Footsteps by Tony Mazzara
Fred went back out onto the stage . He lifted one hand to block the lights from the back of the auditorium . Applause roared through the high school theater . He stepped closer to the front of the stage . He lowered his eyes so the lights weren ’ t so bad . He put his hand back down just in time to see the last of the patrons stand to give him his first standing ovation . He was overwhelmed .
As he stood there waving back , getting the rewards of acting , he briefly thought about himself working on this play . When he had first auditioned for the lead role , he was nervous . He had never been in a play before , although , he had been a part of stage production many times . He had chosen a funny monologue . He always enjoyed making people laugh and not only did it help him relax , but if he couldn ’ t have fun doing things , he ’ d go crazy .
He was asked back for a second monologue a few days later . This time , he chose a serious , dramatic monologue . He got it from a play he had never heard of before but was able to find it in the library . He liked this one a lot because the lines he spoke of opinions and feelings were very close to his own .
Fred was surprised that he did so well . He was flabbergasted when he got the part of the lead role . The rehearsals were the best . The first couple meetings consisted of him , the other actors and the director . After they read a scene , they ’ d talk about it to understand it and to understand character development .
Once they were all comfortable with it , they started memorizing their parts and began to move around on stage as they recited their lines to help with blocking .
Fred memorized his lines quite well . He even made some friends , one of which was Bert . They ’ d go out all the time to eat afterwards . Most of the time , they ’ d just talk , but sometimes , they ’ d go over their lines or the play itself .
Now that Fred was on stage , getting applauded , he knew he wanted to do this as a living . He was never a part of anything so big and it felt good . Once the clapping started to die down , he went off stage through the wings to a dressing room in the back to change . There was noone else in the dressing room , so he closed the door behind him and started to undress .
While in the dressing room , he was thinking about how he always liked stage production . He remembered how many times he ’ d stay for hours , even after everyone else left , to work on something like the lighting , props or scenery . The director trusted him enough to be there alone and lock up by himself . He was alone there most of the time . It was cool . He liked his quiet time and wasn ’ t ever bothered by anyone . He ’ d usually eat a few hamburgers for dinner and sometimes smoke a cigarette here and there during a break , but never told anyone . Not so much because he ’ d be suspended from school , but he would lose the privileges . He ’ d also play classical music or opera once in a while , which was the only time he was able to at school because none of the other students liked it .
Fred stood in the dressing room in his briefs and a t-shirt , folding his costume pants when the door opened . It was Bert . “ Oh . Sorry man .” He was about to leave when Fred said , “ It ’ s good .
What ’ s up ?” “ Hey , good job tonight .” “ Thanks . You too .” A girl came running in and wrapped her arms around Bert . He looked at her and then pointed to Fred . She looked at him said , “ Oh .” “ Let ’ s go to another room ,” Bert said . She smiled at that . As she was leaving , she looked back at Fred and gave him a wink . Fred finished changing .
Fred left the theater through the back door . It was already dark . He was going to take a path through the woods on the other side of the parking lot to get home . About half way across the parking lot , Fred heard the footsteps of someone ’ s hard bottomed shoes . He thought it was just another actor or someone from the audience , so he didn ’ t think much of it . When the walking became a run , he turned to see who it was . He looked just in time to see a fist clobber the side of his face . Fred fell down . “ That ’ s for taking the role I should ’ ve had ,” an angry voice said . Fred got to his hands and knees . Without even looking up , he said , “ Is that the best you got ?” The bully kicked his abdomen . Fred went tumbling over . The bully ran away .
Moments later , Fred painfully got up . He looked around . He didn ’ t see anybody . He headed for the path . About a quarter of a mile into the woods , the tree tops completely covered the full moon . Fred stopped for a little while . His side hurt . He should have arranged a ride home with Bert beforehand . He looked around from where he stood . He suddenly didn ’ t want to be out here in the woods , at night and alone .
He remembered hearing stories off and on about someone who had gone to his school a year before and was bitten by a wolf . And after that , every full moon , the kid supposedly went around in the woods killing people .
Fred shuddered as the wind picked up . It made the tree branches hit each other and the leaves tumble on the ground . It sounded creepy , like someone could be following him , but even worse ; it brought some foul smell with it . The wind died down . Fred started to walk again .
Seconds later , Fred heard the crunch of feet on leaves . He stopped . One step later , the other footsteps stopped . Fred ran . He would be in his neighborhood shortly .
Fred tripped a few yards later . He didn ’ t pay attention to his follower . He looked past his feet and saw he had tripped on a loosened root . The root had torn up and