though they couldn’t exactly close their doors to Hegbert, they made a deal with him to be
more careful in the future. That meant we had to practice in the classroom until we’d
worked out the “little bugs.”
Fortunately Hegbert wasn’t involved with the actual production of the play, because
of all his ministering duties. That role fell to Miss Garber, and the first thing she told us to
do was to memorize our lines as quickly as possible. We didn’t have as much time as was
usually allotted for rehearsals because Thanksgiving came on the last possible day in
November, and Hegbert didn’t want the play to be performed too close to Christmas, so as
not to interfere with “its true meaning.” That left us only three weeks to get the play just
right, which was about a week shorter than usual.
The rehearsals began at three o’clock, and Jamie knew all her lines the first day there,
which wasn’t really surprising. What was surprising was that she knew all my lines, too,
as well as everyone else’s. We’d be going over a scene, she’d be doing it without the
script, and I’d be looking down at a stack of pages, trying to figure out what my next line
should be, and whenever I looked up she had this real shiny look about her, as if waiting
for a burning bush or something. The only lines I knew were the mute bum’s, at least on
that first day, and all of a sudden I was actually envious of Eddie, at least in that regard.
This was going to be a lot of work, not exactly what I’d expected when I’d signed up for
the class.
My noble feelings about doing the play had worn off by the second day of rehearsals.
Even though I knew I was doing the “right thing,” my friends didn’t understand it at all,
and they’d been riding me since they’d found out. “You’re doing what?” Eric asked when
he learned about it. “You’re doing the play with Jamie Sullivan? Are you insane or just
plain stupid?” I sort of mumbled that I had a good reason, but he wouldn’t let it drop, and
he told everyone around us that I had a crush on her. I denied it, of course, which just
made them assume it was true, and they’d laugh all the louder and tell the next person they
saw. The stories kept getting wilder, too—by lunchtime I’d heard from Sally that I was
thinking of getting engaged. I actually think Sally was jealous about it. She’d had a crush
on me for years, and the feeling might have been mutual except for the fact that she had a
glass eye, and that was something I just couldn’t ignore. Her bad eye reminded me of
something you’d see stuffed into the head of a mounted owl in a tacky antique shop, and
to be honest, it sort of gave me the willies.
I guess that was when I started to resent Jamie again. I know it wasn’t her fault, but I
was the one who was taking the arrows for Hegbert, who hadn’t exactly gone out of his
way the night of homecoming to make me feel welcome. I began to stumble through my
lines in class for the next few days, not really even attempting to learn them, and
occasionally I’d crack a joke or two, which everyone laughed at, except for Jamie and
Miss Garber. After rehearsal was over I’d head home to put the play out of my mind, and I
wouldn’t even bother to pick up the script. Instead I’d joke with my friends about the
weird things Jamie did and tell fibs about how it was Miss Garber who had forced me into
the whole thing.
Jamie, though, wasn’t going to let me off that easy. No, she got me right where it