December 16th: Rehearsals

"Everybody in position?" Mater quizzed everyone. They were all gathered at the drive-in theatre for a rehearsal of their Christmas play. "All right... Action!"

"Are we almost there?" Sally as Mary asked. "I'm having the baby soon."

"Bethlehem is just up ahead, honey", Lightning as Joseph read off of his script.

"McQueen, you still don't know yer lines yet?" Mater asked incredulously.

"Well, I only got the script three days ago!" Lightning countered defensively.

"I know all of my lines", Fudge put in proudly.

"Yeah, not everyone has your freakishly good memory, Fudge!" Lightning snapped, leaving the six-year-old bewildered.

"All right, let's not argue", Doc intervened. "Just continue."

So, they did. The rehearsal went somewhat smoothly for a little while, apart from Lightning looking at his script instead of Sally every time he spoke.

Knock, knock!

Sheriff as the innkeeper opened a makeshift door. "Can I help you?"

"Is there any room in the inn?" Lightning as Joseph repeated off the script in a monotone.

"Yes. Come on in."

"No!" Mater shouted. "You is s'posed to say no!"

"Oh, right", Sheriff recalled. "No."

Then he closed the door.

When it was time for the shepherds to come on, only Fillmore appeared on the makeshift stage.

"Where's Red?" Mater wanted to know.

Fillmore shrugged.

The fire truck appeared, quite visibly shaking. Tears shone in his eyes.

"It's okay, Red", Sally assured him gently. "There's no one else here. It's just us."

"For now", Red reminded her in a wobbly voice. "What about the real thing?"

Sarge snorted. "You're seriously worried about that? There won't be anyone here then either. This isn't even a real play."

"Yes it is!" Mater and Fudge insisted in unison, but nobody seemed to hear them.

"There won't be anyone here", Red acknowledged, "but Doc is going to have a video camera and send it to who knows how many people."

"I know", Sarge replied. "Just all of Mater's cousins."

"Let's talk about this some other time", Sally cut in not unkindly. "Red, you can do it. I know you can."

So, the fire truck stayed on stage, but he was shaking the whole time. He could barely say his lines.

The next disaster came in the wise men scene.

"Look at that star!" Mater as a wise man gasped, pointing to it (the star was made out of cardboard and aluminium foil and suspended above them from fishing wire). Only, by pointing, he accidentally hit Ramone in the grille.

"Hey! Be careful, man!" Ramone yelled, hitting him back. "You know how expensive this paint is?"

"It was an accident!" Mater insisted, thumping his tyre hard.

Before you knew it, a big fight had broken out. Mater and Ramone were yelling and slapping at each other childishly. Fudge and Lightning were shouting at each other, over memorising lines. Red and Sarge were arguing over the former's stage fright. Guido and Luigi complained about the cast.

Doc turned to Sheriff and whispered, "Remind you of our customer rehearsals?"

Sheriff smiled. Nobody had enjoyed those rehearsals very much either and they had ended in countless arguments.

Just then, the star was knocked off the fishing wire while Ramone was trying to avoid being hit again. It hit the floor, which wasn't a disaster, but then the Lowrider ran over it.

"It's bent!" Mater yelled accusingly. "You did that on purpose!"

"No I didn't!"

"Yes you did!"

"No I didn't!"

"Stop it!" Mater shouted and all fell silent. "Don't y'all wanna do this play?"

"Not really", about half a dozen voices responded.

Mater looked hurt. So did Fudge.

"Then why is you doin' it?" the former demanded. "Don't bother!"

"Look, guys, we're sorry", Lightning apologised. "It's just a lot of work and getting kind of stressful, but we'll get it done. I promise."

"Why don't we start over?" Sally suggested, even though it was the last thing anybody felt like doing.

That cheered Mater up a little bit. "Okay! Let's git R done! From the top, people! And... action!"

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