6

Nikki

I stumbled out of the box and to the back parking lot. I forgot how to breathe and needed to learn again. Phantasma was the most amazing thing in the history of history. They performed dramatic, funny, ridiculous songs and skits, stuff I'd never heard or seen or imagined anything like. I could hardly remember the last time I saw the show, probably because I was ten years old and half asleep. This one was different. Unique. Amazing. I had to repeat the word hospital quietly to remember where I was going to pick up my dad's sister Auntie Tonya. She was best friends with my mom in her NYU days, which is how she met my dad, but never told me anything about my mom's apparent friendship with Mr. Y. She was sitting on a stone wall with her phone. I opened the window and called, "Hey, Auntie Tonya! C'mon!"

She put her phone in her purse immediately and ran to the passenger seat. "Five minutes late. Not like you, Nikki. Shame."

I rolled my eyes and smiled. "Did you get my text? I was seeing a show."

"Yeah, just," she replied as I started home. "Phantasma? Thirty bucks for a three-hour sideshow?"

"It's anything but a sideshow these days," I replied. "Just in the style of one. I'm acquainted with the mysterious Mr. Y dude because Barry sent me to get the rights for one of his shows that…that Mom was in."

"I know what you're talking about. I was too busy with nursing school to see it, but I heard so many great things," she said. "And you're stage managing?"

"No," I scoffed. "Barry asked me to assistant direct."

"Ah, look at you, moving up in the world," she said.

"Merp. It's going to be an educational experience, as Barry says every day," I replied plainly.

"Well, I'm excited," she said.

I pulled over at our brownstone and Auntie Tonya got out of the car at the same time as I did. As we walked up the stairs, she asked, "What do you want for dinner? I'm in the mood for pasta."

"Yeah, pasta's cool," I said. She wasn't much of a cook but she could feed a child like me. We went inside to be greeted by our pugs, Ezra and Doris. I said to Auntie Tonya, "Auntie Tonya, if you don't mind, I wanna get a head start on my homework because Nora and Lavon want to prepare for auditions with me."

"Go ahead," she said. She then addressed to the pups, "C'mon, pups, time to go do business."

I texted Nora and Lavon and we agreed to meet at Joe's at ten o'clock as I spread my homework out on the fire escape. Five math problems, some Russian studying to do, chemistry extra credit, and that was pretty much it. Normally I would be focused in my familiar safe haven, but every song I heard in the past three hours echoed through my head. One may think it would sound weird and annoying because they were all so different and dynamic, but they were amazing. I could do the chemistry, but not the math and not the Russian. I kept thinking of my experience at Phantasma, and what they were doing now. Especially, for some reason, Mr. Y.

I realized I wrote his name where I was supposed to write my name on the math, with the abbreviation for his title. Written in my own handwriting, it made more sense than the placard on his door. I erased the Mr. and rewrote it as Mister Y.

Mistery

Mystery.

Now I needed to know everything about this creepily fascinating guy.