Isadora Moon Goes to the Ballet

by Harriet Muncaster

  “It’s Isadora’s dad!” screamed the class, all standing up in the train car and pointing at him. “Look!”

  Mom sighed in relief. “Thank sugarplum fairies for that!”

  “Oh my goodness!” said Miss Cherry with her hands clasped. “That can’t be safe!”

  “Don’t worry,” said Mom, leaning over and patting Miss Cherry in a comforting way. “My husband is a very talented flier.”

  Dad continued to fly alongside the train until we stopped at the next station. Then he stepped into the train and flopped down onto one of the seats.

  “Phew!” he said. “That’s my daily exercise completed!”

  The class all cheered, and Miss Cherry gave a frazzled smile.

  When we got to the theater, I held on to Pink Rabbit’s paw tightly. The entrance was very crowded. It made me feel all hot and prickly. So many people were jostling around, and it was very noisy. We had to wait in a line for a long time.

  “Oh goodness!” said Mom, who is not used to being in small, crowded spaces. She waved her wand so that a cool gust of air billowed around us.

  Dad was busy looking at the posters of ballet dancers on the walls.

  “Don’t the men look nice?” he said, impressed. “They are almost as well dressed as a vampire. That one even has a cape!”

  “Everyone must stay together,” called Miss Cherry, getting out her class list again.

  “I want to buy candy,” said Bruno, pointing at a stand.

  “Me too!” said Oliver. “My mom gave me some money for food!”

  Once Miss Cherry had taken roll again, we all scrambled toward the concession stand. Mom gave me money to buy chocolate stars, which are my favorite human treats. Zoe bought some sour candy with her money.

  “I think I will have some strawberry laces,” announced Dad. “They are the next-best thing to red juice.”

  Once we had all got our snacks, we followed Miss Cherry up some stairs and through a dark little door.

  “Welcome to the theater!” she said.

  I felt my mouth drop open in amazement. We were in a huge, glittering auditorium. There were rows of velvet seats stretching all the way to the back and all the way up to the ceiling. At the front of the massive hall was a stage with a curtain across the front. Everything looked very fancy.

  Miss Cherry led us toward a row of seats in the middle of the theater, and we all sat down.

  “I can’t wait to see the ballet dancers!” said Zoe.

  “Me too,” I said, popping a chocolate star into my mouth. “I especially can’t wait to see Tatiana Tutu! Neither can Pink Rabbit.” I reached out to lift him onto my lap so he could see the stage…but I didn’t feel any squishy pink paws….

  I looked down.

  Nothing.

  My whole body went cold, and my skin started to prickle.

  “Um,” I said, putting the bag of chocolate stars down and suddenly feeling very sick. “Where’s Pink Rabbit?”

  Zoe frowned. “Isn’t he here?” she asked. “You had him just before we bought our snacks.”

  “I was holding his paw!” I said in a panic. “I must have let go of him when I was choosing the chocolate stars! He probably got lost in the crowd!” I stood up from my chair.

  “I have to go and find him,” I said to Zoe. “Poor Pink Rabbit will be so scared.”

  I quickly made my way along the row toward Mom and the door that led back to the entrance.

  “Where are you going?” asked Miss Cherry as I approached. “Isadora, sit down, please. The show is going to start in a minute.”

  “I need to talk to my mom,” I said, hurrying past her. “It’s an emergency!”

  “What is it?” asked Mom when I finally reached her.

  “It’s Pink Rabbit!” I said in a panicked voice. “He’s gone!”

  “Gone!” said Mom worriedly. “What do you mean?” She stood up and took my hand. Together we made our way out of the auditorium.

  The entrance seemed very bright compared to the low light of the theater hall. It was quite empty now that most people had gone inside to find their seats. Mom and I looked all over for Pink Rabbit, but we didn’t see him anywhere. He wasn’t by the concession stand or by the bathrooms or by the counter where you hand in your ticket….

  Where could he be?

  We paced around and around the theater entrance, but he was nowhere to be seen.

  “Pink Rabbit!” I called frantically. “Pink Rabbit, where are you?”

  “Maybe he’s outside,” suggested Mom. “Let’s have a look.”

  We made our way out the theater doors, but my eyes were all blurry with tears and I couldn’t see where I was going.

  “Sit down a minute,” said Mom, giving me a hug. “Don’t worry, Isadora. We’ll find him. He couldn’t have gone far.” Together we sat down on the outdoor steps and breathed in the cold winter air. Mom wiped my eyes with a pink fairy tissue that puffed sparkling dust all over my face.

  “Oops,” she said, “wrong tissue.”

  As we sat there, I noticed a small door a few feet down from the main theater entrance. Above it was a sign:

  I felt my hopes start to rise again.

  “Mom, look!” I said, pointing. “Do you think that’s where Pink Rabbit has gone?”

  Mom looked doubtful.

  “It’s unlikely,” she said. “That’s the place where the actors and dancers go to get ready for the show. I don’t see how Pink Rabbit could have got inside.”

  “Maybe he was pulled in with one of the dancers,” I said hopefully. “I think we should check, just to be sure.”

  “Okay,” said Mom.

  Together we flew to the door and pushed it open. It wasn’t locked, but there was a man sitting at a desk just inside.

  “Hey!” he said. “You can’t come in here. This entrance is for performers only.”

  “Oh dear,” said Mom, getting flustered. “Well, it’s just that…well, he’s a pink rabbit, you see….He’s very special, and he’s only very little….”

  As Mom made up a long story about Pink Rabbit, I slipped quietly past the desk and into the room behind.

  Unlike the theater hall, where the audience goes, this was not grand at all. Ahead was a long gray hallway with lots of doors on either side. Some of the doors had names on them, but I didn’t stop to look. I tiptoed silently past them all, past a rack of tutus and a box of used ballet shoes, down to the end of the hall, where I turned a corner…

  And there was Pink Rabbit!

  Pink Rabbit was standing alone in the middle of the hallway and looking very lost.

  “Oh, Pink Rabbit!” I said, scooping him up into my arms and giving him an enormous hug. “I thought you had disappeared forever! What happened? Did you get confused and follow the wrong people?”

  Pink Rabbit nodded and nuzzled into my neck.

  “Thank goodness I found you!” I said, putting him down. “We should get back to our seats now. We don’t want to miss the show!”

  We started walking back down the hall-way, Pink Rabbit holding my hand, when a sudden sniffling noise made us stop. It was coming from behind the nearest door, the one with a big silver star, and it sounded very sad.

  “Oh dear,” I whispered to Pink Rabbit. “What should we do?”

  Pink Rabbit pointed toward the exit with his squishy pink paw, but I shook my head.

  “We can’t just leave,” I whispered. “Not if someone is upset. That’s not a very kind thing to do. We should see if we can help.”

  Pink Rabbit bounced back in alarm.

  “Come on,” I said to him. “Let’s be brave.”

  I lifted my hand and knocked on the door. The sniffling sound from inside stopped immediately. After a minute or so, the door opened and a beautiful lady peeked out. I could only see her eyes, but they were covered in silver glitter, and she had on a pair of false eyelashes.

  “Hello?” she sniffed.

  “Hello,” I said in a small voice, suddenly feeling very shy.
“We just wondered…if you…if you were all right?”

  The lady gave a watery smile and blinked her huge eyelashes. Then she opened the door wider so we could see more of her. She had a pair of white bunny ears on her head and was wearing a white leotard with a black velvet waistcoat. She was also balancing on one leg.

  “The White Rabbit!” I gasped. “Tatiana Tutu! It’s you!”

  “It is,” she said. “I am Tatiana Tutu. But who are you?”

  “I’m Isadora Moon,” I told her. “And this is Pink Rabbit.”

  Pink Rabbit put his paws behind his back and puffed out his chest importantly. Tatiana Tutu looked at him with interest for a moment, and then she opened the door all the way.

  “Please, come in,” she said.

  Pink Rabbit and I slipped inside the room, and Tatiana Tutu closed the door behind us. I looked around and gasped in wonder.

  The room was dazzling. There was a big mirror on the wall, with bright lightbulbs set around it, and from the ceiling hung rows of sparkling tutus. On Tatiana Tutu’s dressing table was the famous star diamond tiara.

  “Wow,” I breathed, staring at it. “It’s so pretty.”

  “You can try it on if you’d like,” said Tatiana Tutu, picking the tiara up and putting it on my head. I gazed into the mirror and turned from side to side, watching the diamonds flash and twinkle in the light. My smile grew wider and wider.

  “It looks good on you!” Tatiana Tutu said with a laugh. Then her face took on a more serious expression, and I remembered why we were here. I took the tiara off and laid it carefully on the dressing table.

  “Why were you crying?” I asked her.

  Tatiana Tutu sighed and looked sad.

  “I hurt my leg,” she explained, pointing at the one she was holding up in the air. “I tripped on the way to the theater. I thought it was going to be all right, but it’s hurting very badly. I’m not sure I can dance on it tonight, and there’s no time to get a replacement dancer now. The show will have to be canceled.”

  “What?” I gasped.

  “Yes.” Tatiana Tutu nodded, a tear trickling down her cheek. “And it’s all my fault. I let everyone down.”

  “Oh no!” I said. “You can’t help that you tripped. I trip over things all the time! Is there no other way the show can go on?”

  “Not really,” said Tatiana Tutu. “You can’t have Alice in Wonderland without the White Rabbit, can you?”

  “I suppose not,” I said sadly.

  “The other dancers are disappointed,” continued Tatiana Tutu. “That’s why it’s so quiet backstage right now. Usually everyone’s hustling and bustling around and looking forward to the show. But now it’s like a ghost town!”

  I nodded, and Tatiana Tutu looked at the clock on her dressing-room wall.

  “The show should have started by now,” she said. “The stage director will have to go out very soon and announce that it’s canceled.” She wiped a tear from her glittery eye and sniffed.

  “Oh dear,” I said. “I wish I could think of something that would help.”

  Pink Rabbit bounced up and down next to me and waved his paws in the air. Tatiana Tutu and I both turned to look at him. He did grand jetés across the room and then a perfect pirouette. He pointed his toes just like a real ballet dancer. Then he gave a deep bow.

  “Oh,” I said. “Wait a minute! I think I have an idea….”

  Zoe stared worriedly at me when Mom and I got back to our seats in the theater.

  “You didn’t find him?” she said. “Where’s Pink Rabbit?”

  “It’s all right,” I told her as I sat down in my chair. “I did find him but…he’s busy.”

  “Busy?” said Zoe. “What do you mean?”

  “It’s a surprise!” I said. “You’ll find out really soon!”

  Zoe looked confused, but she didn’t ask any more questions. “Okay…,” she said suspiciously.

  We chatted quietly for a while longer. Then the lights in the theater went down and a great hush fell over the audience. The orchestra started to play, and the big velvet curtain began to rise. Zoe and I breathed out in wonderment. The stage didn’t look like a stage but a beautiful garden. In the middle was a tree with frothy pink cherry blossoms all over it. The ballet dancer playing the part of Alice was sitting on one of the branches. She was wearing a white tutu with a black headband in her pale blond hair. Everything shone and sparkled, and the cherry blossom petals rained down from the tree. The music suddenly got faster, and the White Rabbit leapt on from stage left.

  Except it wasn’t a white rabbit….

  It was a little pink rabbit! My Pink Rabbit!

  He looked very small up there on the stage, and I suddenly felt very nervous for him. But I also felt extremely proud.

  Pink Rabbit tiptoed across the stage in his striped waistcoat. He was holding a pocket watch in his paw and looking at it as he leapt along.

  “I’M LATE, I’M LATE, I’M LATE!” the music seemed to say.

  Pink Rabbit bounced and bounded past the cherry blossom tree, and the dancer playing Alice jumped down and followed him. Together they danced around the pretend garden, twirling and soaring among the cherry blossom petals.

  “Isadora,” whispered Zoe. “Is that…is that—?”

  “Pink Rabbit!” I whispered back. “Yes!”

  “Wow!” breathed Zoe. “He’s amazing!”

  We watched as Pink Rabbit did a spin and then disappeared down a pretend hole in the stage. Alice followed him, and everything on the stage began to change. The tree vanished, and the walls and floor became a black-and-white checkerboard. Suddenly, Pink Rabbit and Alice were falling down from the ceiling on strings. Pink Rabbit didn’t look scared at all. He is used to flying through the air with me! He reached the ground and then elegantly danced off the stage, still glancing at the pocket watch.

  The show continued, and we watched as the stage was transformed again and again. There was a magical forest with a giant caterpillar, and a garden of dazzling colorful flowers who all danced across the stage with Alice. There was a tea party and a mad hatter and a glittering pink-striped cat with a huge grin. And, of course, there was Pink Rabbit! He came dancing onto the stage often, twirling and swirling and leaping and bounding.

  “That was magical!” said Zoe when the curtain came down to show it was time for the intermission.

  “It was!” I agreed.

  The audience started to chatter, and people all around us began standing up to go to the restroom and to get refreshments.

  “Did you see that little pink rabbit?” I heard one man say behind me. “He was spectacular, wasn’t he?”

  “Yes,” said another man. “I don’t know how they made him so small. It was like magic!”

  “He was an excellent dancer,” said someone else. “The star of the show!”

  “And so original that he was pink,” said a lady nearby. “Usually the Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland is white!”

  I felt my mouth widen into a huge smile. Pink Rabbit had been spectacular, and I was so proud.

  Mom and Dad and all my friends began to gather around me then.

  “Isadora,” Dad said, “was that really Pink Rabbit on the stage?”

  “What was he doing there?” asked Bruno.

  “Yes, Isadora, how did it happen?” said Sashi.

  I tried my best to explain everything before the end of the intermission. I was so busy explaining that I didn’t even get to eat the strawberry ice cream that Miss Cherry had handed out to everyone.

  “Wow!” said all my friends.

  “Good for Pink Rabbit!” said Dad.

  “I always knew he had talent,” said Mom.

  I looked around at them all and beamed.

  The second half of the show was shorter. We watched as the stage was transformed into more magical wonderlands. Alice, Pink Rabbit, and the other characters danced through them, glittering and whirling in their brightly colored costumes.

  At the end of the sh
ow, all the dancers came onto the stage. They bowed together, and the audience clapped and cheered. Then Alice made a curtsy, and the audience clapped and cheered some more. I noticed one of the dancers push Pink Rabbit gently to the front of the stage. He took his own bow. Suddenly, the audience members were on their feet, stamping and whooping and cheering.

  Mom waved her wand, and a bouquet of roses exploded in the air and fell down around Pink Rabbit.

  “Fantastic!” yelled the audience. “He was magical!”

  Pink Rabbit puffed out his chest, and I could tell he was extremely happy. He was pinker than ever!

  Once the thick velvet curtain was lowered, the lights came back on in the theater. Everyone stood up to go home.

  “We need to wait for Pink Rabbit,” I said to Miss Cherry.

  “Of course,” she said.

  We had to wait a long time before Pink Rabbit appeared from backstage with a limping Tatiana Tutu.

  “I’m sorry we took so long,” said Tatiana. “Everyone wanted Pink Rabbit’s autograph!” She smiled down at him. “He was terrific!” she said. “The star of the show! We are so grateful to him. And also to you, Isadora, for lending him to us!”

  She held out a box. It was wrapped in shiny paper and tied with a ribbon.

  “It’s a present for you, to say thank you,” she explained. “You and Pink Rabbit really saved the day!”

  “Thank you!” I said, blushing.