Lily heard his voice crack and then he pulled himself together. ‘What are we waiting for? Let’s get right to it!’
The rehearsal descended into an unplanned repair session.
Lily was clutching one end of the backdrop while Sheila deftly sewed the tear as the rest of the cast got on with their tasks. Lily looked over at Nick who was working with the stagehands to check the rigging.
As Lily helped Sheila, she heard Andrew start to play the first chorus song – ‘Get Me to the Church on Time’ – and Alfred Doolittle started to sing and then the chorus joined in, followed by the rest of the cast and crew.
Lily looked around as she sang. This was what she loved about the theatre. Not the applause or the fame or ambition. This pulling together for something bigger than all of them.
At the end of the rehearsal Jasper stood on the stage and looked down at everyone in the show.
‘I want to thank you all,’ he said, his voice choked with feeling. ‘Tonight you have displayed professionalism and cooperation far beyond anything I have seen in professional shows. The essence of theatre is overcoming challenges together, and you have all done that in spades. Bravo! Now we will have our run tomorrow night instead. I hope that is possible, and if it’s not, be here anyway.’
Lily looked at Nick and smiled. He gave her a wink and she thought, if only Gran was well, this would have been the happiest she had ever been in her life.
33
With her head full of the lessons for the day, Lily ran down the Silverton Grammar hallway, her arms stuffed with sheet music that she had just copied for the choir.
As she turned the corner, she crashed into someone and her music went flying.
‘Oh, I’m so sorry!’ With a start, Lily scrambled to pick up the paper.
‘No damage done, sweetheart,’ a voice said. Looking up, Lily was taken aback to see Maureen there, wearing a bright blue apron with badges on it and a painted peacock on the front.
‘Maureen? Hello,’ she said, shocked to see Nick’s mum here.
Maureen laughed and her eyes gleamed. ‘Hello, what are you doing here?’ She gave Lily a hug.
‘I’m the new music teacher, just part-time,’ she said.
‘Oh, love, that’s great, how fantastic. Nick didn’t tell me you were working here.’
‘He didn’t tell me you were working here either.’ Lily laughed.
‘You think he might have mentioned it,’ Maureen said. ‘Honestly, these men sometimes.’
Lily laughed. ‘I know, but at least we know now.’
‘I wish we had spent more time together the other day. How was the movie?’
‘It was fun and we had a nice dinner after,’ said Lily.
The bell that announced the beginning of classes rang.
‘Oh, must dash!’ said Maureen. ‘But how about we catch up over lunch? Midday in the junior school staffroom?’
Lily nodded, still a little taken aback by the chance meeting. There was a tiny spark of enthusiasm that she couldn’t resist as she made her way to her classroom. Having a pleasant, familiar face at work would be good, especially if it was Nick’s mum. She had such a great, creative energy, it was infectious.
Lily went to the choir room, where the senior students were sitting, looking uninspired.
‘Hello, everyone, I’m Lily Baxter, your new choir teacher. Now if we can get into groups of sopranos, altos, tenors, baritones please?’
The students shuffled about, and finally they were settled and Lily handed out the music to them.
‘We are doing a song from a musical calledRent. Do you know it?’
There were a few glances and smiles and nods.
