The Rebirth of Wonder by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Author:Lawrence Watt-Evans
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: fantasy, wonder, magic, theater, rebirth
Publisher: Lawrence Watt-Evans

Chapter Eleven

The Boston Public Library wasn't any more help than the Bampton library, as far as Merton Ambrose and The Return of Magic were concerned, and his car overheated on the drive back. By the time he got home and rushed through a quick meal of leftover chicken it was five past seven.

He wasn't sure whether he expected to find the Bringers of Wonder waiting for him in the parking lot or not; it might be more in character for them to appear mysteriously once he was inside.

In the event, he found Maggie sitting alone on the porch, elbows on her knees, watching the sun set over old man Christie's fields. Christie's aging white gelding, Spanner, was in the nearest field, watching her in that vaguely puzzled way horses have. White birds were circling over her head; as Art approached they swooped away and seemed to vanish, like soap bubbles popping, in the shadows of the theater's eaves.

“Hi,” he called. “Sorry I'm late.”

She turned and smiled. “Hi, Art,” she said.

“Where are the others?”

“Oh, they saw you weren't here and went down the street to get a soda or something.”

He looked up at the sidewalk, but didn't see any sign of anyone else. “I guess they aren't in any hurry,” he said.

“I guess not,” Maggie agreed. “After all, everything's been going so well...”

“Has it?” Art asked, startled.

“Well, yes,” Maggie replied, equally startled by his reaction.

“But it's been almost a week, and you haven't built any of the sets, or hung any lights. Do you have costumes designed, or anything?”

“Well, no...”

“Then what's going well?”

Maggie hesitated before replying. “The performance,” she said at last. “The preparations. I mean, I guess we haven't done much on the... the technical side, but we've got the scripts all set, and I think everyone knows his part, just about.”

“Really?” He glanced up at the red-painted clapboards behind them. “I hadn't heard anyone rehearsing.”

“Have you been listening?”

“Um...” Art realized that for the past few days he had been far too busy in the prop room to pay any attention to noises overhead. For that matter, while one could hear what was happening onstage from the big room, from the prop room events upstairs were pretty inaudible.

“I guess not,” he admitted.

For a moment they stood silently on the little porch; then Maggie suggested, “Let's go on inside; they'll all be along in a minute, and if I'm not here waiting they'll know to come on in.”

“Right.” Art fished the key ring from his pocket and unlocked the stage door.

Inside, with the work lights on, he could see that a second, larger white chalk circle had been added to the design on the stage, completely surrounding what had been there before.

“What's that?” he asked.

“What? Oh, that,” Maggie said. “That's just so we all know where to stand. See, over there, that red squiggle? That's my place. At the beginning, I mean, when the curtain goes up.”

“Blocking marks,” Art said.

“I guess,” Maggie agreed.

“Sort of funny ones,” Art remarked. “Fancier than usual.”

Maggie just shrugged.

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