Double Trouble Strikes Again

Into The Theater...or Is It Theatre?

"Your dad is not going to be happy with this, Shawn," Gus said as he followed his partner through the double doors that were the entrance to the small theater. He glanced around the hallway. "It's about time the city decided to open this place up. Every town needs an amateur theater for young aspiring actors to get their start."

"What my dad doesn't know can't make him angry, and you don't need to have a theater to get a start," Shawn said over his shoulder. He put his hand on Evie's shoulder. "This, young apprentice, is where wannabe actors come to feel like they are contributing to art. It's a terrible place and you should avoid it in the future if you can."

"Shawn!" Gus protested in horror at his friend's assessment. "Evie, don't listen to him. Theaters can be the very heart of a city. They bring culture to any community and it's a great place to spend an evening."

Evie glanced between them. "So why were you called here, Shawn?" she asked. "What kind of crime was committed?"

They crossed the lobby to the auditorium. "There's a missing person," Shawn reported.

"What are you doing here?" the skinny young man down at the front called out. "Do you have permission to be here?"

"Mr. Carter said we could come in and ask a few questions," Gus informed him quickly. "We're looking into Angie Simmons' disappearance."

The black haired man sighed. "Of course he did," he said. "I'm Hal Martin, the director. I thought Mr. Carter said that Angie was taking some personal time?"

"Is that what he told you?" Shawn asked as Evie moved closer to the stage

"Stay away from there, please," Martin said swiftly. He put his clipboard under his arm. "The stage is not a child's playground."

Evie's eyes widened with offense. "I'm not a child!" she protested.

"How well did you know Angie?" Shawn asked, getting the man's attention. When Martin faced him, Evie climbed up onto the stage and began looking around. "Mr. Carter said she was a stagehand and helped write the play?"

"Stagehand?" Martin repeated. "Angie was more than a stagehand. She made all of this possible. We wouldn't have a play if it wasn't for her." He was interrupted by his phone, which he pulled it from his pocket. "Excuse me, I need to take this. You'll find everyone working backstage."

As he hurried down the aisle the front of the building, Martin answered his phone. "Evie, come on down," Shawn called. "We're going to have to make a few enquires and I will have to...feel what I can feel."

Gus rolled his eyes. "Ethan keeps saying you're a fake," Evie said, sitting on the edge of the stage. She kicked her feet. "He says you don't 'feel' or 'divine' stuff. You just guess and hope that you get it right."

Slamming his elbow into Gus's stomach and effectively keeping him from agreeing with that particular assessment, Shawn answered, "That is ridiculous. Aren't you supposed to be the reasonable, calm person this year? Why would you listen to the wild, unsubstantiated imaginings of Ethan? He is not getting his information from a reliable source."

"Since when do you use words like unsubstantiated?" Gus demanded in a low voice. He dodged the elbow Shawn tried to slam into his side.

Evie dropped her gaze. "He won't listen to me."

Gus and Shawn exchanged looks and shrugged. "Well, let's talk about this later," Shawn decided. "Let's go find our missing girl. I hope she's not having a romantic trip with her lover making sweet-."

"Shawn, you might want to watch what you're saying in front of your cousin," Gus hissed. "She's only twelve."

"I was going to say music," Shawn responded defensively. "Come on. Let's go back stage."

  ⇔⇔⇔⇔  

"Now you're not going to catch anything unless you have the right kind of bait," Henry instructed, handing the baited pole over to his nephew. "And then, you have to have patience. Let the fish come to you."

Wrinkling his nose, Ethan gingerly took the pole. "I think I should have gone to breakfast with Shawn and Gus, even if they are liars," he said. "Can I just sit and play a game or something?"

"No. Now cast your line just like I do," Henry responded. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Ethan grudgingly obeyed. "So, why don't you tell me what had you and Evelyn yelling at each other this morning?"

The pre-teen gave a groan. "Can't it just stay between me and her?"

"Not in my house, kiddo," Henry answered. "And don't try to tell me this is all over you thinking Shawn is a fake and Evie believing in him."

Ethan gave a huff. "Well, it's still stupid that she believes him," he complained. "She's supposed to be the practical one. I'm the one who's supposed to believe crazy stuff. So if I can't believe him, she shouldn't either."

"So I'm guessing this whole argument you two are having is coming down to your agreement to trade off being responsible every year."

Startled, Ethan looked over. "Yeah, I guess so," he agreed reluctantly. "Evie's better at being logical and the one everyone can rely on, so I think she should just keep doing that when the year is up. I can be the troublemaker."

"And Evie doesn't agree."

"No, she insists that a deal is a deal."

Henry considered it carefully, knowing he had to approach the situation with caution. The wrong word could send Ethan down Shawn's path, and he really didn't want to see that happen. "What made the two of you come up with this plan in the first place?" he asked.

"Well, when we were in first grade, we kind of drove our teacher up a wall," Ethan confessed. There was a note of glee in his voice. "Really. He quit halfway through the year. Some say he ended up in a mental institution."

"Stick with the facts that you know, Ethan, not hearsay."

The boy sighed. "Fine," he said reluctantly. "Anyway, Mr. Alan said that we were impossible and that it was too much to expect anyone to put up with us both in one classroom. Evie and I discussed it. I mean, we couldn't be split up, so we agreed that one of us would be reliable and good one year and let the other be normal."

Never mind that 'normal' wasn't the word Henry would use for the antics that he'd seen Ethan, and Shawn when he was the same age, get into. "So at six years old, you thought that the best thing to do was one of you pretended to be someone you're not for an entire year," Henry said slowly.

"Yeah, and it's worked out great these past six years," Ethan answered enthusiastically. "Except for when I had to be responsible. Evie had all the fun then. I had to apologize for stuff she did. It wasn't fair but that's the way it had to be."

Henry bit back a chuckle at that. "What if you both stopped being responsible and you were just yourselves?" he asked. "Forget this trading off every other year thing."

Astonished, Ethan stared at him. "What do you mean?" he asked. "Everyone says that two of us is too much. We're doing the world a favor with our deal. I just have to convince Evie to stay responsible from now on and everything will be great."

"Look, Ethan-."

Ethan's line tightened. "Hey, I think I have something," he exclaimed. "Uncle Henry, I caught something!"

"Calm down," Henry advised, securing his pole. "Reel it in slow and I'll grab the net."

He turned to get the net. "Uh, Uncle Henry?" Ethan said uncertainly. "I don't think it's a fish."

"What do you mean?" Henry demanded apprehensively, spinning around.

The boy was half leaning out of the boat. "Hey, that's a body!"