Chapter Eight

Opening night finally came and found the cast and the crew and even the ushers buzzing with excitement for the debut of the new production. A local theater magazine interviewed Eliot Moultry, the director, as well as Sir Edward and Griffin for a profile in that week’s edition, and that publicity machine had been working overtime. The seats in the auditorium were full, and a small SRO crowd had gathered against the back wall, mostly Hunters fans.

Levi and Sherrie had finished the costumes with plenty of time to spare, and now there was nothing to do but be on hand in case of emergencies. They hovered on the sides of the stage, Sherrie at stage right and Levi, stage left, sewing kits at the ready. He was hoping that there’d be no mishaps. He hoped the show ran smoothly.

The last dress rehearsal had been a shambles. One of the swords had broken, three of the minor actors had forgotten their cues, and Michael Abner had completely bungled three of his biggest speeches. Sir Edward had lost his temper with the lighting crew, whom he accused of blinding him. Nobody else had any trouble with the lights, but the English actor had a complete meltdown over it, and everyone chalked his little fit up to nerves.

Through it all, Griffin had been quiet and steady, keeping to himself and turning in solid rehearsal performances. He was going to be brilliant, Levi knew, and he couldn’t wait to see him prove himself on the stage once again. People in the audience who only knew him from TV were in for a surprise.

He peeked out at the auditorium and shook his head. He’d seen packed houses before, but packed opening nights just seemed a little more electrifying than others.

He smelled cloves and apples and turned around to face Griffin, who was standing nearby. “Levi,” he said softly. “Listen, I need to talk to you. Can you come to my hotel room after the party tonight?”

He was surprised, and he knew his face showed it. The opening night cast party was a tradition that he never attended. “Sure. Give me a call when you’re back, and I’ll come over.”

Griffin frowned. “You’re not coming?”

“It’s a cast party.”

“You’re invited, too.”

He glanced at a trio of stage hands who were preparing to roll out the columns of their fake Roman forum, distracted by their activity. When he looked back, Griffin was looking out at the auditorium.

“Shit,” the actor said. “That’s a lot of people.”

“You’re going to be great,” Levi told him. “I know it.”

He took a deep breath. “Well… what’s that your mom always said? From your mouth to God’s ears?”

Levi smiled. “Yeah.”

“Well, that.”

He turned and walked away, and Levi called after him, “Break a leg!”

Griffin waved to acknowledge the good wishes and disappeared into the dressing rooms.

***

When the curtain fell on the rapturous applause of the full house, Griffin could not stop grinning. He felt alive from his head to his feet, his body tingling with the joy of a job well done and well received. He turned to Sir Edward, dressed in a bloody toga for his last act role of Caesar’s ghost.

“Bravo, Sir Edward!” he said.

The older man grabbed him in a bear hug, thumping his back. “Well done, my boy, well done! I’ve never seen a better Antony!”

Michael Abner put a hand on each of them, and they generously included him in their embrace. The rest of the cast joined in, and soon they were all hugging and laughing in the triumph of their performance. The crew gathered around, applauding them.

Griffin stepped back and looked up into the rafters, then around at the cast and crew of this venerable play. He had missed this feeling.

“Congratulations,” Levi said to the group at large. “You guys were amazing.”

“Thank you, my dear boy,” Sir Edward said, and he took Levi into his embrace, too.

They celebrated all the way into the dressing rooms, where they surrendered their costumes to Sherrie for laundering and washed the makeup from their faces. The actors were boisterous and excited, buoyed on the emotional high of the performance and the applause, and Griffin joined them in a happy knot as they took to the street.

The cast party was being held in a restaurant only a few blocks away, the traditional place for Actors’ Club cast parties. Everybody knew the way, but Griffin, but he followed along happily. Sir Edward was going to be driven by Christian, so he would be the last to arrive, which was only appropriate. The star was always the last to arrive.

They got to the restaurant and were bundled into the banquet room which was papered with copies of their fliers and advertising handbills. Selfies were taken with a million different combinations of people, and Griffin found himself in most of them. His face hurt from smiling, but he couldn’t come down, and he didn’t want to stop.

Sir Edward arrived after the first round of drinks, and the cast greeted him with a cheer and a standing ovation. He bowed elegantly and applauded back, turning in a circle as he clapped his hands for his castmates. More selfies followed, and smartphones were held aloft to film the proceedings. It was a joyous occasion, and good feeling and good liquor were flowing.

Griffin found himself watching the door, hoping that Levi would join them, but soon he realized that this party really was for actors only. None of the crew had come. He was a little disappointed, but the occasion was so happy that he was able to lose himself in the happiness.

Deep inside, though, he was nervous. He had asked Levi to talk tonight, and he knew what he was going to say. He had taken Pete’s pep talk to heart, and he hoped it would go well. This evening had been one of the best he’d known. What happened after he got back to the hotel would either cement this as the best day of his life, or it would turn the current joy on its head.

Best to enjoy it while I have it, he thought. He stood and raised his glass. “Friends, Romans, countrymen – lend me your ears!” he shouted. There were a few laughs, but his castmates obliged by settling down to listen to him. “I want to thank you all for welcoming me back to the theater, and for making this such an incredible experience. Thank you for reminding me why I went into acting in the first place. You’re all incredibly talented, and it’s an honor to be on the same stage with all of you.” He raised his glass higher. “Cheers!”

“Cheers!” they responded, and then everyone went back to drinking and carousing.

Sir Edward took the chair at Griffin’s side, and he clinked their glasses together. “Well spoken,” the Englishman said. “You have been a revelation, young Mr. Lawrence, an absolute discovery. Please tell me that you will come back to the stage when your television obligations are satisfied.”

He sipped his scotch, then said, “I can absolutely guarantee that I will. I can’t believe I stayed away for so long.”

“I’m happy to hear it, because it would be a bloody waste if you didn’t.” He drained his glass and signaled for another. “If I may, could I offer you a bit of advice?”

“Absolutely. I’d be grateful.”

“Always listen to your heart. It may lead you down dark and uncharted paths, but it will always lead you to where you need to go. Even if you don’t know how you’ll possibly survive the journey, follow where it leads.”

Griffin nodded. “Is this professional or personal advice?”

“It is both, my dear boy. It is both.”

“And what about your heart, Sir Edward? Where is it leading you?”

The Englishman thought for a moment, and he said, “Toward a telephone and a long-distance call back to London. There’s someone that I must reconnect with as soon as possible.” He smiled ruefully. “Perhaps it’s not too late for a miracle.”

Griffin smiled. “Maybe it’s not too late for either of us.”

***

Levi sat in the theater laundry room, waiting for the costumes to come out of the washers. He didn’t mind doing this part of the job. He could treat the garments for their inevitable make-up smears, check for damage, and basically decompress after the performance. He might not have been on stage, but he still felt a lot of pressure every time the curtains rose.

He held his phone in his hand, contemplating pressure of a different kind. He had a call to make, one that was long overdue, but he was terrified to make it. He hit the speed dial button, then ended the call, only to do the same thing all over again. Finally, the fourth time he sent the call, he let it ring.

His mother answered just before he chickened out again. “Levi! So good to hear from you!”

Her New York accent was as thick as always, and it immediately made him homesick. “Hey, Mama,” he greeted. “How are you doing?”

“I’m well. I’m well. So… tonight was opening night. How did it go?”

He smiled. “It was amazing, and the audience loved it.”

“I’m so happy for you, honey! And how did Griffin do?” she asked, her fondness for him clear to hear.

“He did a great job. Really good.”

“I’m so glad.” She hesitated, then said, “It must be interesting to see him again after all this time. The two of you were so close when you were in college.”

He swallowed. “We were very, very close.”

“I hope you still are.”

“Not in the same way. Time and distance and all that.”

“Ah.”

He licked his lips and gathered all of his inner strength. This was more difficult that he expected it to be. “Mom, I need to tell you something. Something important.”

“Well, of course, dear.” She sounded concerned. “You know you can tell me anything.”

“Is Dad there?”

“Where else would he be?”

“Can you put him on speaker?”

He listened as his parents discussed the mechanics of altering the call, but finally the sound shifted and he knew they’d figured it out. His parents were the most technologically challenged people he’d ever met.

“Hi, kiddo,” his father said. “What’s going on?”

Levi stood up and paced as he talked. “There’s something that I should have told you a long time ago, and you need to know, because it might become common knowledge soon, and I want to make sure you know before it hits the news.”

“What’d you do?” his father asked. “Are you in some kind of legal trouble?”

“Oh my God, Levi, are you going to jail?” his mother squeaked.

“No, no, nothing like that. It’s just… It’s personal.”

“Are you dying?” she asked, panic in her voice.

“No. Mom, breathe. It’s serious, but it’s not life or death serious.”

His father cleared his throat. “We’re ready. Tell us.”

“Mom… Dad… I don’t want to disappoint you. I don’t want you to hate me. I don’t want…”

“We could never hate you,” his mother interrupted.

“Let the boy talk, Lauren.”

He couldn’t think of any way to say it other than bluntly. “I’m gay.” There was a long silence on the other end of the call, and he felt nauseated. His heart pounded as if it wanted to burst free of his chest. “Are you there?”

His father spoke first. “I thought you were going to tell us something we didn’t know.” He sighed. “Well, thanks for finally saying it, but we already knew.”

“We know you, baby,” his mother said. “We’ve known for a long, long time. Even before you went to college, we knew.”

He sat down heavily. “You never said anything…”

“We were waiting for you to bring it up,” his father said. “We just didn’t think it would take you until you were twenty-nine to do it.”

“I…” His head was spinning. “You knew?”

“Honey, when you were four years old, you told me you wanted to marry that actor on that TV show… Sol, do you remember?”

“Martin McDaniel, on Kill Stop.”

He didn’t even remember that show, much less the conversation. In a weak voice, he asked, “I did?”

His father laughed. “Right in front of the rabbi when he came over for dinner. I thought the old man was going to choke on his soup.”

“We know that you and Griffin were more than roommates,” his mother told him. “We were hoping it would work out.”

“So was I,” he admitted.

“Well,” his father said, “where there’s life, there’s hope.”

Levi could hardly wrap his mind around what was happening. “We’re Orthodox. The rabbis teach that…”

“The rabbis know the Torah, and they know the law, but they don’t know my son the way I do. They don’t know my heart… or yours.” His father sounded emotional, which surprised him. “They can’t tell me when I can and can’t love my own son, and I know that you were made this way. God has His plan, and it was part of the plan that you would love men. If that’s good enough for God, it’s good enough for me.”

“I’m your mother. Nothing can make me not love you.”

He put his head in his hand. “I can’t believe I was so afraid of telling you all these years.”

“You’ve always been a nervous kid,” his father said. “But I’m proud of you for finally telling us now.”

“Very proud,” his mother echoed. “Tell me, is Griffin seeing anybody now?”

He shook his head, even though they couldn’t see him. “No. Not that I know of.”

“The two of you were good together,” she said. “I hope you can reconnect while you’re together there. Chicago is for lovers, they say.”

“That’s the slogan for Virginia,” his father corrected.

“Right. Virginia. But Chicago is quite lovely, too.”

“You guys are incredible.” He was weeping, and he didn’t even know when the tears began. He only knew that they were tracing down his cheeks. “I can’t believe…”

“Try to have a little trust, son,” his father advised. “People love you more than you think they do. Not just your mother and me.”

“I’m going to send you a rainbow flag for your apartment,” his mother said. “You should hang it in the window.”

“Mom, I…” He bit back on his poorly-formed excuses. “Yeah, that would be great. Thanks.”

They chatted for a bit longer about family and friends and things happening in the old neighborhood. He told them about Sir Edward and his particular demands, and the conversation ended with declarations of love on both sides and a promise that he would come back to New York to visit soon. By the time he ended the call, the costumes were in the dryer and he was ready to talk to Griffin. There were a lot of things he needed to say.