Chapter 20

“I remember you from high school, Randall. You had a pretty good singing voice back then, but I never thought I’d be playing rehearsal piano for Randall and his little sister, Carol.”

Carol turned to me and looked scared shitless. Maurice ... who is this guy, I don’t remember anybody named Maurice?

“I can see by the look on your face, that you don’t remember me, do you, Randall? That’s OK—I’m Maurice Lebertain. We were seniors together; you on stage, and I was in the pit. Don’t worry even for a moment, either one of you. Your secret is absolutely safe with me. To make things even, I’m gay, but nobody knows; not even my parents, so are we good?”

Relieved over this, Carol said, “Thanks Maurice, you’re quite the piano man. We’re good, but you’re better.”

Responding, Maurice said, “OK you two, ready to wow everybody. Let’s go through this once. Too bad I didn’t bring my synthesizer, I may next rehearsal, so you can hear better what all of the accompaniment will sound like. The violins that end this piece, I will do my best to emulate them on a piano. Carol, use less head voice, and keep it real. Save your falsetto for BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.”

Carol did a double take, realizing Maurice would likely be the audition pianist for those auditions that are coming up. She smiled at him, and he gave us both a big thumbs up. We went through the music once. We gave Maurice a return thumbs up as we turned to the center of the stage.

Jeff turned and said, “Ready ... you know what I want here, go music.” Maurice played beautifully the soft intro music before Adam started singing:

ADAM “Tried to run,
but the feeling is there,
No place anywhere ... could hide me.
Here I am, and I don’t have a choice,
I can’t stop that voice inside me.
Love never goes away.
It plays on like a song.”

ADAM & MILLY “Love never goes away ... I hold you
And I know where I belong.”

She hits that final Bflat and I’m in tears!

I turned Carol towards me and pull her up against me ... we hold each other just looking into each other’s eyes, and as I hear the final 16 bars of music. I pull her face to mine and planted a kiss on her, the kind that could last a lifetime.

Maurice is playing his heart out, adding flourishes that I don’t remember seeing in the music. The kiss never ends...

“BLACKOUT -- CURTAIN”

“You can stop kissing now, Adam ... Randall ... Milly ... Carol ... oh well. The rest of you can go home, we’re done tonight,” Jeff said to everyone.

We finally broke our kiss, hearing everybody laugh and applaud on his or her way out. We went over to Maurice and shook his hand, and grabbed our stuff, and as we were just about out the door, Jeff said, “We may have to add some performances to the schedule. Everybody should see the love that you two have. Goodnight, see you tomorrow.”

We waved at everybody and booked out of there.

We’d arrived home and were dead tired. Carol and I had never sung before to each other like that, and with such passion. We fell asleep in each other’s arms.

TUESDAY
What woke me up was the voice of an angel. Carol was hum-singing ‘Love Never Goes Away’ and it was lovely. To keep from waking me up, she had been singing in a stage whisper, which is really hard to do.

Nothing much is happening today. There’s a rehearsal later, of course, but nothing until then. I got a text from Jeff.

“Carol, Jeff just texted me that he is cutting the ‘Wonderful Day Reprise’ and changing our final number to a fuller version of ‘Love Never Goes Away’ with a little rewrite so it will be just you and me.”

“So, what you told me that night we first rehearsed WEST SIDE STORY is gonna happen after all?”

I smiled at her and said, “I said a lot of things that night, what specifically are you recalling?”

“That you and I will be singing and making out on stage in front the entire community, including our parents,” Carol answered.

“Right now, I don’t give a damn who knows about us, just as long as nobody tries to break us up because,

“Love ... comes and goes away, You’re hurtin’ bad tonight. Oh, love ... comes and goes away, I’m older, ain’t I always led you right.”

“Oh, you ... we’re living a life like being in a musical, aren’t we, Rann?”

#RING#
“That’s my cell, Carol. Hello, this is Randall Knight?”

“Randall, this is Jeff Calhoun. Is Carol with you?”

I put the phone on speaker and said, “We’re both here, Jeff.”

Carol added, “Hi, Jeff.”

“Hi, guys. I know it’s real early in rehearsal, but I’ve got an opportunity to make a TV Commercial to advertise SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, and I would like the commercial to feature the two of you, singing ‘Love Never Goes Away’.”

“Sounds great Jeff. So how soon do you want to do it?”

“The University’s Video Division will ‘shoot’ the commercial. We want to do it the day after tomorrow. I know that’s quick, but they need that much lead time so they can run it on area TV, starting next Monday.”

“Tell us what you need from us, Jeff?” I asked.

“We want you in costume, in a little stage makeup. Do you guys have a brush-up on Thursday?”

“Nope, Jeff ... Marcus didn’t want us to wear ourselves out, so we’re off until Friday’s performance.”