Horse Love (14 page)

She waved at the others, wondering briefly what they’d think of her performance, and headed to the theater.

They’d been called to get there at six-thirty for a final run-through. Some of the skits were still rougher than
Lisa thought they ought to be, but she knew this was just for fun, and if some of the chorus members flubbed some acts, well, it didn’t matter. She also knew that she was determined not to flub anything herself.

At last the run-through was done and it was time to get ready for the real thing. Lisa found her stack of costumes and put on the one for the barnyard song. Once she was in it, there was really nothing to do but wait. Actually, there was one other thing she could do, and she did it. She peeped out at the audience. Like most theaters, the resort theater, an enormous open-air auditorium, had a peephole so that those backstage could observe the house before and during a performance. Lisa looked through the hole and was surprised at how many people she saw. The place was practically full! Almost everyone staying at the resort must have been there for the show. Would there be enough seats? Would Tec have to stand?

She squinted. Yes, there were her parents, happily looking for seats up at the front of the auditorium. There was no sign of Tec, but she suspected that he and the other kids in the group would be sitting more toward the back, and it was very hard to see that far, especially since the lights were dim back there. Lisa didn’t have a chance of recognizing Tec from this distance, dimples notwithstanding.

And then it was time. The lights went out on the audience and on the stage.

Jane went out, bowed for the applause, and announced the beginning of the talent show. The audience applauded again. The curtain went up.

The first skit was the barnyard song. Everybody laughed and applauded. They were particularly fond of the cow and the horse, and they loved it when the rear end of the horse went in a different direction from the front end.

That was one of the things about an informal talent show like this. Flubs would happen, and the audience would enjoy them. The audience liked the undersea skit, too, and laughed hard when the fish complained about how silly the visitors looked with their masks and snorkels. There were a couple of jokes about string bikinis that Lisa thought would hit home to at least one group in the audience!

It was no surprise to Lisa that the audience loved the juggler. He was very good and had a funny patter to go along with his act. He was followed by the pianist, who played an amazing piece by Chopin, followed by some ragtime by Scott Joplin. Lisa would have liked to have watched that, but it was time for her to put on her Annie dress. She could hear the final strains of the rag and the wild applause of the audience.

It wasn’t going to be easy to follow an act like that, but it was her turn. She felt every bit of churning in her stomach that she’d ever felt before a performance. It was worse than opening night for
Annie
. Lisa knew exactly what the difference was. Tec hadn’t been there that time. But he was out there now.

She took a deep breath and walked out onstage, waiting for her cue.

Jane announced her as “Miss Lisa Atwood, San Felipe’s own Annie!”

The curtain rose and the spotlight came on.

Jane played the introduction on the piano.

Lisa’s mind became a total blank. Suddenly she didn’t know where she was, she didn’t know who she was, she had no idea what she was supposed to do, and she certainly didn’t know any words to say or tune to sing.

And then the introduction was finished. She opened her mouth.

“The sun’ll come out tomorrow!” she began automatically.

It was all there, every word, every note, every gesture. There wasn’t a sound or a motion from the audience. They were stunned. Lisa’s eyes glanced past her parents, sitting so far forward that the stage lights illuminated them. Her mother’s eyes were filled with tears of pride. Her father just grinned.

And farther back in the audience … Well, she couldn’t see Tec, but he could sure see her. Everybody in the room could see her. She knew it and she felt it. If there was one thing she’d learned performing, it was that a singer could tell when she held the audience. And she was holding them. They were even quieter for her than they had been for the piano player.

“… a day awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!” she sang.

There were two seconds of quiet and then the audience broke into wild applause. Some people stood up. Some stomped their feet. Lisa’s parents stood up, and her father shouted, “Bravo!” That was the kind of thing fathers were supposed to do, and Lisa was thrilled. She’d done an amazing job, and everybody in the audience thought she’d been singing for them. They were all wrong—except for one person. That performance had been for Tec. It was a performance he wouldn’t easily forget!

Lisa could barely wipe the grin off her face as she headed backstage, rushing to her final costume change for the evening’s grand finale.

It was all a blur and none of it seemed to matter very much after her solo, but it had to be done. She joined the rest of the kick line and they worked their way out onto the stage for a rousing rendition of “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” The audience clapped along with
the music, which continued until Lisa thought she couldn’t kick one more time. And then they clapped some more and the kick line kicked some more.

“Wonderful! You were all
wonderful
!” Jane congratulated the cast. She gave Lisa an extra-big hug. “Great job! Now go get changed and get ready for the party!”

The party. Lisa had almost forgotten about that. She needed to go visit with her parents, then find Tec and invite him to the cast party. He’d love it, she was sure.

Her parents were waiting by the stage door. They gave her giant hugs. Her mother was still crying and her father was still grinning, and both those things still made her feel good. She hugged them back, but her eyes were scanning the crowd over their shoulders, looking for Tec. She didn’t see him.

Her parents said they were meeting up with their bridge friends, and if Lisa wanted to join them …

She explained about the cast party and told her parents she’d probably see them in the morning.

“Of course you will,” said her father. “And pretty early, too. Our bus to the airport leaves at nine-thirty.”

With that, they gave her a final hug and headed out to meet their friends. Her father’s words hung heavily. It reminded Lisa that the whole wonderful week was almost over. It was hard to believe and something she didn’t want to think about. And she didn’t have to
think about it right then. First, she’d think about the cast party.

She wandered through the milling crowd, hoping to find Tec. All around her people were shaking her hand, patting her back, and even giving her hugs.

“Mildred, we’ll be able to say we heard this girl perform before she was famous,” one man told his wife, who shook her hand vigorously.

“Thank you,” Lisa said. She didn’t actually think she was going to be famous enough for anyone to boast about, but it was sweet of him to put it that way.

“You were great!”

“Nice job!”

“Thanks for a terrific performance,” came the accolades. Lisa answered each one and thanked them all.

Where was Tec?

Finally she was at the back of the auditorium, and there was still no sign of him. She followed the crowd, which was dispersing toward the lounge.

And there he was, sitting pretty much where he had been the last time she’d seen him.

“Hi there!” he greeted her warmly. “Where have you been?”

It stopped her cold. Was he kidding? He must be kidding.

“Right, like you didn’t see it,” she teased.

“What?” he asked, genuine confusion on his face.

Lisa was getting the idea that he wasn’t kidding. “The talent show,” she said. “Weren’t you there?”

An elderly couple interrupted them. “You were marvelous!” the husband said to Lisa. “Just great!” the wife added. Lisa barely nodded.

“It was tonight?” Tec asked.

Lisa nodded.

“Oh boy,” he said. But it wasn’t enough to take away the terrible feeling crushing Lisa’s heart.

The other kids in the group were beginning to wonder what was going on, and there was no way Lisa wanted to be there for one second more. “I’ve got to go,” she said. “There’s a cast party.”

“See you later,” Tec said. “And I’m sorry. I guess I blew it, huh?”

Lisa didn’t answer. She just ran back to the comfort of her friends backstage.

An hour later, Lisa was feeling a little better. In spite of her anger and hurt, the party was fun, and she was glad she’d chosen that for her escape. The juggler had showed everybody how to juggle, working with props. Lisa didn’t think she’d exactly mastered the skill. She had laughed, however, and that mattered because the simple act of laughing improved her mood.

She also ate, talked, received compliments and gave
them. It had been an exciting night, and she was totally accepted by all the adults as an equal. Lisa was proud of the whole show, and she was proud of what she’d done. The edge of her anger softened with the fun of the party and the crowd.

By midnight the party was breaking up. Lisa knew she had some packing to do before morning, though she didn’t think it would take her long. She still wasn’t ready to go back to her room. She had to do some thinking, and her room was not the place for it.

She headed for the beach. Once again, as it seemed was always the case on San Felipe, the moon was shining brightly and the stars were sparkling overhead. She walked along the edge of the water as she’d done so many of the previous nights, holding hands with Tec. How could he have missed the show? She’d told him about it enough times. He certainly knew she was in it. She’d been to so many rehearsals, and he knew every time. He also knew she was leaving the next day, didn’t he? Could he have forgotten? Could the slow pace of the tropical days and nights have confused him about what day it was and when things happened? Could he possibly have misunderstood what she’d meant when she told him she had something special for him and when she’d reminded him about the show? How could that be?

She had to admit that she had never really told him outright that she had a solo, and she’d never told him directly that she’d planned to sing to him and for him. She took a deep breath of the fresh tropical night air. It seemed to clarify everything. It wasn’t really Tec’s fault. He hadn’t meant to hurt her. He just didn’t realize how much this had mattered to her, and there were a dozen ways she could have made it clearer to him. So much went on at a place like this resort that it was easy for someone to lose track of time. That must be it. He just didn’t know when the show had been on, much less over.

She’d overreacted. It was the way it was with her mother, always flying off the handle about something that wasn’t worth getting upset about. How could she do that? No wonder Tec had given her that weird look. She’d been overreacting to a little mistake he’d made, and it might have cost them their whole relationship.

She couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t leave the resort with Tec still confused about what she felt for him. That could be the worst mistake of her life. He was crazy about her—as crazy about her as she was about him. She must have nearly broken his heart by being so upset. She had to fix things, and there was no time to waste.

Lisa picked up her sandals and ran along the beach,
hurrying to get back to the lounge, where she hoped she would find him.

She was running so fast that she almost didn’t see the couple standing in the surf about twenty yards in front of her.

She paused, not wanting to embarrass them by running past them. Then they looked in her direction, toward the moon. It was Tec. And Shelley.

He must have come looking for me and Shelley came along to help
, Lisa thought for a fleeting moment. She waved to them.

They didn’t see her. In fact, they never saw her. Because at that moment, they turned to each other and kissed passionately. Shelley melted into Tec’s arms as he drew the slender girl to him.

Lisa stopped, ducked into the shadows, and ran back to her cabin.

“H
E KISSED THAT
skinny little thing right in front of you?” Stevie wailed to Lisa as she finished telling her two best friends absolutely everything that had happened on San Felipe. They were having a sleepover at Stevie’s house, and it seemed there was an awful lot to catch up on.

“I don’t think Tec ever saw me that night on the beach,” Lisa said.

“It doesn’t matter. He shouldn’t have been kissing anyone else, whether you saw him or not,” Carole said.

“Wait’ll I get my hands on that guy,” Stevie said. “I’ll punch his lights out.”

“I’ll fill his dimples in!” Carole added.

Lisa laughed. “You guys are the greatest,” she said.
“You really know how to make me feel good. Without you, I got totally taken in by a real rat!”

“We aren’t great enough to have been there when you needed us the most,” said Stevie.

“Well, you would have set me straight early on, wouldn’t you?” Lisa asked.