by Shawn Keys
He noticed an odd pattern of shadows being formed across the top half of the curtain. Turning in his seat, he peered up through the low-light of the upper balconies to the lighting booth. The array of colored stage lights was dancing fitfully back and forth. An animated discussion was happening between three different people in the booth; none of them looked pleased.
Rick said, “Huh. Looks like they have a sequencing problem with the lights. The computers aren’t talking to the lights’ timing switches.”
Mike followed his gaze. “Ouch. Doesn’t sound like an easy fix. Still, looks like they have their experts on it.”
Rick shrugged. “Maybe. But sometimes these small budget productions don’t have the money to hire MIT graduates or anything. Some freelancers are amazing, but you often get what you can pay for.”
“So?”
“So, maybe I could offer to take a look at it.” He chuckled. “I’m looking for a job now, remember? This could be my new gig.”
“I don’t know, Rick. They have their own problems. They probably don’t want to deal with two idiots nosing around their business.”
His friend nearly talked Rick out of it. But then something occurred to him. He said, “Tell you what, if I’m wrong, I’ll stop with you at Grayson’s and buy you a whole tub of that French vanilla ice cream you like so much. But helping people out has been working pretty well for me today. Let’s go see what we can do.”
Rolling his eyes, Mike answered, “Fine. Fine. I was out of ice cream anyway.” The two of them got to their feet, leaving their seats and heading out into the second-floor lobby. They rounded the stairs and went up to the third level which served as the entrance to the second-tier balcony and provided access to the lighting booth and the other back-stage production facilities necessary at the rear-end of the theater.
Rick approached the burly security guard standing at the door, arms folded, looking bored but stern enough that he meant business. “Evening, Sir. I was wondering –”
The guard’s right eyebrow rose, and didn’t wait to hear the end. “– Back to your seat, Sir. Please.”
Before Rick could gather himself for another try, a guy in a plaid shirt and a badge that read ‘sound engineer’ bustled past. He flashed his pass at the guard and pushed open the door. Right on the other side, there was a small knot of arguing people. They blocked the engineer from going much further. He stood patiently, propping the door open.
Meanwhile, Rick dive into his next effort at getting in. “I know you have a job to do… Steve.” He read the guy’s nametag. “But I’m a computer engineer, and I’ve done work on lighting before in the past.”
Mike whispered, “You have?”
Shushing him, Rick decided his help stringing up theater lights for his high-school drama company could count, even if it had nothing to do with computers at the time. Letting the white lie stand, Rick insisted, “Really, I might be able to get things back on track.”
The security guard had heard enough. He leaned in, about to deliver a firm ‘go away’.
That was when the knot of people inside the door broke apart a little. One of their members, a twenty-something woman with an opal shaped face and dark-rosewood skin leaned out the door. “Are you serious? You could help?”
Mike gave a quick intake of breath, and Rick understood why. He woman was intense; that came across within a second of seeing her. Her dark eyes took hold and wouldn’t let you go. She was dressed for opening night, with a white satin dress that hugged her hourglass shape and contrasted beautifully with her lustrously dark skin which was smooth as polished ebony. A slash down her breast-bone showed off the inner curve of her breasts. Her hair was cut impishly short, styled in a flirty wave with long bangs framing her face.
Another woman, this one with frizzy blonde hair, a frantic expression and a fuzzy sweater interrupted with an exasperated sigh, “Oh come on, Lia. We need to call for professional help!”
Lia, as the first woman had been called, answered quickly, “I agreed with you! Make the call. But you know anyone is at least an hour away. This is Black Friday! Half the city is on vacation. You’re the director, Kris. I trust that you know some good people. But we need help immediately. I’d take anyone with about now!”
Another from the knot was a bearded man with a thick neck dressed in a decent suit. He was a little red in the face, grumpy and irritated. “Kent and Bill might still figure this out. I’m your production manager. I hired you some good people. They’ll get it done.”
Lia faced him next. “Those good people have been working on this for three hours. I appreciate all their hard work, but are you telling me a fresh set of eyes can’t help, Chuck?”
Chuck scowled. “Of course, I can’t say that.”
Lia insisted, “Then let’s try whatever we can! We’re less than fifteen minutes from curtain time, and we’re going to weigh egos? Kris, call your people. They might have a miracle for you. Chuck, I’m sorry, but unless you tell me I’m going to somehow void Kent and Bill’s contracts by letting this gentleman in to take a look, then I’m going to take him up to the booth.”
Kris threw up her hands and marched away, muttering to herself.
Chuck scowled even deeper. “He could screw things up even worse. You know that, right?”
Rick jumped in, “I promise, I won’t touch anything unless I know it can help.”
Chuck shifted his scowl to him. “I think you’re writing cheques your body can’t cash.”
Lia hushed him. “Oh, enough.” She waved at Rick and Mike. “Come on, you two.”
Mike held up his hands defensively, “Oh no. Not me. I’m not getting into the middle of this. I don’t have the right sort of skills. All I’m going to do is fall over the rail because too many people are in that tiny booth. I’ll head back to the seats and keep them warm. Take it easy. Play nice with the others, Richard.” He used the full name to catch Rick’s attention. His eyes were demanding Rick promise not to do or say anything he’d regret.
Rick nodded. He knew he was the outsider. He would step lightly.
Mike nodded back, accepting the promise for what it was. He drifted away toward the concessions stand to grab a beer. He looked like he was going to need it before this was all over.
Rick exhaled heavily. I probably will, too. He turned back to Lia. “Show me where I’m going?”
She nodded briskly, that same intensity hovering around her. “This way.”
Rick spared a final smile for Steve, the guard.
Steve glowered back, as if to tell him not to push it.
Slipping past before he got himself in real trouble, Rick caught up to Lia. “Alright, so Kris is the director and Chuck is the production manager. May I ask how you are caught up in all this?”
Lia gestured around her, “You could call this my brain child, I guess. I wrote the screen play and then campaigned to get enough sponsors to put the show together. I wasn’t even supposed to be backstage tonight. I’m supposed to be in my seat out in the audience watching the love of my life come into being!” Her frustration boiled over a little. Once she had the chance to vent, she calmed down and glanced at him sheepishly. “Sorry ‘bout that.”
Waving off her concern, Rick said, “No apologies. I get it. I mean, maybe I don’t. Not sure I’ve ever felt like that about anything I’ve created. But you’ve probably earned a few rants.”
A hopeful glimmer broke through her frustration. “Do you really think you can do anything about this?”
Not about to give her false hope, Rick answered, “Up until very recently, I was a computer and technical troubleshooter over at Sally North. My job was to trace gremlins in systems connected to networks. I have the skills. But Kris was right. My lack of familiarity with this system might stop me cold.”
She nodded, understanding his concerns. “I’m just thrilled you’re willing to try. Come up these steps, and I’ll introduce you to Kent and Bill. They really are quite good at what they do. But they’re straight ou
t of college. What they have in brains, they lack in experience.” She smiled. “Just like me. That’s why I’m not holding it against them.”
“I’ll make sure there are no hard feelings. If they are really stumped, they’ll be cool with having a bit of new blood on the project. We techies have to stick together.” He nodded encouragingly. “Lead me to it.”
* * *
Rick’s day had come full circle. He was tucked into a cabinet again, sorting through a tangle of wires, attempting to track down the one little piss-ant element that had decided not to play nicely with the rest of them. For most people, it was a blizzard of cabling that would defy explanation. But for those in the know, it was like a puzzle. There was a method to it. You started with the corners, framed the edges, attacked the pieces of the picture that were easy to make out, then fill in the rest of it until the whole image made sense. If you did puzzles long enough, you developed a knack for them. Same with crossword puzzles. Same with puzzle cubes.
This was no different.
“There you are, you naughty little devil,” he whispered, more to himself than anyone.
But the small booth carried the sound.
Kent called out, “You found something?”
“Holy crap!” Bill sounded both shocked and elated at the same time.
Much as Rick had expected, the two young kids were more than happy to have another troubleshooter join the effort. He suspected this was their first paying gig. Trashing a whole performance and costing the producers the money of a professional diagnostician was not going to look good on their resumes going forward.
Rick produced the two wire endings he had just unplugged. “Meet channel 35 and 36, gentlemen. Your port map was decent, but see these labels?” He showed them both at the same time. The ‘6’ on the latter was smudged. They both looked like ‘35’ was penciled on them. “I’m sure you can both guess where this went from here.”
Both technicians swore under their breath.
Rick nodded. “Exactly. Not enough to trash the system or blow anything up, but all the sequences would be thrown off while giving no error codes.” He plugged them both in and gave them a huge smile “On with the show, guys.”
A celebration followed, consisting mostly of cheers and a few ‘now we get to keep our jobs!’ sort of exclamations. Bill took off to tell the right people that they had green lights for the curtain, while Kent started resetting everything to its starting position so they could be ready.
Clapping the younger man on the back, Rick emerged out into the corridor and into the general commotion of a celebration going on there as well. Kris saw him and half-smothered him with a frantic hug, forgetting all about her previous disbelief in him. Then, she dashed off to get her actors and actresses ready to go. Chuck was checking his watch and calculating, “We could get things going in five… no, six minutes maximum. That’s only ten minutes late. That’s nothing by show business standards! Come on people, let’s go!” He stomped off, not pausing to rescind his previous criticisms.
Lia swooped in on him. “I… I can’t believe it! You did it! You’re my hero!” It was her turn to fold a hug around him, this one lasting far longer and far more pleasant. Her perfume enveloped him in this small space, a sensual sandalwood mingled with a bite of spice. Drawing back, the writer had to ask, “Where did you come from? I mean, how did fate decide to send you to my show?”
Rick shrugged, “I was actually given the tickets by someone who knows someone in the show. Just the way it worked out.”
“What did you do? It was solved so quickly!”
Rick shrugged. “Nothing but a couple of swapped wires. Some of the hardest problems have the simplest solutions. They are hard to track down. There’s a reason why every tech support person asks their customers to turn the power on and off. Next, they wiggle the wires. Fortunately, I found the right answer on step two.”
“That can’t be the whole story! Stop being modest!”
Not wanting to slag the other two technicians, who really had been doing all the right things but got hit with a bit of bad luck, Rick held up a stalling hand and fell back on a little charm. “You’ll never make me talk! A magician never reveals his secrets.”
For the first time, all the stress melted off Lia’s features. She was already attractive, but the reduced tension allowed her inner light to shine a little stronger. Her natural grace returned. She might be the writer, but Rick wondered if she wasn’t an actress herself in the past. Lia embraced his joke, poking him in the shoulder and taking on an accent that would suit a Bond villain. “Vee ‘ave vays of making you talk!”
A wicked thought flashed though his brain. I’d like to see a few of those ways. Yeah, that wasn’t the sort of thing he could dare to say out loud. Instead, he insisted with a smile, “You’re the one with a show to go watch. I have all the time in the world to resist your evil ways.”
Lia tapped a finger on her chin, pouting a little in defeat. “Fair enough. How do you feel about giving me a little longer to grill it out of you?”
That sounded suspiciously like an offer for a date, to Rick. Holy crap! Trying to keep even a small bit of his cool, he asked, “What did you have in mind? A drink after the show?” That would be the crowning moment on a day destined for the history books of his life.
Unfortunately, she dashed those hopes a little. “I would love to. But we have a cast party planned tonight. But I’m not letting you get away for too long. I’m having brunch with some friends early tomorrow, and I’m going to attend the afternoon showing here. But around 7 tomorrow evening, my friends and I are having a bit of a get-together. Call it a late Thanksgiving. We’ve all been so crazy, none of us had the chance to kick back and have a little turkey and wine on Thursday. We’re going to make up for lost time. One of my friends is hosting at her place. She is quite the cook and will put on quite a spread. I know you’ve probably already celebrated, but how do you feel about another chance to over-indulge?”
Rick was sorely tempted. “Actually, my friends and I had a quiet night. Our entire meal came out of a can. We had a lot of fun screwing it up together, but I wouldn’t call it having a really fine meal.”
“Well, how daring are you feeling? Because I could use a date. But it might feel like walking into the lion’s den right off the mark.”
Rick mimed a whistle. “Wow. Meeting all your friends while they watch me stuff my face. I don’t know if this is setting up a great first impression.”
“Family too. Two of my cousins will be there. Both are very judgmental.”
Rick chuckled. “You are really selling this.”
Lia gave a final laugh, then got a little more serious. “This next week is going to be crazy. We’re going to have three shows a night and we don’t do an ‘off’ night until Thursday. How could I wait that long to buy you a drink and say thank you? Not acceptable.”
Amused by her playful attitude and flirtation around it all, Rick pretended to think it over. Then, he came to the ‘grudging’ conclusion, “Guess there isn’t any real choice then, is there? I’ll have to come over and embarrass you with how much food I’m going to cram in my mouth. I mean, I wish there was something I could do about that. But it’s out of my hands. Thanksgiving food has that effect on me.”
Lia’s lips rewarded his over-acting with a delightful little grin, then swayed forward into his personal space. She leaned in and placed a quiet kiss on his mouth. It wasn’t long, but sensual enough to make Rick’s heart race. Leaning back again, Lia said with a full measure of her quiet yet powerful intensity, “I really do wish I could be around you tonight. But tomorrow will have to do.” She gave him one more intent look. “I can already hear your friends trying to talk you out of this insanity. Don’t let them. Pick me up at 6?”
Rick laughed. “You don’t know my friends. They’ll be kissing the ground you walk on for dragging me out of my normal rut. You might say I’ve had far too little charming companions hanging around lately.” He pushed back the
humor and said more sincerely. “For a chance to spend a few hours with you? I’d risk a lot more than a little conversation with some strangers. I’ll be there. Wouldn’t miss it.”
Lia’s smile never faded. “Well, alright then.”
Somewhere in the background, a musical number started. The band swelled to life with an enthusiasm that comes from doing something they had practiced a hundred times, but now for the first time in front of a real audience.
Rick took the hint. “That’s your cue.”
Lia nodded. Floating nervously after the risk they had both taken, she gave him one last wave, turned and swept away.
Rick stood there shaking his head. Sure. Why not? I mean… there was no way this day was going to end normally.
Shaking off the daze, he meandered back toward his seat, wondering how the hell he was going to explain what happened to Mike and… later on… his other friends. Maybe I should cut myself a break and just keep this to myself.
After all, who would believe me?
And then… came Saturday
Chapter 6:
Over Brunch
Sasha Wilson brought her knife over to her water glass and rapped it with a quick ting ting ting on the edge. “We need a toast!”
Yukiko smirked. “For who?”
Sasha knew what her friend meant. “OK, OK, so we might need a few toasts. But I’m not going to toast myself, and we always knew Lia’s play was going to get rave reviews. But there’s no telling how judges on a reality TV show are going to jump to fend off the ratings monster. As such, first toast goes to Elenia, the latest contestant on Conquer the Kitchen! Wooo!” She raised her raspberry mimosa in a salute across the brunch table.