1.The Boggart by Susan Cooper

Author:Susan Cooper
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published: 2001-11-15T07:00:00+00:00

NINE

THE THEATER WAS FULL of the scurry and bustle of technical rehearsals, and one of the busiest places of all, backstage, was the wardrobe room. Emily and Jessup sidled in, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. Dai had his mouth full of pins, and was busy shortening the tunic of an actor who stood on a chair with his eyes closed, silently reciting lines. Two wardrobe assistants were hunched over sewing machines, and a third was fitting tall boots onto a life-size dummy with no head, which lay spread-eagled across a table. For an instant Emily thought of the Boggart’s dancing dolls. Then Dai caught sight of her.

“Mmmf,” he said through the pins, managing to sound welcoming, concerned and apologetic all at once.

“Can we do anything useful?” Emily said timidly.

“Yes!” said the assistant with the boots. “Hold this bloody dummy while I give him his feet.”

Emily and Jessup shoved at the dummy’s headless shoulders while the assistant shoved the boots at the other end. “Who is he?” Jessup said.

“He’s me, after I get knocked off,” said the actor, and looking at him, they realized that his costume was identical to the dummy’s. Dai finished pinning his tunic, and patted his leg dismissively. The actor jumped off the chair and made Emily and Jessup a sweeping bow. “Cloten, at your service,” he said.

“Act Four beginners, Act Four beginners,” said a metallic voice from a speaker on the wall.

“Whoops!” said Cloten, and he grabbed a sword belt and scurried out of the door, buckling it on. Two of the assistants scrambled after him with the dummy.

Dai looked hard at Emily and Jessup. “What’s up?” he said.

Emily tried to sound casual. “Is Willie around?”

“It’s that boggart, isn’t it?” said Dai.

“It sure is,” Jessup said.

“He’ll be in, but only for a minute. This is the first tech run-through — your father and Phil are setting light cues.”

Phil was Philip Warrior, the lighting designer for Cymbeline. Emily said helpfully to Jessup, “They watch the play and decide how the lighting has to change, all the way through.”

“I know,” said Jessup irritably. The computerized board from which the lights were controlled was the only thing in the Chervil Playhouse that really interested him.

Their father’s voice yelled faintly from the loudspeaker, “Joe! The mike on this board is on the fritz!”

“Oh dear,” said Dai. “Trouble.”

Willie came hurrying in, with a young actress who was one of Emily’s favorite people in the company. Her name was Meg Bootle; she was a quiet girl with long blonde hair. Offstage few people noticed her; onstage her voice was strong and musical and she was suddenly beautiful. Although Emily knew her own destiny was to save the whales, she often wished she had been born with the talents of Meg Bootle. Just for once, though, she wished Meg were somewhere else; she desperately wanted Willie’s advice about the Boggart.

Meg was dressed as a young man, in vaguely Elizabethan tights and tunic. Willie looked extremely strange in a costume made of strips of leather and fur, with long boots and a very peculiar feathered bonnet.

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