Remember the play...

When was the last time Ronnie had seen a play? About a week ago...

A smile rose to her lips for the first time in days when she recalled the night of the "Man Behind the Mask". She had always loved the story of the Phantom of the Opera. This had been the best version yet, in her opinion. Tony Bradshaw had been entirely too handsome to play the part of the Phantom. And yet, he had been wonderfully moving and sensitive as he portrayed the monster who lived deep down underneath the Paris Opera House.

Ronnie and her boyfriend, Billy, had been hanging out in Deep Ellum one Friday night, having some dinner and drinks before going to see a midnight movie. When she saw the poster advertisement of the play held in a small black box theater, she could barely contain her excitement.

But she had quite a time convincing Billy to change their plans. He was more interested in seeing a late night showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The thought of missing out on a "Phantom" play just to hear a bunch of kids and druggies yell profanities at a movie screen was akin to blasphemy in her opinion. When she offered to pay for it, blowing what little money she had left in her bank account for their tickets, he grudgingly agreed.

Midway through the show, she almost wished that they had just parted ways so she could have seen the show alone. During the entire show, he seemed to be sulking. At intermission, he said he was bored and wanted to leave, but she absolutely refused to go with him. During the second act, she could have sworn she heard him snoring right during one of the Phantom's love songs.

However, most of the time, she was too caught up in the story of the Phantom to let her annoyance with Billy get to her. The romantic songs combined with the beauty of Bradshaw's voice swept her away. When he would go into long speeches about his love for Christine, she wanted to cry. As he spoke of the horror of his face, she wanted to hold him in her arms and comfort him. She dreamed of being his lover and taking away all of his pain.

When the show was over, she hated to come back to reality. If only there could really be a man like Erik, the Phantom of the Opera...with such passion and romance and danger and charm and angst and...

"That show was so cool!" Ronnie enthused.

Billy said nothing.

"I'm going to see it again once I get hold of some cash."

She wondered how many term papers she would have to write for other students to scrape up the funds for another ticket.

"Not with me, you're not!" Billy argued. "I can't believe I missed Rocky Horror for that garbage!"

Ronnie said nothing, absolutely stunned.

"Please tell me you're not serious," she finally stammered once she could talk again.

"Oh, get off it, Ronnie! That was just another dumb show about the faggot Phantom of the frigging Opera. That whole story is so 'been there, done that.' And I thought that actor guy was pretty lame actually."

She could not believe what she was hearing.

"Were we watching the same show?"

Billy said nothing.

"Some people just have no soul," she sneered.

"Yeah. Whatever. Look, my roommate's going to be out tonight. Do you want to come over to my dorm?"

Ronnie had never been particularly attracted to Billy. She only dated him a few times because her matchmaker roommate, Pam, talked her into it. At the time, she had been so lonely that she was willing to go out with almost anyone. But Billy had taught her a very important lesson. Sometimes it's preferable to be alone on a Saturday night with a Blockbuster video than with a creep that you can't stand!

"I don't think so, Billy."

Her icy tone made its mark. She never heard from him again. And good riddance!

Even though the Phantom had been indirectly responsible for her breakup with Billy, she could not regret that night. Never before had she been overwhelmed with so much emotion. And she yearned to write it down and get it all out of her system. But what could she write that had not been written about him? What could she say that had not been said?

She had made a few stabs at writing a story, a little romance with Meg Giry. But after awhile, she felt silly. With mid-terms coming up and the death of her grandmother, she completely got sidetracked.

But how could this Instant Messenger know all of that about her?

She began to type.

Ron2812: You mean the play about the Phantom of the Opera?

Erik: The play about me...

She snorted with mirth, almost spilling her soda at the same time.

Ron2818: Yeah, right. And I'm the Bride of Frankenstein!

Erik: IT IS NO LAUGHING MATTER!

Ron2818: Okay. Are you Billy or one of his friends? Whoever you are, good joke. LOL. Ha ha. Goodbye.

Erik: Good God, woman! What are you prattling on about? Are you mad!

Ron2818: Calm down, sweetheart. The men in white coats will come for you real soon.

Erik: I don't know what you mean by that, young woman, but I suspect that you are being extremely insolent!

Ron2818: Look, don't take this the wrong way, but you are a fictional character made up by Gaston Leroux. Read the book sometime, you idiot!

"Ronnie, are you awake, sweetie?"

There was a knock at her door.

"Coming, Dad."

Ronnie turned off the computer with a sigh. Whoever her prankster was, she was thankful to him for giving her a much needed laugh. For a few moments, she had almost forgotten about all of the sadness of the last few days.

However, when she went to bed that night, she became unnerved again as she recalled some of the unexplainable things that had happened. She chalked it up to drunkenness and nerves. Then she able to sleep.


Elizabeth's funeral was set for the following Saturday.

Ronnie used the spare time on Thursday and Friday to go back to class in Fort Worth and catch up with her notes and assignments.

Everyone had been very nice to her. Popular students in class who had never spoken to her before gave their condolences about her grandmother. She was moved by the sympathy, but really wished that people would just drop the subject. She had hoped that she could forget about death...at least for the next two days.

There was also one other compelling reason for her to go back to school.

The cast list of The Skin of Our Teeth was posted. She remembered her audition. They had a new faculty member this year who seemed to be very impressed with her work in class. Although she had been shunned so far for every production, maybe this year would be different!

Hurrying to the Drama Department bulletin board, she found the list. Almost all of the parts had been initialed and accepted. She scanned the list once...twice...three times...

Her name was not on it.

Hot tears burned in her eyes.

This had been her last chance to be in a show before she graduated. And she had wanted to be in a play so much. Any part would do.

What good was it to be a theater major if you had never been in a play during your whole college career? Why wouldn't anyone give her one damned part? She could act just as well as any of those sorority chicks who spent more time on booze and boys than on their lines on stage!

Every audition for every play had been the same ever since she was a freshman. The teachers all remarked on her well-interpreted script readings or on how hard she must have worked on her monologue. Sometimes, she would even make callbacks. And over and over, it was always the same result...a posted cast list without her name.

All in all, she had spent four years slaving away in the Technical Theater Department. She had sewed buttons on costumes until her fingers bled, enduring the mean-tempered witch who ran the Costume Department. She had climbed up scary ladders to creaky catwalks, adjusting stage lights and terrified that she would fall and break her neck. She had sat for hours, dying of boredom in the University Box Office, selling tickets for the main stage shows. She had used power drills and power saws to make flats. But she couldn't even have one small part with one small line in one of their all-important plays!

She knew that she should have been an English major instead!

Well, to hell with them all! In two months, she would be out of this hellhole for good!

But it was cold comfort.

Also, it was so humiliating. She just knew that all of the other people in the Theater Department were either laughing at her or feeling sorry for her. And she wished that they all would go to Hell!

Ronnie ran to her dorm room. Grateful that Pam was not there, she collapsed onto the bed and punched her pillow over and over. "Those bastards!" she repeated over and over. "I hate them! I hate every stupid stinking one of them!"

The computer turned on all by itself, causing Ronnie to jump out of her skin.

MS Word opened up.

WRITE FOR ME! There were those familiar words in a 48 point Bold Arial font, sprawling all the way across the monitor.

"Oh, it's you again," she mumbled, disbelieving.

The words repeated over and over until they filled up the entire screen.

Ronnie blinked, feeling such a strange sense of unreality, like she was in a dream.

"You really are a ghost?" she asked.

YES! blared the computer screen.

"And you're...the Phantom of the Opera?"

YES!

For a moment, she could do nothing but sit still in shock.

"Well, damn!"