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natural ability.
    “Places!” Jim’s order rang in their ears, and the cast scampered to the wings as the opening lights glittered in their colored gels.
    “Slow down a bit on ‘Turn Back Oh Man,’” Lara hissed in final instruction as Vickie nodded an okay and rushed along with the others.
    “Curtain!” Jim commanded.
    The magic of the theater began, stilling every noise in the audience of hundreds. Vickie forgot everything but the play, becoming an integral part of the wheel that made the fantasy on the stage live—singing, dancing, and giving a spontaneity to her lines that belied the fact she had already been saying them for four weeks.
    “Good, up show!” Monte praised them as the curtain brought an end to act one. “Keep up that energy!”
    “You sure are in a good mood,” Vickie commented as he tweaked her heart-painted cheek in passing. “Not that I’m not, but you should let us in on the stars in your eyes!”
    “One ‘star.’ Our guest is here.” Monte smirked. “He came in a day early.”
    “He must have conjured up the spirit of Clark Gable!” Bobby Talford, the talented, homely actor playing the Christ role, said with a grimace. “I’ve never seen Monte this smug over a summer acquisition, and I’ve been here ten years!”
    “Listen, smarty,” Monte replied with good humor. “You, Mr. Talford, of all people, will be wiping that patronizing expression right off your face when you see who it is!” With that he folded his hands behind his back and walked away jauntily, knowing he had embedded new fits of curiosity.
    “Me of all people,” Bobby mused as they waited for the curtain to rise on act two. He looked at Vickie, his face scrunched in bewilderment.
    “Hey, don’t look at me!” she protested, laughing. “I haven’t the faintest idea of who he is talking about. Have you had any crushes on any macho motormen lately?”
    “Real cute, Victoria,” Bobby retorted, lightly pulling one of her black pigtails. Shrugging his perplexity away, he continued. “I guess I don’t have long to be curious, but Monte’s secrecy has been driving me crazy!”
    “Me too,” Vickie admitted. “I even stayed today to try and trick him into telling me, but no go.”
    “Oh, we’ll know in about an hour,” Bobby whispered as they once more heard Jim calling “Places.”
    “Probably no big deal!” Vickie whispered back, moving to her spot in the wing. “Monte likes suspense.”
    Later that night she would wince in memory of her own words. But luckily she didn’t know that now. Susan Morgan and Lynn Vale, the other two women rounding out the female side of the cast, entered into a tapped rendition of “Learn Your Lessons Well” and act two was on its way.
    Toward the end of the show, a faint glimmer in the darkened audience caught Vickie’s attention for a split-second. The muted light of a single candle had caught on a patch of blond hair. Odd, she thought. She hadn’t noticed anyone with a truly golden head of hair in the audience when she had playfully run about flirting with her “Turn Back Oh Man” number. She dismissed the slight feeling of confusion. One of her cues was coming up. Then Christ was being crucified on the white picket fence, and it was time for the finale.
    The curtain fell on act two only to reopen for the cast to take their bows to the sound of thunderous applause. They sang “Day by Day” again, and finally all ran off for the wings and their dressing rooms.
    “Hey!” Jim caught them. “Forget changing for the moment. Monte wants you all out front and center in five minutes.”
    Grumbling slightly, they all meandered toward the stage. “This better be good,” Terry said with an exaggerated yawn. “I’ve got a date.”
    “We’re meeting our mystery guest,” Vickie told her, wishing that he hadn’t arrived early. She was longing for the comfort of home and the cool, crisp sheets of her bed. The greasepaint on her face was beginning to itch and her