”
This simple statement landed on Spencer like a pile of lumber. Plus, all three of his younger sisters were staring at him.
“Oh,” he said.
He reached his hand over, but Lola preempted him and moved over to Scarlett’s bed, wrapping him in a hug.
“Why would you listen to me?” he asked, as he hugged her back.
Scarlett put her hands over her eyes. This was the second major emotional catharsis she had caused that afternoon—and all she was trying to do was get people to get themselves together enough to put on a show she wasn’t even in.
“Guys…” she said.
But Lola had earned her cry time. Marlene, moved by Lola’s distress, came over and joined the group, attaching herself to both Lola and Spencer. Spencer glanced up at Scarlett helplessly from over the human pile that had formed around him.
Scarlett began to pace. She accidentally knocked the sneaker out from under Lola’s leaning dresser, and it shifted swiftly. By the time she had it propped up again, Lola had regained control and was sitting up.
“So,” Lola said, wiping her eyes, “if you need help, I’ll do it. I’ll talk to Chip.”
“Okay,” Scarlett said, feeling more positive, “this is how it works. You guys set up the boat trip—make it long and make it far. The show takes a full three hours, plus at least an hour to clean up.”
“Longer than that,” Spencer said. “If we put up the stage, we’re talking two hours minimum.”
“Okay. So the show starts at seven, it’s over at ten. We need at least until midnight.”
“The ride to the boat basin takes about twenty minutes,” Lola said. “We can drag our heels getting off and getting to the car, I guess.”
“If you have to, make Chip say the boat stalled or something,” Scarlett said. “Keep it out there as long as you can.”
Lola sagged a bit. Spencer gave her a cheerful squeeze around the shoulders to hold her up.
“The part with Mom and Dad,” Scarlett said. “That’s up to you, Marlene. We need them both to go. We’ll tell them it’s like a mini vacation we set up for them, and that it really matters to you.”
“A mini vacation with Lola’s ex,” Spencer said. “Cozy. We’re going to need to do better than that.”
“I can get Mom and Dad to come,” Marlene said firmly. “What time are we supposed to go?”
“Ten in the morning,” Scarlett said, calculating based on her many hours of observation. “That gives us nine hours to get everybody in, and you guys can practice at least once. Does that sound possible, Spencer?”
“The whole thing sounds nuts, but nine hours—yeah, we could set up, reblock it, run it once. It won’t be smooth, but it’s possible.”
“Okay,” Scarlett said. “The first part is up to you, Lola.”
Lola rose unsteadily.
“I’ll do this,” she said, “but…”
This was to Spencer.
“No remarks about Chip. Ever.”
“I promise,” he said seriously. “No remarks about Chip, ever again. For life.”
Lola took her phone from the tipsy dresser and went out into the hall. Marlene followed to watch.
“I don’t know what just happened,” Spencer said. “I had no idea I upset her so much. You haven’t been listening to anything I say, right?”
“Of course not,” Scarlett replied. “I know way too much about you. Besides, I don’t want you to punch me.”
He shook his fist at her, then turned it on himself, knocking himself backward onto the bed.
“I’m going along with this, because the only other option is to do nothing at all,” he said from his flopped position. “But it’s never going to work.”
“It could work. And you were the one complaining that you never threw a party at home. Now’s your big chance.”
“True,” he said. “Might as well go out with a bang.”
Lola’s call was amazingly brief.
“It was almost like he was waiting by the phone,” she said. “He’ll do it. He’ll take us out on the boat whenever we like, for as long as we like. He’ll get some food brought on. We’ll have a picnic up the Hudson. Honestly, he picked up so fast, it barely rang once…”
This obviously stressed her out. She sat on the bed and twisted her hands together.
“All right,” Scarlett said. “It’s you now, Marlene. You have to convince Mom and Dad that you all need a family day out. Spencer and I won’t be going, so don’t stress the family togetherness thing too much.”
“This is easy,” Marlene said, cracking her knuckles.
Her confidence made Scarlett a little alarmed—but she was on board.
“I’ll go down with her,” Lola said. “To confirm the details.”
The two of them left—Marlene strutted, glad to be in the middle of it all, and Lola looked like part of the defeated army.
“Are we leaving my future with Marlene?” Spencer asked.
“Yes,” Scarlett replied. “We are.”
“I really want to see this now,” he said. “It’s like getting to find out how you’re going to die.”
THE PLAYERS ARRIVE
At ten the next morning, Scarlett waved off Lola, Marlene, and their parents…who had reluctantly accepted the offer of a day off. They were obviously wondering why Lola was willing to go on a day-long boat ride with her ex, but Marlene’s extremely skillful nagging did the trick. Plus, the prospect of a day in the sun and a catered picnic up the Hudson was appealing.
“You’re sure you don’t want to go?” her dad asked, as they got into the cab.
“Positive,” Scarlett said. “I’m just going to hang out. I have those school passes to the art museum. Spencer and I might go over later.”
Spencer had pretended to go to work that morning. In reality, he had long ago taken the day off. He was over at Trevor’s, helping to pack the props and stage components into a van.
Mrs. Amberson had been lingering down the block in a cab of her own. She pulled up as soon as the Martin family cab drove away.
“O’Hara,” she cried, stepping out. She was dressed in her dancer clothes again, and carried a small suitcase. �
��What a gorgeous day for a subterfuge. Though, it does look like it might rain a bit later. Perfect for Denmark! I was up all last night talking to Donna—so much to catch up on. Visits to other old friends to plan.”
“You mean Rick.”
“I do,” Mrs. Amberson said. “You’re always very quick with these things, O’Hara. But that is not a matter for today. Today, we do a show!”
At ten-thirty, they all began to arrive. Paulette and Leroy came first, squabbling about one of Hamlet’s cues. They dribbled in over the next half hour, filling the lobby with their many bags of costumes and supplies. Eric was one of the last to arrive, having come with the group in the van with most of the stage components and props. Scarlett herded them into the dining room, where Mrs. Amberson had taken position near the windows.
“Right!” She clapped her hands loudly. “We don’t have a lot of time, so this is how it’s going to go. Scarlett is in charge.”
Scarlett looked down to see fifteen faces looking up at her, ready to take direction. Fifteen actors and theater people, when she herself had no real experience, no real idea what she was doing. Which meant that the only choice was just to start talking.
“It’ll be easiest to use the second floor for your changing rooms, because it’s closer. There are two good rooms there—the Metro and Sterling Suites…”
“Do not use the bathroom in the Sterling Suite,” Spencer said. “Seriously. Don’t even look at it.”
“You have two ways of getting down, either the elevator, which is really slow, or the back stairs. For your backstage, to keep your swords and stuff, the kitchen is over here.”
She led the group over and pushed open the door, revealing the cavernous space and its many antique appliances.
“We can take all of these tables to the basement, and the chairs are for the audience, obviously. So, I guess the first thing is to clear this room.”
They didn’t move.
“You heard her!” Mrs. Amberson said. “Let’s get these tables out of here.”
It took all day, even with everyone working at once.
First the carrying of all the tables—out of the dining room, through the lobby, down the steps. Then the van was unloaded, and all of the contents spread around. There was just so much. The stage was made of a dozen or so small platforms, each one only a few feet square, plus the supports that held them together. It took ten people to assemble. In the meantime, Scarlett carried all the bags and costume pieces up to the second floor and set up one room for girls, the other for guys. Scarlett kept passing Mrs. Amberson in the hall. She was ducking in and out of the various guest rooms and spiriting away objects.
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