A Parting Rose

Chapter 3: The Audition

(Read previous chapter for disclaimer)

Kevin looked at the audition paper beneath his palm. The list of names of people interested in auditioning was not very long and apparently he was the only one auditioning for the part he wanted. No proud adult usually chose to play the part of a young teenager; they normally went for the more challenging, dramatic parts… the main roles, mostly. Yet the audition sign-ups were not over yet. Anyone else could audition for the same part he wanted after he left the theatre. He glanced around, making sure his hat covered up his eyes enough. He did not want to run into his mother, or their family friend Bonnie, or anyone else he knew would recognize him while he was out doing this without his mother's permission. But he had been determined to try out for the part regardless of what his mother said.

He pressed the pen down on the paper and began to scribble down his full name: Kevin J. Darrow. He bit his bottom lip and reconsidered having put down his actual name. If his name showed up on the newspapers in the entertainment area, his mother would surely find his name out. Perhaps if he used a different last name…

"Hurry up, kid, we haven't got all day!" the elder man on the other side of the desk cried impatiently as he smoked a cigarette and blew the smoke toward the boy's face. "If you ask me, I think you're wasting your precious time. You're just a kid and I doubt you have hardly any talent in you. And if fame is what you're looking for, you won't get any out of one of Jack Driscoll's plays. They've been the shit lately." He blew another ring of smoke towards Kevin.

Kevin cringed in disgust and hurriedly scratched out the rest of his name so that only Kevin showed. Then he dropped the pen and hurried out of the office before the man could ask any questions.

---

"Hurry up Jack, the audition's already started." Robert led Jack through the empty rows of seats and finally settled in the front row. Jack looked up at the stage to find a person already auditioning, being evaluated by the casting director. "We've already got the main roles, you know, but we still need cast members for the minor roles."

"What roles are left?"

"The butler, the whore, and… the son. But I doubt anyone's come to audition for that one, I clearly told Maggie that we were looking for a man of low stature and slim features… after all, the son is only a boy of ten." Robert nodded towards a boy that couldn't have been more than fifteen fixing the stage lights. "I've already told James over there to do the part otherwise. He ain't got much talent, but he's been working with the stage for weeks now and has memorized lines from watching. He'll do."

The casting director, Maggie, wrote a few things down on her clipboard and nodded towards the gray-haired man standing on stage. She was a woman in her early forties, the wrinkles only just beginning to show on her face, and she was wearing bright red lipstick, the only thing that drew attention to her pale face. "Mr. Thompson, we have ourselves a butler," she said, turning to Robert and Jack.

"And the whore?" Robert inquired.

"A Loren Smith nailed the part while you and Mr. Driscoll were on your way here," replied Maggie. "We only have the role of the son left."

Robert began to leave his seat, gesturing towards the boy at the lights. "James…"

"Mr. Thompson, we have someone."

Robert stopped and looked back at Maggie, then at Jack, who simply shrugged. "Someone's come to audition?" he said, taken aback. He sat back down between Maggie and Jack and looked at the list of names on Maggie's lap. "A Kevin… well, put him on the stage already, let's get this over with!"

When the boy appeared on stage, even Jack was taken by surprise. He hadn't expected an actual child to audition for the role. He knew it would have been hard for the theatre to find an actual child for the role he created, knew it would not look realistic enough to have a fifteen year old take the role of a ten year old boy… but it hadn't really mattered to him what happened to the role. He had finished most of the script for Robert in a week but found that he wasn't that much interested in the play to begin with. He was mostly doing everything for Robert but he could care less what happened to his play. He knew it wasn't his best anyway.

The boy stood timidly on stage, as if waiting for the cue to begin. "So you're Kevin, eh?" Kevin nodded to the director. "Just Kevin? Don't you have a last name, boy?"

"It's just Kevin, sir."

Robert laughed at the incredulity of it. He looked at Jack to see if the playwright shared a similarly amused expression on his face, but Jack was serious. He had a hand on his face and was looking at the boy with a look that Robert could only interpret to be of tender curiosity. Robert chose to ignore him for now and turned back to the boy.

"How old are you?"

"Eight, sir."

Eight. Two years younger than the ten years the character had. But it was no matter. He still fit the part perfectly; he was tall and looked the age of ten so it wasn't much to worry about. What Robert did worry about, however, was if this young kid had the talent to act out a couple of scenes.

"Okay… you ready to start, then?" Robert clapped his hands together and leaned back in his seat.

"Oh yeah, sure," Kevin straightened up. He was just about to begin when---

"Wait---kid!" Robert sat up again. "Don't you need the script for your lines?"

Kevin shook his head proudly. "I've memorized them!" he said.

"All of 'em…?" Kevin nodded. "You've had just two days to prepare and you've memorized more than ten pages worth of lines?"

"Well, not all of them, see… I still have to finish the last couple of lines from the last act."

"What the---? What are you playing at, you can't possibly have---"

"Robert," and this time Jack spoke, head still resting on his hand. "Just let the boy start." Robert calmed down and took his seat again. No matter how many times Jack looked at his face, he couldn't quite put his finger on it. The boy---Kevin---had a face remarkably familiar. Yet Jack couldn't quite figure it out; he was sure he had never met the boy before. And yet… Kevin took just one small fraction of a second to smile faintly at the frustrated director and then it hit him, like a bullet to the face. It was then that her face, her smile flashed right in front of him for an infinitesimal moment and Jack froze in his seat. His heart skipped a beat. He could have sworn he saw Ann in that smile.

Both Robert and Maggie took no notice of the uneasiness the boy was giving to the playwright as they marveled at his obvious talent. Jack gave himself a moment to calm down, to face reality. It had only just been a moment that the boy had greatly reminded him of Ann, that didn't necessarily mean he was related to her at all. Jack's mind was just playing tricks on him---it would make sense, he had done nothing but think of Ann. His longing was forcing him to have momentary flashes of her, nothing more.

It was hard to convince that to himself, however. Not only had his smile looked awfully familiar to Jack, but now his acting as well. His style and passion for it resembled hers no less besides the fact that he didn't have the same talent to act out humor as she did. When he laughed, mocked, and attempted to pull off some great witty lines, he failed tremendously at it. But once he was given serious, dramatic scenes to play, he managed to do them impressively well and without tripping himself to mortification. The more and more he acted, the more Jack convinced himself that he had possibly crossed paths with the child of Ann Darrow. Not that he felt any comfort at all in knowing that she had moved on without him.

The audition was over and everyone was packing to go home. Robert was giving a few pointers to Kevin, though he carried a wide smile on his face. "You were amazing, boy! Definitely got the part, no doubt! We might have to work on the humor part a bit, but other than that, you are simply remarkable!" When the director finally left Kevin on his own, Jack purposely lingered after the others, watching him adjust a messenger bag on his shoulder and put a hat on. When he turned around and almost collided into Jack, he muttered a small "I'm sorry" under his breath and hurried to the exit.

"Wait."

Kevin stopped in his tracks and turned to Jack. "Yeah?" he asked.

"You were… you were really good up there tonight," said Jack, not knowing why he hadn't just jumped straight to the point and asked who the kid's mother was.

Kevin grinned. "Thanks, Mr. Driscoll," he said, his smile giving Jack a heavy heart as he was strongly reminded of Ann again. "I've been doing theatre my whole life."

"Really…" There was an awkward silence between the two, neither of them becoming aware of how alike they looked as they shifted in their position and searched for words to end the conversation properly. "Well…" Jack started, "surely you must have a last name. You can't be just Kevin." Jack wanted to slap himself as he then noticed how his words sounded.

Kevin frowned, and seemed to be giving his statement a lot of thought.

"I didn't mean to sound intruding…" said Jack quickly. "You just… really reminded me of this actress I once worked with."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Driscoll, but no one else in my family's ever been related to the theatre," replied Kevin, perhaps a little too fast. He pulled down his hat to hide his green eyes and quickly left the theatre. But at least now Jack could breath a sigh of relief… the boy was not related to her, after all.

Author's Notes: I know, I took a long time to update. But I just couldn't come up with a way to continue the story. I know how everything's gonna happen, I've got all the major things planned in my head, it's what's in-between I'm having trouble with. I had another, different scene I wanted to do for this chapter, taking place before the auditions and all, then I changed my mind and decided it wouldn't work out if it occurred right now, so now I'm saving it for a later chapter. As for the characters… I hope I keep them in-character from this point on, because it was hard writing Jack in this chapter. Not being able to see the movie King Kong whenever I please, it's been hard to remember how the characters really were and all… I'm waiting for the DVD to come out so I can refresh my memory.

And as always, I appreciate the feedback. Thanks.

- Lain Starks