"Once Upon Love" (A Modern "Cyrano de Bergerac" story)

7: Curtains Up!

*A/N: I know that my description of Carnegie's backstage may not be accurate; I've never been there. It looks that way merely for the sake of events in this story. I don't pretend to have researched this extensively at all. :) -KM

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Backstage at Carnegie Hall consisted of a small, L-shaped hallway that bent around the back of the main theater. In this hallway were several dressing rooms. These rooms were equipped with a handle on the outside, but they could easily be pushed open from the inside unless they were bolted from the outside, which—while a production was going on—they never were.

Hayden found Matt's dressing room easily. The ambitious "star" had his name on a large, shiny sign across the door. Madi's room, across the hall, was decorated likewise, plus two pictures: a pair of rings and a bouquet of roses. Next to Madi's room, directly across from Matt's, was a door marked "storage closet." Plotting quickly, Hayden took the sign off Matt's door and switched it with the "storage closet" sign. He checked the inside of the storage room, just to be sure. There was a light, but it was controlled by a dangling chain, not a switch by the door like all the other dressing rooms. Now that he switched the signs, one would not be able to tell the difference between the rooms until just the right time. Hayden knew the play would begin soon, and he needed to get Chris ready.

"C'mere," he whispered, pulling Chris into the room now marked "storage closet."

Chris just barely entered the room before the cast of Once Upon Love came pouring back.

"All right, everyone," Hayden heard the nasally voice of Noelle Gradine, the cast coordinator. "Osminda, you have five minutes, Stephorrich, you have eight. The rest of you are in the wings ASAP! Am I clear?"

Murmurs of affirmation.

"All right then, people! It's showtime!"

Scattered cheers.

Hayden cracked the door a bit and watched Matt enter the door marked with his name.

"Stay here till they call you, Chris," he said.

Chris' face shone with beaded sweat, "Hayden, I—"

"Relax, bud! It will be fine. I'm gonna get someone in here to do your makeup. Break a leg!"

He gave Chris a thumbs-up.

Chris returned it reluctantly.

Hayden snuck out to the hall and placed his ear against the door Matt had entered. He could hear clattering and Matt muttering, "Where's the switch?"

Hayden switched the signs back and bolted the storage-room door just as the call-guy, a husky fellow apparently in his late teens, rounded the corner.

Matt had obviously heard the bolt, for he immediately began banging on the door. "HEY! LET ME OUT!"

Hayden thumped the door contentedly. He could hear Matt's voice coming through the door, but it was difficult to make out his exact words.

"Hey," said a voice behind him. Hayden turned face-to-face with the call-guy.

"Who's in there?" he asked, pointing a thick finger at the door.

"This?" Hayden replied coolly, "This is a fellow by the name of Max Porter, and he's been causing trouble. I think his dad is on the lighting crew or something, but this little guy is convinced he ought to be on the stage. Mr. Porter closed him in here for time-out and told me to watch him, but I have to be somewhere else. Would you mind taking over? He's just supposed to stay until the performance is over."