Chapter 18: Where Do We Go From Here?
If you would have walked up to the Peanuts gang about a week ago and told them that they were gonna reopen a long since closed down community theater downtown and effectively make enough money to buy themselves a small car in only one night,it would be pretty safe to say that they would call you completely insane which would be quickly followed by Lucy and Peppermint Patty slugging you for being a grade A liar. But honestly what ended up being the craziest and most outlandish thing that would ever come out of such a ridiculous and frivolous charade was the revelation that they actually managed to pull it off after all,with some extra help from James for managing to get them the funds necessary for the crusade in the first place. It was a little while after all of the audience members had left the auditorium and the only ones left were of course the performers as they had merely decided to stay behind and clean up the place ahead of time so they wouldn't have to do it around the time they would start preparing for their next and final show,all the while they had changed back into their normal clothing attire.
Peppermint Patty,Charlie Brown and Sally were sitting at the edge of the stage and looking off into the now empty isles of theater seats as the round headed boy sighed and remarked in awe "You know it's not until you see what a packed crowd of audience members looks like,that you realize how huge and empty an auditorium can actually be." before Sally leaned her head down on her knees and blissfully reminisced about the show "I still can't believe we did all that in front of so many people big brother,it's like we were in a completely different world compared to our own. Except it was our own world the whole time." to which Peppermint Patty stretched out her arms and playfully retorted "Well that's the thing about the theater life,it gets so nuts and bonkers from time to time that you almost feel like you're in another world,and when you finally do come back to the real world,everything's all quiet and drab in comparison."
"Well I wouldn't really mind either life to be honest,as long as I no longer have to dress up as cows for my sister." Charlie Brown chuckled and joked as he was clearly referencing the disastrous talent show incident where he had to sacrifice his magic act and dress up as a cow in order to cheer his sister up after her cowgirl act fell flat on its face before Sally scoffed and tried to lighten up her brother's mood "Hey I still tried to get the school paper to give you half the credit big brother,besides I think that magic act of your's would have been a disaster anyway."
"Thanks for that Sally." Charlie Brown rolled his eyes and sarcastically thanked Sally for her "uplifting" words before the voice of Ed suddenly called out to them from behind "Timber!" to which the three kids turned around to see that Ed was just about to bring down one of the huge pieces of cardboard onto the stage floor as Charlie Brown,Sally and Peppermint Patty yelped at the sight and scurried out of the way just before the cardboard hit the floor with a loud thud.
"You could have warned us about that Ed,we could have been turned into pancakes!" Sally angrily scolded Ed for not bothering to warn them about the falling stage prop as Ed merely shrugged his arms and tried to defend himself "Hey I thought y'all's instincts would have kicked in by now,guess not then." before Franklin suddenly walked up to the cardboard and enthusiastically remarked "Alright,now that some of this stuff is down,I suggest that we find some way to savor it and see if we can use some of it for the last show." to which Shermy rolled his eyes and respectfully asked in response "Don't you think we're over planning this a bit? I mean we did just finish our first show and all,I don't think we need to be planning THIS far ahead."
"Yeah and our last one isn't even for another week." Pig-Pen nodded his head and agreed with Shermy's idea that they shouldn't be overworking themselves as Charlie Brown couldn't help but agree as well "I mean we do have quite a while until our next show,perhaps we could postpone the work for a while and save it for when the show actually starts coming around?" Franklin stood there in mostly silence for a few moments afterwards as he was clearly thinking the proposition over,but after a few more moments he seemed to have finally come to a decision as he shrugged his arms and obliged "Well I guess we don't have to be doing all the preparations NOW. Alright let's give ourselves a break and come back…...say…...two days before our next show on Christmas Eve night." to which Charlie Brown nodded his head and showed support for the idea "Okay that sounds reasonable,that ain't even for eight more days." before Violet gave a deep sigh of relief and happily added "Oh it certainly does Charlie Brown,we haven't had ourselves a break in days. So much for a nice winter vacation."
Freida on the other hand was a little more cautious in regards to the whole idea of relaxing for a while as she raised an eyebrow and politely asked "Well,what exactly are we gonna do during that time? It's not like we can do a whole lot with the bank constantly breathing down our backs." before Linus suddenly came strolling by with a huge silver case dragging on the floor behind him and groaned in a tired and sore tone of voice "Well I will be…..counting all this money. And given how heavy this thing is,I think we got ourselves a big load right here."
"Good grief,are there blocks of gold in that thing?" Lucy gasped and exclaimed in pure awe of the size and supposed weight of the case while Linus let go of the handle and let it fall on the stage floor with a loud thud that caused a small crack to appear in the floor,making everyone be left in a state of shock as Pig-Pen nervously gulped and murmured "I never thought I'd ever be intimidated by a stack of money,I guess you learn something new everyday." to which Charlie Brown rolled his eyes and offered "You know Linus,why don't you let me count the money this time?"
"Huh? YOU want to count the money?" Patty Swanson raised an eyebrow and asked in bewilderment that Charlie Brown wanted to count the money as Marcie respectfully added in disbelief "Charles are you sure that you can count all this money by yourself? There's likely a lot of it in that thing." to which the boy nodded his head and reassured them that he could do it "Yes I'm sure Marcie,Linus counted the money last time so I was thinking maybe someone else should do the honor this time."
"Well alright then,just don't hurt yourself when trying to lift this thing." Linus sighed and meekly obliged to let Charlie Brown count the money as the boy confidently replied "Don't worry I will Linus,I'll count the money tonight and take it to the bank tomorrow so they can take care of it." before James suddenly joined in on the conversation and suggested "Actually I suggest that you bring the money to me in my office,I think my father would prefer if it all was delivered in one complete batch." to which Charlie Brown slowly nodded his head and obliged with a little bit of confusion "Oh,alright James I'll do that."
"So,should we go ahead and head on home?" Rebecca sighed and suggested that they finally head on home for the night only for Ed to suddenly and quickly try to shut down that idea "Hold up,no way. Are we all forgetting that we literally just had a massively successful theater show that was shown on NATIONAL TV and covered by every news outlet in the country? Surely we have to celebrate the occasion in some way,shape or form." before Peppermint Patty instantly showed support for the idea while she slapped Ed on the back "You know Ed,you may be a bit of a crazy loon upstairs sometimes,but you sure do know the right time to celebrate a glorious occasion. What do you think everyone?"
Charlie Brown however was slightly skeptical to think that they could possibly find some way to celebrate the success of their show as he timidly intervened "I mean,sure thing Ed if you want to but,what exactly are we gonna do? You can't just be talking about Joe's or Ace's can you?" to which the hermit grew a little bit of an evil grin on his face and retorted while he oddly enough started to put on his suit and top hat back on "Oh I'm definitely not talking about Joe's or Ace's Chuck,I'm talking about something big….something that big time theater stars like us are truly deserving of,y'all will just need to get back into your fancy clothes if that's alright." The rest of the gang as a result of this was certainly intrigued by Ed's mysterious way to celebrate the success of their show as Linus raised an eyebrow and asked with a slight hint of caution "Ed,what exactly are you talking about here?" to which the now fully dressed hermit devilishly chuckled and explained himself "I'm talking…...about Sparkyville's Annual Christmas Ball."
