I walk backstage into chaos. Derek is yelling at the techies, the actors clumped around him. He whirls around when he sees me.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Derek says.
“I’m trying to save the show.”
“It’s not your show to save.”
“I have an idea,” I say.
“Can you get the lights back on?” he says.
“I don’t think so, but I can—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” Derek says.
“I want to hear it,” Mr. Apple says.
Everyone turns.
Mr. Apple is standing in the door of the cave with colored glow bracelets strung around his neck and arms. He looks like a Mardi Gras float.
“Mr. Apple. Have you been here all along?” Derek says.
Mr. Apple shrugs.
“I wanted to see the show,” he says. “I couldn’t stay away.”
“We had some kind of technical glitch,” Derek says. “I don’t know what happened, but I believe the techies are responsible.”
“Now is not the time for blame,” Mr. Apple says. “Now is the time for inspiration.”
Mr. Apple looks from Derek back to me.
“What do you think, Mr. Ziegler?”
Derek sneers at me.
“I don’t know,” I say.
“You knew enough to come down that ladder and get the show started again,” Mr. Apple says. “What happens next?”
“Nothing happens next,” Derek says. “We call the fire department to evacuate, and we reschedule the opening until everything is fixed and we can do the play the way it’s supposed to be done. Fully designed.”
“Mr. Ziegler?” Mr. Apple says.
Everyone is watching me. The techies and actors, Derek and Ignacio.
I should keep quiet, let Derek do whatever he wants.
But that’s how I always do it.
I look towards Reach, and he gives me the tiniest nod. It’s dark, so I can’t be sure it happened. Then he does it again. Really subtle, so nobody but me can see.
Go for it.
And I do. I lean in towards Mr. Apple and I try to describe the play I have in my head.
“I think we should sprinkle glow sticks on the fairies,” I say. “And Puck should have a miner’s helmet. And we can use flashlights in the forest scenes. And we can give the actors glow bracelets like you’re wearing, Mr. Apple.”
I’m waiting for Apple to shoot me down, but he doesn’t. He lets me get it all out.
I finish and there’s silence. People are looking at me, but I can’t tell what they’re thinking, whether I’ve made an idiot out of myself or not.
“See what I mean?” Derek says. “Ridiculous ideas.”
“Do it,” Mr. Apple says to me.
“What do you mean, do it? What about the fire code?” Derek says.
“Mr. Dunkirk, I’d like to speak to you alone please.”
Mr. Apple puts a hand on Derek’s shoulder and leads him away.
I turn to the techies.
“Grace, get all the actors into the Cave. That will be our base of operations. Benno, collect the emergency flashlights from the classrooms. Half Crack, get the carton of glow sticks from the back shelf in wardrobe. What else do we have that makes light?”
“I’ve got lanterns in the props room,” Reach says.
I snap a glow stick and hand it to him.
“Grab whatever you can,” I say. “Lay a path from backstage onto the stage so the actors can find their way. Meet back in five minutes.”
“I’m proud of you,” he says.
“This could be a disaster,” I say.
“Whatever happens,” he says, “you stood up.”
And he rushes into the darkness.