Chapter 12
TWELVE
Kathleen looked around, taking it all in. Then, seeing me, she said, “Didn’t you tell them I was ready?”
“Well, I tried… but, they were shooting?—”
“Always interrupt for Kathleen,” Donald said with a snarl.
“Well, I did actually, but you wouldn’t let me?—”
Ignoring me, he said to Grace. “You’ve done wonderfully, Grace. Thank you so much.”
“I’m not sure I was finished,” she said stiffly.
“I’m hoping there will be some time for pickups before we all go home.” Angrily, Grace got off the stool. As she did, Kathleen said, “You’re not shooting me against yellow. I’ll look like a harpy. Set me up in front of the red curtain.”
Wendy got up from her seat and came over, saying, “Kathleen, you look so lovely.”
Heston came over to the craft table and started asking, “What is this?” about everything except the M I assumed for editing purposes. Then Kathleen said, “At Victory Covenant we have a program for troubled teens. It’s deeply influenced by my time on Kapowie! I come in and teach the kids some of the songs we used to sing. I especially like the song ‘You Are the Light’. Do you remember that one? I know it sounds like it’s about finding yourself, so typical of the Me Generation. But I think it’s about finding God inside you. Because he’s there. He’s inside all of us. All you have to do is look.”
She stopped talking and waited. Finally, Donald said, “Cut!” as he turned off the camera.
“Donald, I’m just thinking… When Finn feels better, can we get the entire cast together and sing ‘You Are the Light’? I think it would be lovely to include that.”
“We’d probably have to cancel the dance number — are you saying we should cancel the dance number?” Wendy asked.
“Well, it has been an awfully long time since we danced together. Singing as a group might be a bit easier and help us get through this long, long night.”
“Sure, we can give that a try,” Donald says. “It would have to be a cappella, of course.”
“Well, yes, that’s true. It could be a good segue into a clip from the original show where we sang it with instruments. Actually, I think we sang that song five times, didn’t we? Different costumes. Different singers highlighted.”
“You’re right, Kathleen,” Wendy said. “We did rely on that song a lot.”
“Because it’s just so wonderful!”
She took a sip of her drink and made gurgling noises. “Oh, look at that. I drank the whole thing.”
“Can I have another one made for you?” Wendy asked.
“I really shouldn’t.”
Kathleen was biting her lip, deciding about a second drink, when the television popped on and a video began to play. Obviously someone had a remote, but looking around the room I couldn’t see exactly who.
Turning back to the screen it looked very dark. I could barely make out what I was looking at. It appeared to have been shot through a window. There was a couple in a room making out. Other people seemed to be picking this up before I did, because they began saying things like “Oh my God,” and “What the?—”
And then the couple’s faces caught the light. It was Finn; the man was Finn. And the woman was Kathleen. Even though the video quality was terrible, it was still easy to see they weren’t teenagers. This had been shot recently. Very recently. As soon as that thought formed, Kathleen was screaming, “No! Who took that? Who’s behind this? Donald, make it stop!”
“Okay, where’s the remote? Who’s got it?”
Everyone was looking around, while Kathleen screamed, “Stop! It has to stop!”
Then, suddenly, the TV went off. Ed had disconnected the power. Kathleen stood there with her hands on her face. After a moment, she dropped them and smiled at us all.
“Okay, okay, easy to explain. Two old friends, greeting each other…”
“Seriously?” Keely said. “I wouldn’t mind an old friend like that.”
“Fine. It is what it looks like. But we’re all sinners, aren’t we?”
“And some sinners are hypocrites,” Marc said.
“Judge not, lest ye be judged.”
“Gimme a break. All you do is judge people.”
“Well, maybe I need to think about that. Does anyone know if this is an original tape or if it’s a copy? And if it’s a copy, who has the original?”
Just then, Amber walked onto the stage. She was saying something nearly inaudible. Two syllables. That was all I picked up.
“What did you say?” Wendy asked.
Then Amber took a deep, ragged breath, and screamed, “He’s dead!”