Chapter 28 Tilley - A Character
TILLEY A Character
Tilley knew Tony Kennedy, the director, well. Of course, she knew everyone in Cape Carolina well.
“Tilley,” he said, looking surprised. “I didn’t know you acted.” He chuckled, almost to himself. “Well, I knew you acted. I didn’t know you sang.”
She could tell he wasn’t taking her seriously, but that only spurred her on. She wanted to be underestimated, and she didn’t blame Tony. She had walked around this town for decades in a fog, acting, as he had so well described.
“Tony, darling, I think you probably already know that I’m a character.
” She flashed her smile at him, and for a moment, she was reminded of the smile she used to flash at Robert when she was just a girl, when she was trying to win his heart.
But no. Absolutely not. Now, with the lights in her face and her heart in her throat, was her moment.
She would stay here, on this stage, even if rushing off into her dreamworld with Robert were easier.
“But whether I can sing? Well, sweetheart, you’ll just have to decide that for yourself. ”
Tilley hadn’t truly sung in years aside from Sunday mornings at church. Elizabeth considered even having her in the choir to be too risky. What if she had one of her spells? What if she embarrassed them all? But not today. No. Tilley knew this was her shot.
She walked up closer to the edge of the stage so she could look at Tony as she sang.
And Daisy, who was sitting in the back of the auditorium.
She noticed Mason sneaking in—that sweet boy.
She had hinted to him that she sure would love it if he could come.
She couldn’t help but smile at the two of them as she began…
“I have always been a woman who arranges things…”
As she belted out a song that she had loved since childhood, Tilley smiled knowing that, in this moment, she was ever so slightly like Dolly Levi. She had gotten Daisy and Mason together here, hadn’t she? Anyone could see those two belonged together.
As she said, “Why, Mr. Sullivan, whatever put that preposterous idea in my head,” the three in the audience chuckled. She had forgotten how very, very good it felt to be on this stage, under these lights, to belt out at the top of her lungs, like she did now: “Just leave everything to me!”
She raised her hands in the air on impulse as she filled the auditorium with the sounds of those final notes. Tilley was quite certain no one could hear the piano music over her voice, and, well, she wouldn’t have it any other way. Her voice was the machine on display here today.
As her hands came down and the music stopped, a deafening silence filled the room that had so recently been full of her voice.
And then, as if they had planned it, Daisy, Mason, and, most important, Tony, were on their feet, screaming and cheering.
Tony, who Tilley usually found to be rather reserved, ran up onto the stage.
He grasped her shoulders and said, “Tilley, I am cancelling the rest of the auditions. You are Dolly Levi.” His eyes seemed moist around the rims, which she found terribly flattering.
She smiled demurely. “Oh, Tony, shouldn’t you at least see what’s out there?”
He shook his head. “Tilley, no! I have to have you and only you.”
The fervor in his voice, his attention on her…
Tilley knew Tony was speaking of having to have her in the role for his play.
But it reminded her what it was like to produce that kind of longing in a man, to be wanted.
She thought back to her conversation with Amelia, about whether she could ever imagine herself dating again.
While she had said she could not imagine dating, at that moment, she wasn’t imagining herself onstage again either.
And this had been intoxicating, freeing, liberating in a way she’d never dreamed.
Could dating be the same? Tilley wasn’t sure. And, beyond that, who in the world would even want to date her after all that had been said about her over the years—most of it, well, true.
It didn’t matter. For now, she would ride this wave. Tony was right. Tilley was Dolly. And, by the end of the musical, Dolly finds a man to love, a man who loves her back. Maybe Tilley would have that very same luck.