Dreamjumper

Chapter Five

We stepped out of the restaurant door, Kim practically jumping in elation. We did as Lance said, and made our way to the theatre as fast as we could.

  The theatre was on the south end of the street, an area we didn't go to all that often. I had seen it before, but I'd never really paid much attention to it. It was a tall building built with dark bricks, with several arched windows boasting beautiful multicolored glass panes. It was really quite a grand building for a street like this, tall and wide and covered with huge posters. It was modern, but somehow it was also timeless. An expansion to the building jutted out from the right side of the theatre, and a huge coffee cup glowed at the top of it. That would have to be the café part of the building; inside, you could see people eating pastries and sipping from their cardboard cups. A door led to this expansion from the outside.

  "How have we never been here before?" I asked, surprised that I had overlooked the theatre for so long.

  "We've never really had a reason to," Lance said with a shrug.

  "Well, now that we know it's here, we have to see a show sometime. I mean, look..." I pointed to some of the smaller posters tacked to the bulletin board by the door. "They're putting on The Sound of Music, Phantom of the Opera, Rent, all the good ones ... some original stuff too!" I was turning bright red, overwhelmed by all of the options.

  "Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down! You're going to faint!" Lance said, grabbing my arm to steady me as if she were going to fall down at any moment.

  "Come on, let's head inside. Someone should be able to tell us where Diadem is performing," Kim said, pulling open the front door.

  The inside of the theatre was even grander. There were awards and posters everywhere, even in the box office. A woman sat at the front desk, typing loudly on her computer. In the corner was a glass elevator, completely transparent, including buttons to indicate the floor level. Directly in front of us, there was a long hallway that led to a room filled with chairs and a large double door. The three of us approached the front desk cautiously, and waited for the woman to look up. It took her a moment to realize that someone was there, but when she looked up, she gave us a friendly smile.

  "Good evening, can I help you?" she asked, still typing away on her computer, though she was no longer looking at it.

  "Hi, we're just wondering where Diadem is performing tonight?" I asked.

  She looked confused for a moment, and then seemed to understand what we were talking about. "Well, I'm not too certain where they're performing tonight, but I can ask Mr. Webb for you. Just a moment, please," she said politely, then turned and called, "Mr. Webb!"

  All of a sudden, he emerged from a door behind the box office desk. "Yes, Ms. Carmichael?"

  "These three were wondering where Diadem was performing tonight," she said, turning her gaze back to her computer.

  Mr. Webb's bright red eyes flickered over to us, and he smiled good-naturedly. "Welcome to the Webb Theatre. Just head down the main hallway and go through the double doors. They should just be warming up, but you're welcome to go in early," he explained, pointing down the long corridor.

  "Thank you so much," I said gratefully, feeling almost giddy under the atmosphere of the theatre. I had been in love with it since I was young, and that feeling had never gone away over the years.

  "No problem at all," Mr. Webb nodded to me. Suddenly, his expression changed. He looked as if he was trying to figure something out, or he knew me from somewhere else but couldn't remember how. Then, he turned back around and disappeared back into the room.