"Lucas, will you be still?" Henry ask as he fixed the younger man's cravat. Lucas was wiggling like an eel, and as steady of a hand as Henry had, he couldn't tie the knot.
"Do you you want me to strangle you?" Henry asked in exasperation.
"I wish you would," Lucas answered with his Adam's apple bobbing nervously.
The two men stood in the wings of the stage waiting for Lucas's turn at the mic for open comedy night. While the performer was bathed in light, everyone else was covered in shadow, including Lucas's friends standing with him in the wings.
"I don't understand why you want that silly tie," Hanson said as he looked over Henry's shoulder at Lucas.
"It's part of the act. You'll see," he assured him.
"If you're trying to impersonate Henry, you'd do better with a scarf than a tie," Jo said.
"Well, it's too late now," Lucas fretted. Quieter, he added, "And the doc won't let me use his scarf."
"You say that as if he owns only one," Jo joked back.
"Good luck," Mike said as he patted Lucas's arm.
Jo looked at the time and said to the others, "We'd better go have a seat. Reece has a spot for us near the front. Break a leg, Lucas."
He laughed nervously as his friends left the wings to their seats down front. He took several deep breaths to calm his nerves. The comedy club would be full of people. Alive people. There was a reason Lucas was better with the dead.
The master of ceremonies did the transition after the previous performer ended. "And next up from the OCME is the comic styling of Lucas 'Fernando' Wahl. Don't be a stiff and give it up!"
Lucas fixed his smile and trotted onto the stage.