Hello, hello. Sorry about the inexcusable delay, but this story is almost done…one more chapter should do it. Read on and…Enjoy!
Diana was ready to start crying as she, Moody, and Gilbert moved out on stage. Whereis Anne? Why would she let us down like this? Something must be horribly wrong! These thoughts kept swirling through her head as they prepared to begin the scene. Gilbert and Moody has just finished setting up the desks in the corner of the stage where she –Diana, not Anne! she thought, panicked- would lie as Juliet. Finally, they were ready to start and they all moved offstage, behind a curtain.
Moody and Diana moved on the stage, acting as Juliet's intended husband, Paris, and his page, each of them bearing flowers, and the page bearing a torch.
Moody began. "Give me thy torch, boy: hence, and stand aloof; Yet put it out, for I would not be seen." He continued until he had said his last line, "Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee; go." Moody reached out to Diana, who was the page, and took the flowers from her.
Diana looked shocked as Moody took the flowers from her, looked at the audience with wide eyes, then seemed to snap out of her reverie and pronounced, in hushed tones to the audience in an aside, "I am almost afraid to stand alone Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure." She left the stage.
Diana, backstage, could still hear Moody reciting his soliloquy, and heard him say the line that set up Gilbert to give a loud, piercing whistle as warning that someone was coming. Finally, just as Diana stepped out dressed as Juliet, Moody retired off the stage and Gilbert, with Charlie Sloane as Balthasar, his trusted servant, waltzed on the stage.
Gilbert began with, "Give me that mattock, and the wrenching iron."
Diana looked at Moody with wide, terrified eyes, and silently pleaded, Don't make me do this! I can't be Juliet!
Moody looked at her sadly. "I know, Diana, but Anne's not here and you're the only other girl that knows the lines. I'm sorry."
Diana hung her head slightly, and decided that she could get through this. She quickly moved from one end of the stage to the other, behind the curtains, and quietly arranged herself to look dead on her 'tomb' of desks. The tomb was, so far, protected from the audience's view by a light curtain, that Gilbert would draw away when he opened the tomb.
Finally, after Gilbert had sent Charlie away, he made his way across the stage, and drew away the curtain. Before he had gotten a good look at 'Juliet', Moody entered the stage as Paris and declared, "This is that banish'd haughty Montague, The murder'd my love's cousin, with which grief It is supposed the fair creature died."
Gilbert had whipped around to face Moody, and Diana listened as they talked back and forth. She heard their wooden swords clash as they fought, and finally heard Moody 'die', proclaiming, "O, I am slain! –If thou be merciful, Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet."
Gilbert hauled Moody's prone body into the tomb, and laid him right beside the desk on which Diana was laying, dead. He then began his long-winded soliloquy while standing over Diana as Juliet. She heard him say, "O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die."
Diana opened her eyes just in time to see Gilbert lean stiffly into her, and they both awkwardly pressed their lips together briefly. Then, she felt Gilbert slump over her, having died.
At this point in their scene, they had someone draw the curtain so the Moody could be replaced with a straw dummy as the dead Paris, and so he could go offstage and re-enter as Friar Laurence.
Diana heard Gilbert breathe, "I can't believe she didn't show up…I never thought she wouldn't!"
Diana, in turn, muttered, "I'm going to kill her, when I see her!" and felt Gilbert give a jerk of laughter.
As they lay there, both dead, and listening to Moody and Charlie Sloane (as Balthasar) talk and enter the tomb, and discover the three dead bodies, both were thinking one thing. What happened to Anne?
"Romeo! O, pale! Who else? what! Paris too? And steep'd in blood? Ah! what an unkind hour Is guilty of this lamentable chance. The lady stirs." Moody announced all of this to the audience in a deeply sorrowful tone, and Diana almost missed her cue to begin to move, having awakened.
She then began, in a tremulous voice, "O, comfortable friar! where is my lord? I do remember well where I should be, And there I am. Where is my Romeo?
Thoughts were racing through her mind as she began her lines. Oh my Gosh! I can't do this! I'm going to mess up, and I'll be the laughingstock of all of Avonlea for ages! However, as she worked her way through her lines, she began thinking, This isn't so hard. I can't believe I was scared out of my wits about this!
She came to her last line, and proclaimed, "Yea, noise? then I'll be brief. O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rest, and let me die." Diana had grabbed the wooden dagger from Gilbert, and now stabbed herself with it, slumping over Gilbert's motionless form.
This was where they'd ended their scene, because they hadn't had enough people in their group to do the final portion of the scene. After a minute, to let the drama sink in for the audience, Gilbert and Diana stood up, and joined hands with Moody and Charlie Sloane, and took a bow amid thunderous applause. As Diana glanced to the side to see Miss Stacey, she thought she saw red hair and a blue, gingham dress walking away through the throng of people waiting offstage for them.
"Anne," she murmured.
Anne had fallen asleep. She had, pure and simply, fallen asleep. She had been so stressed about the performance, and having to kiss Gilbert Blythe again, that she had fallen asleep while pondering if she would be Juliet or not. And as she awoke, she had the feeling that something was dreadfully wrong. She sat up slowly, and rubbed her eyes, trying to call up from the deepest recesses of her mind, what it was that was so wrong. Then, as she looked at the clock, she knew. She knew that she had missed the performance.
And just like that, Anne Shirley knew that she had missed her chance, just like Marilla had missed hers.
Of course, that didn't stop Anne from jumping off the bed, and dashing into the bathroom to clean herself up and at least try to make it to the Hotel where the performance was to take place. As she washed her face, she thought furiously. Why didn't Marilla or Matthew wake me up? They should've woken me up!
Then, a thought struck her, and she froze. Marilla had woken her up. She had come into her room and scolded Anne for not being ready. And Anne had barely listened, and then, as Marilla had been about to drag her out of her bed, she had said that she was getting up right now, and that they (Marilla and Matthew) should just go on ahead and get a good seat at the play, and that she would be along in a minute. Marilla had relented, and had left Anne to her own devices to get ready and make it to the Hotel. But Anne –what had she been thinking? she scolded herself furiously- had thought about getting up, and had just dropped right back onto her bed and fallen asleep.
Now, she had awoken with a jolt, and a feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach.
It serves me right! she thought furiously. I should've woken up when Marilla came in to tell me to get ready! I should've gone with them, instead of insisting on going by myself.
She flew down the stairs, wrenched open the door, and took off running to the hotel. Within five minutes, she had the hotel in her sights. She could see that there were some people that were leaving, and the feeling of dread in her stomach increased ten-fold. She tore up the stairs of the hotel, and made her way to where she thought the backstage area would be. As she passed through the crowds, she saw some of her colleagues, and they all gave her nasty looks, as though she had let everyone down. Well, she thought reasonably, I may as well have! How well is this going to reflect on the school?
She pushed and shoved her way backstage, and what she saw on the stage made her insides freeze. She saw that their scene was over. Both Gilbert and Diana had died, and were now standing up to take a bow. Everyone was clapping, and that brought tears to her eyes. That should've been her out there onstage! If only she hadn't lost so much sleep over the issue last night! If only she hadn't insisted that Marilla leave her alone to prepare! If only…if only…
She sighed a defeated sigh, and turned away from the stage. Her group would be so unbearably disappointed in her that she couldn't face them right now. She began pushing her way out of the hotel, and then stopped. No. I can't leave without at least trying to explain…at least to Gilbert. He'd understand. I can't take the easy way out again. She changed directions and made her way to the backstage exit, where she was sure most of the actors would come out.
As she hunkered down and prepared herself for a substantial wait, she briefly thought that she probably should've brought a coat as it was quite cold outside at night. She shivered, and then sat down on an old, overturned barrel, keeping her eyes glued to the door.
Ten minutes later, she was still waiting, only now, she was also shivering more violently. In fact, she was shivering so violently that her teeth had begun to chatter incessantly. But still, she kept her eyes glued to the door, and she knew that she wouldn't move until he came out and she had a chance to explain.
Finally, after another ten minutes of waiting, she saw the door open, and a throng of people pushed their way out. Many of them didn't even look at her, and she couldn't help the tears that came to her eyes. Just as she thought that he had decided to go out the other way, she saw him coming as the door was closing. He was alone, and bundled up in a coat and scarf. As he pushed open the door, he looked up, and froze.
She stood up painfully, having almost frozen in that position, and made to take a step toward him, when she saw his expression.
He was frozen in the door way, looking at her through angry, tortured eyes. "Anne…" he hissed.
"Gil, I…" She raised her hand, as if to reach out and touch him…to assure herself that he really there, but her hand dropped back to her side. She suddenly asked herself what it was that she could say to someone who looked so disappointed, so angry, and so unbearably hurt?
And just as suddenly, she didn't have to say anything, because he had forcefully shut the door, and had taken off, away from her…and he was getting farther, and farther. And the farther he got, the more she began to think that the distance between them this time couldn't be breached…not by her efforts, and certainly not by his.
Alright, that's it for this chapter. Aren't you all sad now that Anne's realized it, and Gilbert's given up on it? It was sad…and sorry for all the confusing references to Shakespeare in the first half of the chapter, but I decided that it would be better if you could see the story play out. Anyway…I don't know when I can next update, but hopefully I can end this story this week…the final week before school starts. So, leave a review please, and check back soon.
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