A few minutes later Meredith came back into the kitchen. “Found it,” she reported. “I looked everywhere but the obvious place, so naturally there it was.”

“It always seems to work that way for me, too. Do you want to call her now?”

“Might as well try. If she’s in college, it’s probably a crapshoot as much one way as it is the other.”

“Why don’t you call her? I’ll get on the phone in the living room if you find her. I want to talk to her, but you probably ought to open the conversation.”

“Why don’t you go get on the phone so you can be in on the conversation from the beginning?”

Not having met the woman, Brett wasn’t quite as sold on her as Meredith seemed to be. But while she’d been out digging around in her car, he’d thought about it. A heavy-set woman could play all those roles Meredith had been talking about, there was no question about that. In a couple cases she might even go over better than a regular actress, so he was keeping an open mind.

The phone rang three or four times before a woman answered, “Hello?”

“Hi, Kellye. This is Meredith VanArnhem. How are you doing?”

“Meredith?” Kellye replied in a nice, husky voice, on the verge of being downright sexy. “How have you been? I don’t think I’ve talked to you since we did Beacon Street Blues last summer.”

“Not real bad,” Meredith replied. “Hey, are you busy right now?”

“I’m studying for finals but it’s not anything I can’t put down.”

“Well, let’s get right down to the nitty-gritty. Are you doing anything this summer? I mean, in the theater?”

“I guess not,” Kellye sighed. “I thought I had a small role in The Outermost House at the Grant here in town, but it went to some skinny girl with a big chest and no noticeable acting ability. Shit, it was only six performances, but it was something.”

“That’s a shame, but in a way, that’s good, too.”

“How could it be good?” she replied, with just a touch of anger. “When I lost that, it meant I won’t be doing any acting at all this summer. I’m going to have to do the burger shack shit again.”

“Well, it could be good because I’m sitting here with the producer of a series of plays in a dinner theater this summer,” Meredith purred. “We’re kicking around the idea of casting you as Florence in The Odd Couple, The Female Version. You’d be in the lead role opposite me.”

“Meredith, are you shitting me? A lead? Me?”

“It gets better,” Meredith said. “This is an ensemble cast, and while we haven’t worked out the details yet, there could be several roles in other plays. Some of them aren’t big, but there’s at least the possibility of one other lead role.”

“Holy crap!” Kellye replied in considerable excitement. “If you’re not bullshitting me, who do I talk to and what do I have to let them do to me to sign up?”

Brett had to stick his nose in after that. “It sounds to me like you might possibly be interested,” he said.

“Uh, yeah,” Kellye said, a little surprised to hear a man’s voice on the phone. “Who is this I’m talking to?”

“I’m Brett Wickwire,” he replied. “I’m probably going to be the male lead in most of the shows.”

“Brett Wickwire?” Kellye replied quizzically. “Oh, yeah, I saw you doing Same Time Next Year with Meredith one time. The two of you were pretty good.”

“I have to say that Meredith may have stretched the truth just a little. This is a real small ensemble cast in a totally new location. I won’t go into the details right now, but we’re not expecting big audiences. Like I said, I’ll be the male lead, but I’m also going to be the producer, the director at least part of the time, and I’ll probably have to help bus the dishes after the show. But we have an interesting list of plays and doing them should be a lot of fun. Do you still think you’re interested?”

“I’m so interested you wouldn’t believe it. I don’t suppose there’s going to be any money in it, too?”

“Some,” he replied. “I can’t say how much yet as we’re also still working on the budget. These are all small plays and we’re doing them on a relative shoestring, but at this point the project is a go.”

“Still, getting money along with several good roles? It sounds too good to be true!”

“Meredith and I are still getting our heads around the idea that it really is true,” he admitted. “It came at me right straight out of midair. Now, Meredith is convinced from knowing you that you’d play a real super Florence to her Olivia in The Odd Couple. I’d like to take her at her word, but since I don’t think I’ve met you I’d like to talk to you before I make any commitments. That would give us a chance to talk about some of the other productions we’re looking at and some of the background.”

“I’m ready when you are. I’d gladly skip class to meet with you. I’d really rather not skip a final if I don’t have to, but I will if I need to.”

“We’re flexible right now, but we’re also trying to finalize the playbill and the budget,” he explained. “So I’d like it if Meredith and I could get together with you pretty soon. Meredith didn’t say where you were located.”

“Here in Greenville. I saw the two of you doing Same Time Next Year at the Grant, I think it was two years ago.”

“OK, I remember. It’s not that far away, about two and a half hours if I remember correctly. Is there someplace we could meet you this evening?”

“How about the Green Room Tap? It’s just up the street from the Grant.”

“I remember the place. I had a couple beers there after the show. What time works for you?”

“Anytime after two and a half hours from now,” she replied.

“Let’s do it about six,” he suggested. “As I recall, they have a real good bar burger. We can talk for a couple hours, go over the details, and that’ll let Meredith and me get back here at a halfway reasonable hour.”

Since both Brett and Meredith guessed that Kellye would want to be looking her best to meet them, they decided that they ought to look a little better than the sweat shirts and blue jeans they had on. There was time for them to shower and otherwise get ready before they left; Brett was wearing slacks and a turtleneck, with a tweed jacket over the top, while Meredith had on a knee-length long-sleeved black dress, with hose and high heels. She had on a wig for the first time since the prospect of the Curlew Creek dinner theater had come up, a rather long and elaborate brunette one, along with enough jewelry to look flashy.

“I’d say you look pretty good,” Brett said when he saw her. “You look like the kind of girl a guy with a lot more money than I have would like to have on his arm.”

“Have to make a proper appearance,” she smiled. “It’s just too damn bad we have to appear in your old minivan instead of a BMW or something.”

“If we did that we might find ourselves paying this Kellye more than we can afford,” he replied. “I’m not totally sold on her, but she sure seems to want the job.”

“She may want it worse than I want it, and you have some idea of how bad that is.”

As almost always, they talked theater while they were out on the road, in the beginning this time mostly exploring alternatives to Neil Morford for the open male roles in the first part of the season. Both of them agreed that he could more than handle the job, but at the same time they weren’t looking forward to having to work with him off stage.

Brett figured they would have to approach Morford pretty soon, like maybe tomorrow night, but it could wait until then. The idea of having one capable and agreeable woman to help fill out the ensemble for the season sounded like a good one, and the more Brett thought about it the more he liked it. It remained to be seen whether Kellye could be that person, even if Meredith thought so.

As he drove, Brett contemplated the fact that he and Meredith hadn’t been tweaking each other very much the last few days since she’d been at his parents’ house working with him on the playbill. He wasn’t sure why that was, but suspected it might be mostly due to the amount of theater-related intellectual effort involved. It seemed a little strange, but likely would get going again when the pressure eased up a little.

He was surprised that he was able to drive right to the Green Room Tap; it had been a while since he’d been there. It was a favorite hangout for the local theater enthusiasts, and he remembered a couple of really good conversations over beer after a show.

As soon as they got inside, Meredith found Kellye right away; she was, as advertised, a shortish, heavy-set girl with long, straight well-groomed brown hair and a big smile on her face. In fact, Brett didn’t think she was as heavy as Meredith had made her out to be. She was shapely, if solid, and she had curves where Meredith had angles. “Great!” she said as soon as she saw them. “I was starting to wonder if I’d been having a dream.”

“Nope, we’re the real thing,” Meredith smiled. “Have you been waiting long?”

“Only since five or a little before. I wanted to be sure I wasn’t late.”

“If it isn’t any trouble for the waitress,” Brett said after an introduction from Meredith, “Let’s move to a booth in the back where we can talk a little more privately.”

“It’s OK, I guess,” Kellye said. “But I really wouldn’t mind having someone overhear us talking about this role you’re thinking about offering me.”

“I can understand that,” Brett said. “But I don’t think we’d want the unnecessary interruptions, either.”

In the back, over a glass of some good quality beer, Brett and Meredith spent close to fifteen or twenty minutes filling Kellye in on what the project was all about and what they’d worked out for a playbill. “I haven’t had time to look at the Florence role,” Kellye reported once they’d worked around to that issue. “It seems to be pretty hard to find online. But it’s kind of like Felix in the male version, right?”

“Pretty much,” Meredith agreed.

“I’m pretty sure I can handle it. You’re saying this is going to run over the Fourth, right? I can have that role down to ice a lot sooner than that. I really am pretty good at getting off the book quickly, although I’ve never had to do it for that big a role.”

“You’ll have time to learn, and I’ll work with you as needed,” Meredith told her.

“So long as you realize that’s an issue,” Brett said. “I realize we’re not doing a formal casting call on this, but I would like to get a little feel for you.” He pulled several sheets of paper from his jacket pocket. “That’s part of the script for a play I did back in college. It starts partway through the play, where a husband and a wife are having it out because she’s been cheating on him. Spend a couple minutes to read over the first couple pages, and then we’ll do a reading.”

“But you’re not asking me to do this are you?”

“No, but I know it well enough to be able to feed you lines while I look at your face, rather than a script.”

After a couple minutes she said she was ready to go. “All right,” he said, and fed her the first line he had selected, “We’ve gone over that a thousand times.”

“Yes. I’ve said that before,” she replied. “And you’ve answered me that that excuse might hold for the first time, but not for the second and the third. You’ve convicted me of deliberate cruelty on that. And I’ve never had anything to say. I couldn’t say anything, because the truth was much too preposterous …”

It was really pretty impressive. It was obvious that given a little work she’d do a lot better, too.

“All right,” he said after they’d exchanged a dozen lines or so. “Not bad. Now just for fun, give me the script, and we’ll see how much you remember.”

“I’m not real sure about this,” she said, handing him the script.

“Just curious,” he said, and changed his inflection slightly. “We’ve gone over that a thousand times.”

“Yes. I’ve said that before,” she replied. “And you’ve answered me that that excuse might hold for the first time, but not for the second and the third. You’ve convicted me of deliberate cruelty on that. And I’ve never had anything to say. I couldn’t say anything, because the truth was much too preposterous …”

She made a couple fluffs and he had to prompt her – but it was really, really interesting to watch her doing it after being caught flatfooted. What’s more, she was really getting into the role of a cheating wife trying to justify herself to her husband!

“I’m sorry I muffed those lines,” she said a little apologetically. “I should have done better.”

“On a test like that?” he grinned. “I couldn’t do as well. Neither could Meredith. Oh, we both pick up lines quickly but not like that. I’ll tell you that what it means to me is that we’ll be able to blow through the basics of a play pretty quickly and then work on the nuances. These are going to be some really awesome productions, that is assuming you still want the job.”

“You still mean it? I don’t believe it!”

“Believe it. Not only is it going to be a treat to work with you, it’s going to be an honor.”

“Oh, I’m in!”

“Great! Welcome to the Curlew Creek Ensemble Theater, which is a name I just came up with. We are going to have some fun this summer, Kellye.”

“It sounds good. I mean, it sounds really, really good! I’ve wanted to do some real roles for so long, not just bit parts, I’d almost pay you for the chance.”

“Then I guess it’s fair that you finally get your shot at some good roles,” he replied. “Now, since the subject has come up, you will get paid. How much is a little up in the air yet, and it’ll be more for the lead roles than it will be for the supporting ones. Either way, it’ll probably be more than you’d make at the Grant.”

“Which was nothing, even if I’d gotten the role.”

“There’s more,” Meredith said. “Brett, the house?”

“Fine with me,” he said. “You want to explain it?”

“Sure. Kellye, this place is pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. The nearest apartment rentals are in a resort community and they’re higher than crap. We’ve arranged to rent a house not far from the theater. It’s a small three-bedroom place, and to be honest, it’s a dump and needs some serious cleaning, but the price is right. Brett and I agreed to go halfsies with each other, but if you’re interested, we can make it thirdsies while you’re there.”

“It’s three and a half a month plus utilities, so a third is going to be in the hundred and a quarter to a hundred and a half range,” he explained. “We’ll share out the cleaning and the cooking.”

“I don’t mind cooking,” Kellye grinned. “In fact, you can look at me and see that maybe I like cooking a little bit too much. I’m really pretty good at it, too.”

Brett turned to Meredith. “You know,” he said, “this is sounding better and better.”

“I was just thinking the same thing.”

He turned back to Kellye. “That’s good, because Meredith’s and my cooking skills run to canned soup and ramen noodles.”

“I can hack canned soup if absolutely necessary,” Kellye said. “Ramen noodles are an invention of the devil, as far as I’m concerned. Now, when do I have to be up there?”

“Assuming we use you in The Hermit of Walden, that’s the Thoreau play, early June, sometime before the tenth. The part is rather small so there’s no reason you can’t pick it up quickly.”

“There’s a hell of a lot in The Odd Couple,” Meredith added. “I’ll be directing Hermit, but you and I can break the backs of our parts of The Odd Couple while I’m working on that. So I’d say early June on that, too.”

“Would you mind if I came up earlier? Once school is out, I don’t have much to do. I’m supposed to spend a week watching my brother’s kids so he and his wife can get away, but after that I don’t have much to do. Maybe I can find something to do helping out.”

“You’d be welcome,” Brett told her. “Realistically, I can’t pay you until we get started rehearsing Hermit, but there’ll probably be some work you can do.”

“Marty would probably be glad to teach you how to bottle wine or something,” Meredith grinned. “He’d probably even pay you for that.”

“I’ll figure on coming up early,” she replied. “I don’t want to pin down the date for sure right now, but the middle of May at the latest. New stuff like this is always the most fun right at the beginning when everybody is creating things, building things. I wouldn’t mind being right in the middle of it. I don’t want to say the money isn’t important but I have a little to tide me over until the work actually starts.”

“It’s probably going to be another few days before we move there,” Brett explained. “We’ve got some work on the budget, the bill, and the cast to settle first, and then we have to give the house a good cleaning. By the way, the house is unfurnished so we’re scrounging furniture, especially beds. We can probably fake most of the rest of it.”

“We’re going to be a little thin on kitchenware too,” Meredith added. “So any contributions there would be welcome, too.”

“I’m pretty well fixed in that department,” Kellye smiled. “Like I said, I like to cook. Is there a gas stove?”

“No, electric.”

“I can make do. How about a microwave?”

“None that I saw,” Brett told her. “The only things moveable that I saw were a busted chair and what Meredith estimates to be about seventeen thousand dead flies.”

“Seventeen thousand, three hundred and eighty-four,” Meredith added with a grin. “I mean, let’s be precise.”

Kellye waved off the joke. “OK, I’ll bring a microwave, and some other stuff.”

They talked for a few minutes more, mostly working out details. There were more about the house than could be settled that evening, but they agreed to call back and forth as needed. Finally, a couple hours later than he’d intended, Brett announced, “I hate to say it but it’s time for Meredith and me to be hitting the road. It’s already been a long day and it’s a long drive back.”

“Well, thanks for coming,” Kellye said. “And thanks for having me in on this deal. It’s going to be very rewarding in more ways than one.”

“We’re looking forward to having you.”

Brett was just settling up the bill with the waitress when a tall blonde came up to the table. She was even more slender than Meredith, but had a huge chest on her that looked downright fake. “Hi, Kellye,” the woman said in a dumb-blonde tone that made Brett think her IQ must have been smaller than her bra size. “Hey, I’m sorry you got beaten out of that part, but I was glad to get it.”

“Oh, I’m glad now it worked out that way,” Kellye replied with a grin that quite clearly indicated that it was payback time, especially for this girl trying to rub her nose in losing the part. “These people are from the Curlew Creek Ensemble Theater, and they’ve just hired me to be lead in a couple shows and second lead in some others. The money is pretty good, too.”

“Money?” the girl said. “They’re paying you?”

“Oh, yes. It’s nice to be a pro and not have to screw around with that amateur stuff.”

The blonde turned to Brett and asked. “You wouldn’t happen to have any more parts open, would you?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” he replied, deciding to help Kellye rub it in. “I’m afraid you’re not old enough for the one unfilled, but you could try out for it if you can grow a beard down to your cleavage in the next six weeks.”

“Uhh, maybe not,” she replied, and beat a retreat. Brett was glad to see her backside, and not just because she had a nice butt.

“Thanks, Brett,” Kellye said. “You have no idea how good that makes me feel, and you have no idea how quick that news will get around the Grant crowd.”

“Maybe that’ll give them a thing or two to think about.”

“Them? Not a chance! You saw the size of the udders that got her that part.”

“They’re pretty big,” Brett grinned. “But I’ve seen a lot bigger ones.”

“Where, some strip joint?”

“Don’t go there,” Meredith said. “I’m telling you Kellye, don’t go there, unless you want to hear some of the worst jokes you’ve ever heard.”

“What?” Brett replied innocently. “They were just simple little kid-level cow jokes.”

“Oh, manure,” she snorted. “And don’t you get started on that, either.”

“I don’t get this,” Kellye said, looking a little perplexed.

“Consider yourself lucky,” Meredith shook her head. “But you’ll find out and decide real soon that you didn’t want to.”

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.