I hope I haven’t oversold it, Kate thinks as the lights go down. She has essentially promised Willem an apprenticeship based on last night’s performance, but David has to agree. She is sure David will agree. Willem had been that good. But she is nervous now. They’ve offered apprenticeships to foreigners before, but sparingly, because the visa paperwork and union issues are such a headache.
Willem enters the stage. “As I remember . . .” he begins as Orlando.
Kate breathes a sigh of relief. She hasn’t oversold it.
• • •
It is better than last night. Because there are no walls. No illusions. This time, they know exactly who they are speaking to.
“The little strength that I have, I would it were with you”.
She is his Mountain Girl.
“What would you say to me now, an I were your very very Rosalind?”
No more pretending. Because he knows. She knows.
“Fair youth, I would I could make thee believe I love.”
She believes. They both do.
“I would kiss before I spoke.”
The line is a kiss. Their kiss.
“For ever and a day.”
For ever and a day.
• • •
“Holy shit,” David says to Kate when it is over.
Kate thinks I told you so, but doesn’t say anything.
“And this is the hitchhiker you gave a ride to in Mexico?”
“I keep telling you, he wasn’t a hitchhiker.” David has been giving her grief about giving a ride to a stranger for months now. Kate keeps reminding him that all people are strangers, initially. “Even you were a stranger to me once,” she’d said.
“I don’t care if he was three-legged ape,” David says now. “He’s unbelievable.”
Kate smiles. She loves lots of things, but she especially loves to be right.
“And he wants to apprentice with us?”
“Yep,” Kate says.
“We can’t keep him off a stage for long.”
“I know. He’s green. The training will do him good. And then we can sort out union issues and get him up there.”
“He’s really Dutch?” David asks. “He has no accent.” He stops for a second. “Listen to that. They’re still applauding.”
“Are you jealous?” Kate teases.
“Should I be?” David teases back.
“That boy is hopelessly in love with some American girl he found and lost in Paris. As for me, I’m hopelessly in love with some stranger I met five years ago.”
David kisses her.
“Do you really have to go back tonight?” Kate asks. “You could come out after with Willem really quickly and then we could give the squeaky bed at the Major Booger another go.”
“Just one?” David asks.
They kiss again. The audience is still applauding.
• • •
Allyson notices the kissing couple. It’s hard not to, because people are starting to meander out of the theater and they are still kissing. And because, much as she’s looking forward to getting to know Willem’s friends, what she really wants to do is what that couple is doing.