dontravis.com
blog post #383
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More
requests bring more Jarrod Gray and the Casa Verde College Drama Club. Let me
know when you get tired of it. Here’s the third Jarrod Gray story. By the way,
sorry Part 1 of the Drama Club got switched with Part 2. I’ll swear the
computer did it. Whatever, I hope things will stay straight this time. Here we
go.
*****
THE
DRAMA CLUB
Part 3: THE CHAMELEON
Junior
year. Casa Verde College. The Drama Club. Lighting and Curtain Director. It all
sounded good to Jarrod Gray as he looked around the first Drama Club meeting of
the school year. Thespian Hall held a slightly musty smell that would dissipate
with the coming and going of student over the coming weeks. Someone dropped a
book, sending an echo throughout the big hall.
Most of the
faces were the same as last year with a few new ones scattered around the group.
His eyes involuntarily searched for Kahn even though that beautiful young man had
graduated last spring. As had Rick, the year before. What would these people say
if they knew he and Rick, the school jock and leading man two years back, had
been lovers. And Kahn, that wonderfully compact Vietnamese who transformed the
stage with his beautiful sets last year.
The buzz of
conversation died as the school’s drama teacher Mrs. Atherton called the group
to order. Jarrod’s jaw dropped when she announced the first play this year would
be a musical. A musical, for crying out loud. Did she really think this bunch
could bring that off? Wow. His talents would really be tested for a
production like that. His lights always made the actors look better than they
were, but singing and dancing? Wasn’t much they could do to enhance that.
Brett
Starrett, a hunky guy Jarrod recognized from last year, caught him on the way
out of the meeting and was a little more upbeat. “Might be fun. Some pretty
good voices in the club. The dancing might be a problem.”
“You trying
for a part?”
“For the
chorus or something.”
“Didn’t
know you sang. You dance too?”
Brett
blushed, which on him was attractive. “A little. My mom made me take tap and a little
ballet. Some flamenco.”
“Flamenco! Thought
that was for Spaniards.”
The
brown-haired, hazel-eyed senior laughed. “That’s me. At least mom was Mexican. And
there’s some Portuguese and French thrown in there somewhere. Of course, my dad
was Scots and Welsh.”
Jarrod
smiled. “You’re a regular chameleon. Don’t know what I am except for English.”
As Brett
walked away, Jarrod climbed a rope hand-over-hand to his home-away-from-home,
the maze of lofts and catwalks above the big stage at Thes Hall where he spent
the rest of the afternoon cleaning out months of accumulated dust and litter. His
easy chair and mattress both required a good beating. He caressed the mattress
fondly, recalling times there with Rick and Kahn, examining and identifying
stains he’d not been able to wash out, associating them with one boy or the
other. Damn, it was good to be back!
Jarrod’s
world was bi-polar… the stage at Thespian Hall and everything else, which he
called the classrooms… or just rooms. He
existed when he was in the rooms; he lived when he was at Thes.
By the time
Mrs. Atherton started preparing for the season’s first play, he’d long since
done a read-through and experimented with the lighting and moving spots,
spending time on back-lighting ideas, and imagining things you saw at the
Oscars or TV extravaganzas. He was working on some rewiring for one of the
ideas when he heard a step on the ladder to the loft.
Bret’s head
appeared in the opening. “Hey, your own little kingdom, huh? You permit
visitors?”
“Right
kind,” Jarrod grunted, still concentrating on his work. “Come on up.”
Brett
explored the loft and walked the catwalks while Jarrod finished what he was
doing. Returning from his explorations, Brett flopped belly down on the
mattress and gazed over the edge of the superstructure down on the stage. The sight
set Jarrod on edge, reminding him of others who’d lain on that mattress.
“Man you
can see everything from up here!” Brett said, his head hanging off the edge of
the loft.
“Yeah, saw
a guy getting it on with a gal at the back one night during rehearsals,” Jarrod
said, licking dry lips as he took his place beside Brett. No way he could keep
from making comparisons with others who’d lain there. Brett was tall and
slender. Good hips, slightly smaller waist, and good shoulders, although they
looked a little bony beneath his shirt. Interesting.
Brett
turned over and faced him. “You saw them screwing? Who?”
Jarrod smiled.
“You knew them both.”
“Are they
still in the club?” Jarrod shook his head. “Graduated, huh? Or left. Let’s see.
Likely candidates if it was two years ago would be Shelly and Rick. That’s who
it was, isn’t it?” Jarrod’s smile widened. Brett laughed and slapped his knee. “Old
Rick. That jock made it with about half the women on campus.”
Jarrod bit
back a retort as Brett moved on to another subject, as was his wont.
‘You know,
this is a good stage.”
Jarrod lay
beside him, shoulders and hips touching slightly. “Yeah. ‘Bout as good as a
professional stage, except maybe the big ones on Broadway. I love it.”
“Just
think, a musical! Never thought I’d get to be in one.”
“You get
off on that, huh?” Jarrod asked.
“Singing’s
okay, but it’s the dancing I like. Man, I dance every chance I get. June and I
go downtown to a club about every weekend.” Jarrod knew June had been Brett’s
girl last year. “You and your girl oughta go with us sometime.”
“Don’t know
how to dance,” Jarrod confessed, And no girl, either, he added mentally.
“You oughta try for the lead this year, not some chorus position.”
“Probably
get to dance more in the chorus. Besides, I’m not leading man material,” he
said turning to face Jarrod, his square, regular features strangely appealing. He
wasn’t classically handsome like Rick or darkly beautiful like Kahn, but he was
handsome in his own way and exuded more sex-appeal than any other guy in the
club, including the pretty boy who’d probably go for the lead.
“I mean it.
The script calls for some intricate numbers with the female lead. If Blue Balls”—his
derisive name for the pretty-boy snob—“goes for it, Ms. Atherton will have to
dumb it down to his level..”
Brett frowned, wrinkling his
short nose. “Yeah. That’s true. Be a shame.” In one of those lightning changes,
he returned to the previous subject. “Really, you oughta double with June and
me. Nothing to it…social dancing, I mean. I can show you sometime. Hey, I gotta
run. June’s meeting me at the cafeteria.” Brett scrambled to his feet and
stepped over Jarrod’s inert body. Jarrod had to clasp his hands to keep from
grabbing him.
*****
It looks as though Kahn
didn’t manage to stay in the picture after graduation from Casa Verde, but
perhaps Jarrod is zeroing in on someone new… a song and dance man this time. Will
he be successful? Tune in again next Thursday.
Until next week.
The following are buy
links for the recently released The Voxlightner Scandal.
Barnes
& Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-voxlightner-scandal-don-travis/1132632844?ean=9781640809260
Now
my mantra: Keep on reading and keep on
writing. You have something to say, so say it!
My
personal links: (Note the change in the Email address because I’m still getting
remarks on the old dontravis21@gmail.com. PLEASE DON’T USE
THAT ONE.)
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/donald.travis.982
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@dontravis3
Buy
links to Abaddon’s Locusts:
See
you next week.
Don
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