Wood Sprites

And then Mrs. Darling was gone, exiting stage right, disappearing into the darkness. Louise felt the burn of tears suddenly and blinked rapidly. Why was she crying?

* * *

Act One ended with Peter and the Darling children flying out the nursery window to thunderous applause.

Louise closed the curtains as she dimmed the lights and cued the intermission music. Tapping her timer, she sent the walls of the nursery up into the rafters and brought the forests of Neverland down. “Get the beds offstage,” she whispered once she stopped moving the big sets around. “Move the rocks on.”

A square of light in the back of the darkened theater caught her attention. For a moment, the figure of a man in uniform stood there, outlined in brilliance from the lobby. Was that a police officer?

She brought up the house lights slightly to verify that it was a policeman in blue, cap on his head.

Principal Wiley had noticed the lights go up and glanced about in confusion and spotted the officer. He hurried over to the policeman, and the two exchanged greetings. The officer said something and Principal Wiley reacted with visible shock and dismay. Hand over mouth, he looked toward the stage.

Louise whimpered. She’d never seen an adult look so distraught. It was terrifying. What could have caused Principal Wiley to look that way?

“Louise!” Mr. Howe murmured. “The music ended.”

She lowered the house lights. Just as the theater went dark, the back doors opened again, highlighting that the police officer and principal were leaving together.

* * *

Something had happened. Something horrible. Something related to the play or someone in the play.

She took out her phone and typed in a text with shaking hands. “Are Mom and Dad with you?”

“No.” Nikola responded. “They never showed up.”

She dialed her mother. After six rings, the phone went to voice mail. Her father’s phone simply stated that the user couldn’t be reached. What did that mean? She tried her mother again, but it went straight to voice mail.

“Louise! The act is ending!” Mr. Howe paused with his fingers over the console, obviously wanting to push buttons but not sure which ones. “Close the curtain!”

“Yes, I’m getting it.” She tucked away her phone and stabbed the correct button. As the wall of curtains rolled shut, she triggered the intermission music. What else? What was she supposed to do? Everyone was offstage, waiting for the big backdrop of the mermaid lagoon to be lowered from the rafters. She used the sliders to carefully set them into place and then flicked on the holographic projectors, covering the stage with rolling surf.

Jillian was across the stage, helping to move Marooner’s Rock into place, watching her with worry. “What?” Jillian mouthed.

“Later.” Louise motioned for her to focus on the play. She could barely think past the flood of worry. One of them had to stay clearheaded. Why weren’t their parents answering their phones? Why hadn’t they texted to say why they were late? Why was the policeman here? What had the cop told Principal Wiley?

The timer on the intermission music was nearly over.

She triggered the holograph of the mermaid perched on the rock and opened the curtains back up. Her duties fulfilled, she pulled her phone back out.

She couldn’t bring up her father’s location. His phone had to be dead for nothing to register. She checked the GPS on her mother’s phone. It gave an address Louise didn’t recognize. As she zoomed in tight on the map, she gasped. It was a hospital. “Oh, no. No.”

What should she do? Was that why the policeman was here? Because their parents were in an accident and had been taken to a hospital?

* * *

The rest of the play was a blur. The massive boulder rolled on, crushing her underneath it. And then the play was over and whatever was coming next was sweeping toward them. The applause was loud and warm, but Louise felt hollow and that the sound was echoing through her. Zahara pulled her out onto the stage for the bow, and Jillian caught her hand and squeezed it tight. Jillian was shimmering with the excitement of being the star. Louise wanted to protect Jillian from the looming disaster, but she also wanted someone to lean on, to be strong.

Everyone poured down into the audience to be claimed by their parents.

Out of the crowd of adults came Principal Wiley, the policeman, and Miss Hamilton. Tears were streaming down Miss Hamilton’s face.

Jillian looked up at the adults and caught Louise’s hand like a lifeline. “What’s going on?”

“Oh!” Miss Hamilton cried. “Oh girls!”

She dropped to her knees in front of them and gathered them into her arms. Her lilac perfume was overpoweringly sweet.

“What’s wrong?” Jillian shouted.

“You’re scaring us.” Louise tried to push Miss Hamilton back. She wanted someone to cling to, someone to be strong for both her and Jillian, not this weeping person who mistook weakness for comforting.