Life on the Naughty List, or What the Elf!

18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

T he rest of Wednesday flew by in a flash. Serafina read McKenna’s lines to keep the show moving forward. Even in a case when someone gets injured, show people don’t have time to stop and take stock of anything. By the time I got home that evening, I was physically and emotionally exhausted. Before I went into my place, I walked next door and knocked on Kirk and Carissra’s door. I heard shuffling inside before the door opened.

“Oh, hey, Erika,” Kirk said. He was wearing a red apron with a cartoon turkey with a speech bubble that read, ‘ They stuff what where…Oh, hell no!’ I laughed when I read it. Kirk smiled knowingly.

“Love that,” I said. “I needed a laugh today.”

“Uh-oh, what happened?”

“I won’t bore you with the details of my crazy life. I came by to talk logistics about tomorrow.”

“From what I can tell, nothing about your life is ever boring. And right now, I’m getting ready for tomorrow. So, come on in and have a glass of wine.”

“I don’t want to bother—“

“Not a bother at all. It’s boring cooking in here all by myself.”

“Where’s Carissra?”

“She’s over in the other tower at a friend’s house.”

“I’m glad she’s making friends in the building.”

“Me too.” Kirk opened the door a little wider and gestured for me to come inside. I hesitated for a second but took him up on his offer. I walked in, and he ushered me to the other side of the kitchen. There was a window with a ledge separating the kitchen from the dining room area. “Hope you don’t mind red.”

“Not at all. I’m pretty open with my wine preferences.” He pulled a red wine glass from a cabinet before popping the cork off an already-opened bottle. He poured the glass and sat it in front of me.

“It’s an Australian Shiraz,” Kirk said. “Beyond that, I can’t tell you anything else about it. I know if you swirl the glass, you can see if the wine has ‘legs.’”

Just for the fun of it, I swirled the glass and watched as the residue of the wine clung to the top part of the glass as it slowly slid down. “Nice.”

“So, tell me about your day. In the immortal words from Charlie Brown, ‘Psychiatric Help, Five Cents.’”

“Wow, you’re definitely cheaper than my therapist,” I joked, making a mental note to call and schedule an appointment. I clearly had a lot to work through from the past few weeks. I spent the next forty minutes detailing the craziness that started on Monday and ran through this morning.

Kirk looked at me and patted me on the shoulder before saying, “Whoa…you’ve had a couple of…days, haven’t you?”

“That’s one way to put it,” I said, nudging him with my shoulder. “At one point, my life wasn’t this crazy or full of drama, but geez.”

“Well, I guess drama does come with the whole theater thing. Doesn’t it?” Kirk asked.

“Oh, theater people are definitely larger-than-life characters, but this has been crazy for even my regular drama-riddled life.”

We sat there for a moment, just holding each other’s gaze. God, he has beautiful eyes .

There was a sudden sound at the front door as it opened, and Carissra wheeled herself inside. “I’m home,” she started to yell but then saw Kirk was in the kitchen.

“Oh hey, sorry I’m later than I said I would be. I got caught up in a video game I was playing.”

“Not a problem. Honestly, I hadn’t noticed.” Kirk gestured toward me, but I doubted Carissra could see me from where she sat. “I’ve been catching up with Erika.”

“Hi, Erika,” Carissra said as she wheeled herself past the kitchen to where she could see me. She looked at the glass of wine in front of me and asked, “More drama at work or more man troubles?”

“Wow…” I said, squeezing my face together in shock. “You don’t mince words.”

“Hey, I calls them likes I sees them,” she said with a smile. “From my vantage point, there’s no reason to beat around the bush.”

“Well, to answer your question, I guess it’s a bit of both, but I won’t bore you with the details. Kirk has already been my therapist for the night. Besides, I don’t want to trouble a teenager with my drama.”

“Whatever,” Carissra said, rolling her eyes dramatically. “I may be a teenager, but I’m quite perceptive.”

“That she is,” Kirk said. “She never lets me get away with anything.”

“So,” I said, looking between them, “We should discuss tomorrow. Like I told your uncle, you can either take the bus or meet us there. I have your passes here.” I reached into my purse and pulled out two laminated passes that hung on lanyards. “These will get you into the VIP area. I’ve been assured that once you’re there, finding accommodating seating won’t be a problem.”

“Will you get to join us?” Kirk asked.

“Once my part is over, I will hang out with you. I’ll warn you, though. Right after the parade ends, Midtown is crazy. In all honesty, it might be easier to walk home at that point. But again, let me know what’s easiest for you.”

“I think we’ll stick with you…if you don’t mind?” Kirk asked.

“I wouldn’t offer if I minded. In that case, I’ll knock on your door at 7:00 a.m. I know it’s early—“

“Remember who you’re talking to. I’m out of here at that time most mornings, and Carissra isn’t usually far behind me.”

“That’s right. I forget you live on a non-show business schedule.”

“Around this building, I know that’s something unique,” Kirk joked.

I hung out for a while longer and watched as Kirk worked around the kitchen. I finished my glass of wine. Once I was wined-up, I went back to my apartment and was greeted by a none-to-happy Mr. Bootsy. I fed him and gave him lots of love and attention before crashing.

“Okay, cast of The Naughty List ,“ our old friend Director Doug yelled at us from our staging area. Right after the cast of The Hallow Men , you’ll get ready. The commercial break should be about 45 seconds, then the announcers will chit-chat for another minute. That gives you under two minutes to get into position.“ With that, Doug left the staging area and went back to a control tent where he was calling the shots for the Broadway performances.

“This thing itches,” Katherine said next to me.

“Mine too,” I admitted.

That morning, our costume designer surprised us with brand-new costumes for the parade. This was great, except that we’d never worn the costumes or rehearsed in them. I glanced around, and everyone looked uncomfortable.

“Just remember, scratching yourself on national television is not very elf-like,” Peeter said. He was dressed like he was about to make a trek across Antarctica.

“You’re going to freeze once you take off that parka,” I said.

“I’m hoping the adrenaline of the performance will be enough to prevent me from turning into an elf-cicle.”

The music for one of the few good songs in The Hallow Men started, so I turned my head to watch the cast perform. Honestly, their performance on the street looked better than it had during previews. I’d already heard rumors that the show was tanking at the box office, so this performance could boost their ticket sales and prevent the show from closing. Despite how much the show sucked, I didn’t want to see anyone in their cast or crew out of work.

“ The Naughty List ,“ Doug, the director, yelled. “You’re up.”

The whole group ran out into the middle of the street in front of Macy’s and got into our opening positions. We stood waiting forever before we heard the opening chords of music. Thankfully, Peeter was right. Adrenaline took over, and our short performance went off without a hitch. When the song ended, we all raced to the center of the road to wave at the camera. I let out a sigh of relief.

We walked back to the staging area to pick up our coats, scarves, hats, and gloves. I bundled up. Some of the cast were already making their way back to the bus area to be taken back to the theater. A few of us planned on lingering and catching the bus after the parade.

“Are you actually staying?” Peeter asked. “My jingle bells have practically shrunken to the size of chestnuts.”

“I’m from Iowa originally. This isn’t cold.”

“Whatever,” Peter said dismissively. “You enjoy your cold. I’m going to go home where it’s warm. See you tomorrow.”

“What about you?” I asked Katherine.

“Me, I’m going to hang out for a while. Never seen the parade up close, so this should be fun.”

“You can sit with my friends and me.”

“I’m actually meeting someone here.”

“Really?” I asked, with a flash of my eyebrow suggestively.

“Yes,” she said with a smile. “I invited Rafael to be my plus one.”

“Rafael, the Puerto Rican hottie stagehand?”

“That’s the one,” Katherine said. A flush ran to her cheeks despite the cold weather.

“Well, I won’t keep you. Go get warm next to your Puerto Rican stud.”

Katherine rolled her eyes and walked toward the VIP seating. I pulled out my cell phone to text Kirk to see where they were. There were already a couple of other texts.

It’s your mother

As if I didn’t recognize the number. The text also shows up as Mom’s Cell , so that was also a dead giveaway.

Mom: Saw you on the television. You looked so cute in our little outfit. Call us later. Love, Mom .

Then another text appeared.

Asher: Hey, Erika . Thought the cast looked great. See you tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving .

Well, that was an unexpected text.

Brice: Overall, I thought the performance was good. Hopefully, the rest of the show doesn’t suck .

Ahh, Brice’s superpower was his ability to compliment, but he did it backhandedly to remind you he’s your agent.

I decided to respond to the texts later. I shot Kirk a text, and almost immediately, he texted back to let me know where he was sitting. After making my way through the crowd, I found Carissra and Kirk with ease.

“Welcome,” Kirk said as he scooched over on the metal bench to let me sit between him and Carissra. “Thanks again for inviting us.”

“I’m glad I could use my passes,” I said. “So, what did you think?”

“Well, it was good.”

Ahh, the joys of straight men and their ability to describe things .

“It was better than you made it out to be,” Carissra said.

“Thanks…I think.”

“Well, you know,” Carissra said, “all we’ve really heard about the show are the problems.”

She was right. “Sometimes, when you’re in the middle of creating a show, you don’t always realize what it looks like to an outsider. I know the history of the problems and how things have changed, so I don’t always get to think about the show with a new pair of eyes.”

“That makes—“

The first marching band of the day started playing right in front of us, so I couldn’t hear what Carissra said. It gave me a chance to appreciate that I’d probably been harder on the show than I should have been.

The parade flew by in a dizzying flurry of Christmas colors, music, balloons, and floats. By the time Santa Claus’s float rolled by, I was ready for the parade to be over. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the sights and sounds. But, as much as I hated to admit it and would never dream of saying this to his face, Peeter was right; it was elf-ing cold.

We wormed our way through the crowd to where our bus was located. Only a handful of cast members had stuck around, so it was almost empty on the way back to the theater. Once there, we piled out. I went inside to return my costume. I’d told Kirk and Carissra to go home, but they insisted on staying, so I changed as quickly as I could.

“The turkey should be done in about twenty minutes,” Kirk said from the kitchen.

His friends-giving ended up being Amani, Johnny, another couple and their son from the building I didn’t know, and one of Kirk’s colleagues who didn’t have anywhere else to be. I did a quick headcount, counted the number of chairs Kirk had, ran over to my place, and dragged over a few extra chairs. Thankfully, Kirk had a spare folding table, so we were all going to be at the table together.

“What can I do to help?” Amani asked, clearly not used to standing around and not helping.

“Absolutely nothing,” Kirk said. “You brought sides, even though I told you not to.”

Amani shrugged. “I can’t help myself.”

“That’s my man,” Johnny cut in. “He can’t go to anyone’s house without bringing at least two dishes.”

“I’m not that bad.”

“Keep telling yourself that, honey.”

Kirk finally stared at the group huddled outside the kitchen in the cramped entry hallway. “Okay, all of you, go sit down.”

“Aye, aye, captain,” Johnny said with a mock salute. He grabbed Amani by his upper arm and dragged him into the living room.

I huddled on the other side of the opening that separated the kitchen and dining area, which was becoming my usual spot when I hung out with Kirk. “Now that all the chefs are out of the kitchen. Do you need anything?” I said it softly enough that only Kirk could hear me.

“Nah, I’m good… Why don’t I pass you stuff, and you can put it on the table?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Kirk started unwrapping things and handing them to me. I then placed them on the table. Before long, the table was so full I wasn’t sure if there would be enough room for everyone to have plates in front of them.

“The turkey is done,” Kirk said. He pulled the turkey out of the oven. The little thermometer in the turkey had popped up. He lifted it out of the oven.

“I don’t know where you’re going to put that on the table,” I warned him. “It’s already pretty darn full.”

Kirk leaned around to stare at the table and gave me a sideways smile. “I guess we have enough food to feed an army out there. I’ll slice the turkey here and put it on a platter.”

“Okay.”

A few minutes later, Kirk came out of the kitchen with a giant platter of cut turkey and everyone oohed and awed. We ate and talked for the next two hours. When it was all said and done, I tried to get Kirk to let us help him clean up, but he wouldn’t hear any of it. I promised to drop by the next day to pick up the chairs I’d hauled over.

“Thanks for an amazing Thanksgiving,” Kirk said as I was leaving. He stood in the entryway, his hand gripping the top part of the door as he leaned against it.

“What? You cooked everything. I showed up with a couple of bottles of wine.”

“Not that. You made this whole day special. Since the accident, I’ve not seen Carissra light up like she did at the parade. I didn’t realize how much we needed that.”

I reached out and gently patted him on the chest, letting my hand linger just a second longer than was just a friendly pat. “I’m glad I could do that for her. Being a semi-celebrity has its privileges.” I looked at my hand and quickly removed it before saying, “Well, I have rehearsal tomorrow. Gotta get some sleep.”

“I can’t believe you don’t get a day off,” Kirk said, shaking his head.

“We start tech week on Monday, so we need to be clear on where things are with the show before we start with lights, special effects, the orchestra, and many other people flying about the theater to help us get ready for our first performance.

“When is that, by the way?”

“Not this Tuesday, but the following one.”

“That fast? You just started rehearsing.”

“In our world, things are often this fast or faster. But,” I drew the word out before I finished my thought, “this is really fast for a new musical. As they say, that’s show business.”

With that, I turned and walked next door. When I pulled out my key to unlock the door, I glanced to my left. Kirk stared after me with a contented look on his face.