Tears of an Angel

Chapter 11

Misato sat alone in the restaurant and just noticed that she was indeed the only individual in the restaurant. She seemed stumped (not like a log.)

"Where is everyone? If this restaurant is this bad then maybe we shouldn't have come here. I will round up Shinji and the gang and make him and Kaworu go shopping for ramen again. Alright, guess it's time to leave, but I need to use the bathroom first."

Boy, if it had taken that long for Misato to realize that something was wrong then she must be cookoo in the cranium. She picked up her purse and headed for the bathroom down the hall. She stopped when she thought she heard voices crying for help.

"Hello? Who is there?" Misato felt a cold shiver. "Brr...it's chilly! Why is it so cold down here?" She spotted the big, iron, gray door. This is a bathroom? Looks like a freezer to me but that can't be right so...

Pause.

awkward silence

"Kaworu?" She stared at Kaworu's hanging head from the window that smiled in pure happiness of salvation. She seemed as though this was a joke.

"Why, hello, Misato-chan. You are probably wondering why I'm in this position, well...it's a funny story actually..."

"Spare me the lurid details, if any," she said.

"MISATO!!!!!!" shouted the rest of the Eva children.

"As you can see, we are kind of...stuck inside the freezer. Misato, please set us free! We desperately need to get to the school for the play! Please! We all can go out together another night, but tonight is very important! We're already late as it is! Please let us out! We're helpless without your intelligent, brave, and beautiful rescue tactics!"

Misato was so touched that she began to cry. "Oh, Kaworu...guys...I-I never knew you saw me that way, OK; I'll let all of you out." Everyone cheered, and Misato opened the door and a herd of customers and staff members stormed out of the freezer. Misato peeked into the freezer and saw that Shinji, Rei, Toji, and Asuka were as pale as snow and literally...almost snow.

"We're-We're...going to the school...NOW!!!" Asuka declared, her teeth jittering.

"Y-Yes...indeed," Rei said. They started out the door and to the school, forgetting to bid Misato good-bye. They were already late enough, so they better run faster than a jack rabbit on a hot date.

"Well...all they had to say was that they just needed to leave, that's all," Misato said to herself.

"We just didn't want to upset you or desert you when we knew you've looked forward to coming here," Kaworu said to her.

"Thank-you and the others," Misato replied. "You guys are very considerate. I'm sorry I pulled you all here on the night of your school production; I was being selfish."

"It is alright."

"Wait, why aren't you headed for the school, Kaworu?"

"First...can you get my head unstuck from the door?"

"Oh, sorry. Here..."

Meanwhile, back at the school

"WE WANT A SHOW! WE WANT A SHOW!" cried the audience. The drama club was in total apprehension of cancelling the show unless Shinji and everyone else showed up or execute another delay. The show was suppose to start almost a half-hour ago.

"Listen! Listen, everyone!" Mrs. Otonashi called out behind stage as club members crowded around her. "People, we really have to start the show now! I know that our leads have not shown up, so just do anything until we people backstage figure something out! Now, go out there and try to make it a darn good show!" The drama club didn't cheer. Music started to play out from the loud speakers as the curtain rose to a puritan Massachusetts town around the year 1642.

Townspeople started to walk on stage, pantomiming dialogue and moving their bodies to a rhythm of how they pretended to speak. One townsperson started with a line not from the script.

"My, my, it is a lovely morning today! I could live to be one hundred and never get tired of these days in Boston."

"Indeed," another townsperson added, "I hear the rains will come soon, and our farmers will have a splendid harvest this year! We will have a grand Halloween celebration with all the food!"

"Let us go fishing and eat straw!" said another; the audience laughed at that one.

"Now, now, Goody Levy, we don't mimic how our horses live by the day." The sound of church bells began to strike from the sound system.

"Oh, look! It is time for church! How I love to attend church! I look forward to it all week!"

Backstage

"Watanuki, you dip!" whispered one of the stage crew members from the back door. "You were suppose to play the autumn time music then the game time tune, not the church bells! That's not until scene three!"

On stage

"What ho! Me thinks I see our fair Governor Winthrop coming down the lane."

"Me thinks you pretend too much, Sir Hollows," said the baker, nudging the other boy in the arm. "Kaworu isn't here yet, remember?" he whispered in his ear.

"Oh, yeah...Ahem, yes, I think I have seen wrong. Winthrop is very busy at the courthouse this morning."

"Why do you say that, Sir Carter?"

"Have you heard of Mistress Prynne? Hester Prynne? Wife of Roger Prynne?"

"Yes, what about her?"

"She is being convicted today at the hour of noon! She has committed sin!"

"Oh Jesus! How? When?"

"Months ago. She has had a heavy affair with another gentleman while her husband was not yet declared dead. That, in this society, is declared adultery!"

"She deserves to hang at the gallows!"

"Wait! That's not all!"

"What else?"

"She is with child due to this crime!"

"My God! I must see this for myself!" There was a loud crash back stage that the audience definitely heard that birthed an awkward silence in the auditorium. "Oww! Watch where you put your foot you idiot!" came a familiar voice.

"Ummm...I believe on my word I see Governor Winthrop coming around the corner!" Kaworu came running on the stage fixing his costume and hat, and he still had a piece of the iron door from the West Hill around his neck; he broke it off and flung it off stage and someone called out "HEY!" This play wasn't even five minutes over and everything was going wrong.

"Good morning, Governor!"

"Uh...top of the morning to you all! And how are you all doing this fine and beautiful morning?" Kaworu nailed his first line. At least something turned out right so far.

"How is the case of Hester Prynne coming along if I ask?"

"Who? Oh, Hillary Duff, yes, the case is coming along sweet!" Kaworu screwed up accidently. Oh, no!

The others looked at each other as the audience laughed uncontrollably. Mrs. Otonashi was hitting her head with a copy of the script saying "Why me? Why me?" As if things couldn't get anymore weird, Asuka, dressed in her Mistress Hibbins outfit (totally crazy), came on stage with her cane and laughing like a wicked witch would.

"Good day, my brother!" she greeted Kaworu...urm...Governor Winthrop.

"Ah, little sister," Winthrop answered, " I pray you are well."

"Oh ho, ho, ho, ho, ho," Asuka laughed. "Well, I've never felt better today! What about that Hester woman? How is she holding up nowadays, brother?"

"I am sworn to secrecy about her. The case of Mistress Prynne shan't be discussed any further until the hearing today at noon!" Kaworu said.

As the play continued in a (slow and invisible) positive headway, Rei hurried into her costume and scurried behind the set and asked if it was her scene yet and it was not. She decided to go and help Toji and Shinji with their make-up until it was time for a scene change.

"How are they doing out there, Rei?' Shinji asked.

"Pretty good, considering we are guaranteed to mess the whole thing up."

"No we won't," Toji reassured Rei, who was doing Shinji's eye liner. "We'll be fine."