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metal clanged against the
ceramic plate. He shrugged and said, "I'll figure it out."
    "I'm sure you will."
    "Want to read the review of South
Pacific ?" He tapped the folded copy of the Durham
News-Star on the table.
    "Just tell me the good parts," Leah said.
    "The avant garde staging and the sense of
nostalgia in a similarly war-torn era remind us all of the
timelessness of our humanity."
    "Jesus," Leah said.
    Adam nodded. "Sure as hell hope he likes Poe ."
    "Don't you have the reviews you want written
in your head already?"
    "Sure. But those will never, ever see the
light of day."
    Leah covered his hand on the table with hers,
and kept eating.
    He squeezed her fingers gently and said, "At
least the musical will."
    "Does it feel like giving birth?"
    "I have no fucking clue."
     
    * * *
     
    The set designer yelled at Leah not to break
anything. She stood gingerly in the center of the stage, surrounded
by fabric. Her jeans and sweatshirt belied the opulence behind her,
but Ward, wearing an undershirt and sweatpants, at least kept her
company. They sang together. They stopped, they started. Leah began
to feel like she knew what she was doing. She could close her eyes
and let the century slip away from her.
    Adam, conducting the five piece orchestra
he'd put together, smiled up at her and she hit the harder notes.
Ward's touches were more in the moment than inappropriate and when
she ducked his kisses and he sang wounded songs to her, she felt
her face grow warm.
    "That's a wrap," Adam said at seven, and the
crew and the musicians followed them home to sing around the piano
and drink, laugh and eat pizza.
    Leah settled onto the porch long after the
sun had set. She listened to the crickets and the frogs, beyond the
singing behind her, and let the heat invade her skin, and inhaled
deeply, letting happiness fill her.
     
    * * *
     
    "Jeremy, come on," Leah said, leaning against
the ticket window.
    "Honey, it's sold out. It's Shakespeare.
People dig that shit."
    "I'm not just a civilian, you know."
    "It's opening night. Next week I can hook you
up, girlfriend."
    Leah pressed her face against the glass.
    "Here," a voice said behind Jeremy. Leah
opened her eyes. Sophia slid a ticket toward her.
    "Thanks," Leah said.
    "You want to see me that bad?" Sophia asked.
She had on worn blue jeans and what looked like the same top from
the South Pacific party and no makeup. Still, Lady Macbeth
lurked within her, somewhere behind her eyes.
    Leah grinned. "You're in this?"
    "Just like Eve is kind of in the Bible."
    Leah tapped the ticket against her lips."
Thanks, again."
    "No problem. My mom couldn't make it."
Sophia's face fell, and she disappeared into the theater. Jeremy
looked after her and sighed. Leah gave him a sympathetic look and
ran off to find her seat.
    An older, gaunt woman in several layers of
shawl and overcoat that still managed to show she was too thin was
sitting next to her, and Leah ventured to ask, "Elaine?"
    Elaine smiled. She had bright blue eyes that
met Leah's without hesitation. "Do I know you?" she asked.
    "No. Sophia comped me the ticket, and I just
thought--"
    "She's a good kid," Elaine said.
    "I guess we'll finally get to see," Leah
said.

Chapter Seven
     
    Sophia shook the stage. Her love for Macbeth
was as palpable as her love of power. Her ambition felt like raw
need.
    Leah feared her. Her cajoling was cruel, and
her youth only added to her soulless, vulture-like character; her
seduction of an older man, her barrenness.
    Leah trembled. Elaine's breathing stopped and
started next to her. A gasp. Then silence, so that Macbeth's words
thudded without obstacle through the auditorium.
    When Leah found Sophia at the after party,
all she could think of to say was, "A tale told by an idiot."
    Sophia's smile was polite, but not the kind
Leah had won from her before, and behind it there was a tinge of
sadness that seemed to fade when Leah followed up with, "You were
amazing."
    "Thanks."
    "Really amazing, actually," Leah