Olivia's Curtain Call (3 page)

Chapter Four

Georgia and Katie were waiting outside Alicia’s office when Olivia came out. They looked expectantly at her, as if she might shed some light on why they had been asked to see the headmistress. But Olivia just shrugged apologetically. Alicia had asked her to be discreet about the fact that she was up for Juliet, and that made her think that her gran had something else in mind for Georgia and Katie. By discreet, Olivia knew that meant she didn’t have to keep it top secret, but she wasn’t to go spreading the word around. She would tell her dad, Jack, when he phoned. And Eel, of course. Maybe Tom too, and swear him to secrecy. She knew she could always trust Tom.

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you that
it’s a job opportunity and a good one,” she said.

She walked down the corridor. A gaggle of people was gathered around the notice board. When Eel saw Olivia she ran excitedly towards her. “They’re looking for more Matildas for the West End show! Emmy and I want to go up for it.”

Olivia grinned. She reckoned that her cheeky little sister was perfect for Matilda. She just hoped that those doing the casting would see it too. After Eel’s brief experience of playing Gretl in
The Sound of Music
, and her decision to stay at the Swan rather than take up a place to study ballet at the Imperial, she was desperate to be in a West End show.

“You’ll have to talk to Gran and see what she says,” said Olivia. “But I reckon she’ll think that both you and Emmy deserve to try out.”

Eel high-fived Olivia and then skipped down the corridor with Emmy, both of them singing “When I Grow Up” at the tops of their voices. Olivia watched Eel go. She was so confident. If Gran put her forward for Matilda, Eel wouldn’t mind the auditions at all. In fact, she would relish them, and even if she didn’t get picked, she would just bounce back. Olivia
could almost hear Eel saying it was their loss, and she knew that rejection would only make Eel work twice as hard at her singing, dancing and acting so she could prove to them what they were missing.

Olivia climbed the steep stairs to the little rehearsal room at the top of the building where she was meeting Tom for a high-wire rehearsal. She was just starting to set up when her mobile phone rang. It was Jack.

“Hi, Dad,” said Olivia. “How’re things? Is the show going to be good?”

“I’m pretty pleased, Liv,” replied her father. “We’ve got an amazing Wheel of Death act. Even my heart is in my mouth when I watch it. What about you, chick? What’s happening? How was the movie premiere?”

Olivia told him all about the movie, about how good Abbie and Theo had been and about the disco that snowed when people danced.

“And have you and Tom been practising a lot?” Jack asked. “I need you both to be really sharp when I get back so the three of us can start to work up this high-wire act together.”

“Don’t worry, Dad, we’ve been practising every day. You’ll be hard-pressed to keep up
with us now you’re getting so old and decrepit.”

Jack laughed. “Hey! Less of the old, young lady! Anyway, we’ve got plenty of time to work on it and get it right, and then we can see if there are any takers.”

“So,” said Olivia slowly, “it hasn’t been signed up by anyone yet?”

“You’d be the first to know if it was, Liv. But I’ve mentioned it to a few people and there’s a lot of interest. We might even manage a couple of gigs over the summer. But there’s no hurry. We can take our time, wait until we are really ready.”

“Dad,” said Olivia quietly. “There’s an outside chance I might be doing something else over the summer.”

“Well, I expect we could work any gigs round it,” said Jack cheerfully. “What is it?”

“I’m going to audition to play Juliet in
Romeo and Juliet
.” There was a tiny silence at the end of the line. Olivia knew that her dad was thinking about her mum.

“You wouldn’t mind?” asked Olivia softly.

“Of course not, Liv,” said Jack. “I’ll talk to Alicia, and if it turns out that it interferes with any of our gigs, I’m sure I can persuade her to
shift the dates of the production…”

“Actually, Dad, it’s not a Swan production,” said Olivia. Her throat felt dry. “It’s in the West End. A proper run. Jon James is directing and Kasha is playing Romeo.” This time the silence lasted for a very long time.

“Dad?” whispered Olivia. “Are you still there?”

“Yes, Liv,” said Jack eventually. “I’m just a bit surprised. I know Eel is headed for the stage rather than the Big Top, but I didn’t really think you were serious about this acting business. At least, not enough to put yourself through the whole audition thing. And you’re so young, and if you do get the part, it could interfere with your circus training…”

“Look, Dad, let’s worry about all that if I do get it. I probably won’t. They want a name. I probably won’t even get past the first audition. It might  never happen.”

“Well, you know I’ll support you in whatever you do, Liv,” said Jack, before adding, “but you’re right, it will probably never happen.”

Olivia thought she detected a tiny note of relief in his voice. It suddenly made her
realise how much she
did
want it to happen. She wanted to play Juliet more than anything else in the world.

“I’ve got to go, Dad,” said Olivia. “Tom will be here any second.”

“Of course, chick, you’ve got a life to get on with.” Jack spoke brightly but she could hear the regret in his voice. “Loved talking to you. It gets a bit lonely here sometimes.”

“I miss you, Dad,” said Olivia as they both rang off.

“Was that Jack?” Tom asked as he came bounding into the room. Olivia nodded. He peered at her closely. “You all right?”

“Yes,” said Olivia. “It’s just he said he was lonely. He’s never said that before. It made me think how much time he spends travelling and is away from us all on his own. After Mum died, he and Eel and I were all together all of the time. Always. The circus was our family and our friends rolled into one. But since we’ve been at the Swan, that’s changed. The Swan is our home now, and it’s Alicia’s home, but it’s not really Dad’s home, at least not in the same way. He’s always coming and going and on the move, so when it comes down to it, he’s always alone. It
makes me feel sad.”

Tom put his arms around Olivia and gave her a comforting hug. “But he’s only in Russia this time. That’s not so very far away, and he’ll be back soon. Then he’ll be around all summer, and the three of us will be working together, and if the new act works out we can even get some gigs. He won’t be lonely then.”

“Mmm, maybe,” said Olivia, looking worried.

Tom narrowed his eyes. “Is there something you’re not telling me, Olivia Marvell?”

Olivia nodded. “But you’ve got to promise not to tell anyone else. It’s a big secret.”

“Spill,” said Tom.

“I’m going up for something. In the West End. And if I get it, it’ll mean rehearsals and a proper run, at least as long as a child licence would allow.”

“So you wouldn’t be able to do the high-wire act with me and Jack,” said Tom, trying to keep the disappointment out of this voice.

“No, I could, because once the play was running I’d still be able to rehearse. It just means we’d have to put any performances
back until the autumn.”

“Well then, I can’t see the problem,” said Tom. “Jack told me that if I got a job, we could work round it.”

‘I’m sure he meant it too,” said Olivia, “but you’re not his daughter or the one he’s been teaching high-wire since the day she could walk. I think it was just a bit of a shock to him that I was even contemplating auditioning for a stage role, particularly if it might interfere in any way with the high-wire.”

“It’s a bit of a shock for me too. But a good one. Aeysha was only saying the other day that it was a real shame you don’t audition for stage jobs because you’re such a brilliant actor. We all thought you were totally wedded to the high-wire.”

“I am,” said Olivia. “But I don’t see why I shouldn’t do both.” She grinned. “Maybe I’ll be the first person to win an Olivier Award for best actress, and also do high-wire and flying trapeze for Cirque du Soleil. Look, I probably won’t get the job. But it just seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up. When Gran asked, it felt like fate.”

“So what is this mysterious job?” asked
Tom excitedly.

“Juliet. In the West End.”

“Oh, Liv,” said Tom, “that would be extraordinary. You’d be perfect.” He suddenly stopped. “And is it true that Kasha is playing Romeo?”

“Yes,” said Olivia. “Isn’t it brilliant? If I got it, it would be such a coup for Gran and the Swan. Me and Kasha on stage together, playing the lovers,” and she was so taken up with the idea that she failed to notice the odd look that flashed across Tom’s face.

“Yes,” said Tom. “It would be brilliant.” But he didn’t sound entirely convinced.

Olivia’s mind had already raced on to the routine they were going to practise. “Come on, Tom, we’re wasting time talking about something that will probably never happen. Let’s hit the wire, partner.”

Chapter Five

Olivia and the others were sitting eating lunch together.

“So let me get this right,” said Aeysha. “It’s so bizarre I can’t get my head round it. Huff didn’t ask you to read or anything?”

Georgia and Katie shook their heads.

“No,” said Georgia. “He just took us to the hotel lounge with this woman called Lara, who he said was a friend of his, and told us that we had to behave as if we were sisters.”

“But he said that he didn’t want us to act, he just wanted us to ‘be’,” said Katie. She wrinkled her nose. “I didn’t really know what he meant. How can you just ‘be’? As soon as you start thinking about it, you get self-conscious and start acting. It felt really odd. At least
at the start.”

Georgia nodded. “It’s a good job Miss Swan warned us beforehand that it was going to be a very different kind of audition. But after a while Huff was so funny and entertaining, and the tea he gave us was so delicious, we completely forgot that we were at a really weird audition and just enjoyed ourselves,” said Georgia.

“Yes,” said Katie. “He was really nice and so indiscreet. He told us all sorts of scandalous gossip about Hollywood stars. Lara was nice too. And he showed us pictures of his two little boys who live in Hawaii with their mum. He seemed really sad that he doesn’t see his kids much. Then he asked us about our families.”

“And the tea was fab! Five different kinds of cake and those really lush French macaroons,” said Georgia.

“And that was it?” asked Tom, perplexed.

“Yeah,” said Katie. “There was a man at a nearby table who seemed to be watching the whole thing, and he turned out to be a friend of Huff and Lara, and they introduced us to him, but that was it. I don’t suppose we’ll hear anything further. But at least I got the chance to prove to Huff that I’m not a complete monster
and we got tea at a really plush hotel.”

Tom laughed. “Even I’d pretend to be your sister, Georgie, for five different kinds of cake.”

Olivia and Eel were sitting companionably on Eel’s bed, wrapped in her old Harry Potter duvet. There were pictures of ballerinas torn from magazines pasted all over the wall, as well as posters from
Les Miserables
and
Matilda
. By the bedside table there was a framed photograph of Jack, Toni, Olivia and Eel taken shortly after Eel’s birth, together with a second photo of Jack and Toni looking painfully young and rapturously happy.

Eel had been regaling Olivia with stories from her and Emmy’s
Matilda
audition. All the children had sung and danced alone, and then they had taken part in a group workshop.

“It was brilliant!” said Eel happily. “I loved it so much. I’d like to audition every day.”

Olivia wished that she could say the same. She was going to see Jon and the casting director for
Romeo and Juliet
in the morning and she was so nervous she hadn’t been able to eat any supper. Her stomach was fluttering as if she had swallowed a butterfly. She wished that she had
half of Eel’s self-confidence.

“I so hope I get it, Livy. I feel as if I was born to play Matilda.” She suddenly sang a snatch of song.

Olivia smiled. Eel was so right for Matilda. But would the casting people see it?

“Have you rung Dad and told him?”

Eel nodded. “He sounded almost as excited as me, but I’m not sure he even knows what
Matilda
is, as it hasn’t got any circus in it. He’s never  even listened to the soundtrack. Can you imagine that?”

Olivia shook her head in mock horror. “Otherwise, did he sound all right?”

“Actually,” said Eel, “he sounded a bit down. I think he’s really missing us all.”

Olivia frowned. “The other day he told me he was lonely.”

Eel looked surprised. “But he’s surrounded by loads of people every day. How can he possibly be lonely?”

Olivia smiled to herself. She was certain that Eel had never felt the intense isolation in the middle of a big crowd that she experienced all the time.

“Anyway,” continued her little sister. “He’ll be home next week.”

“I know that,” said Olivia. “It’s just that when he said he was lonely this image popped into my head of somewhere dark and cold out in space. You, me and Gran and all our friends are waving at him from one planet, and he’s perched on another tiny rocky planet far away all on his own. It made me feel really sad.”

“But he’s in Russia, not outer space,” said Eel reasonably.

“I know. It just made me think of how much you and I needed him when we were really little and how we need him so much less now because we have a proper home with Gran. And we’re getting older and doing our own thing, and I wonder how he feels about that. And one day we’ll be quite grown up and we’ll get flats, and maybe we’ll fall in love, get married and have children and have our own lives and he’ll be all on his own…”

Tears were running down Olivia’s face,
and Eel put her arms around her and gave her a big hug. “Oh, Livy, don’t get upset. That’s such a long way off.”

“It will happen sooner than you think, Eel. What if I get Juliet? What if one thing leads to something else and somewhere along the line I have to choose between acting and the high-wire? If I ever gave up the
high-wire
, Dad would be devastated.”

“Aren’t you getting a bit ahead of yourself, Livy? You haven’t even been to the first audition yet. And you’re never going to give up the
high-wire
, are you?”

Olivia sniffed and gave a watery smile. “You’re right, Eel. I just wish we could see into the future and know how everything was going to turn out, and that it was going to be all right.”

“Well, we can’t,” said Eel sagely, “but we
can
try and do something to help Dad.”

“What?” asked Olivia. “What could we possibly do to make him feel less lonely?”

“We’ll have to think really hard,” said Eel. She screwed up her entire face with the effort of thinking. Suddenly a brilliant smile spread across her features. “I know,” said Eel triumphantly. “We need to find him a wife.”

“A wife?!” Olivia felt as if Eel had punched her in the stomach. “That’s a terrible idea.”

“I think it’s a rather good one,” replied her little sister.