The Stranger I Met

The Last Scene

* Picture of Jason*

' The Vernacular' is on the fifth floor of our Town's Mall. Today, being my first day, I was assigned the popcorn and coke duty. As feared, Jason was training me.

" You have to fill the plastic cup till this marked line and add 5 cubes of ice to it." He says while demonstrating it to me simultaneously. He covers the cup, adds a straw and keeps it on the counter. " Now you try " he hands me a cup." Okay " I say with unsurety in my voice. I do what he had told me, I fill the cup exactly to the line, add 5 cubes of ice, and then turn around to cover it." Aurora I forgot to mention," suddenly, the top of the cup where I was holding it from folds inwards and it slips out of my hand. I watch in horror as the soda spills all over the floor.

I look up at Jason who flinches for a second, then slowly smiles and looks at me with warm eyes. " I am so sorry," I blurt out before he can say anything." I am never this clumsy, I don't know what happened, it just slipped out of my hand." " Hey, hey " he motions his hands to calm me down." It's totally fine. It's my fault,I didn't tell you. You have to hold the cup from its mid, not from the brim or else this happens." He points towards the now dark floor, still as calm as before." Okay, point duly noted." I smirk . He takes the mop and stars cleaning the mess.

" No Jason, please give it to me, I'll clean this up." I try to grab the handle of the mop from his hands." He holds my wrist before I can even touch the handle. Even though he does not apply much strain, the skin of my wrist stars burning from his touch. Is it just me or can he feel it too. He stops and looks in my eyes for what seems like a micro second and then chuckles. " Not a chance, " he shakes his head, he is still holding my wrist. He pulls me a little closer and my senses stop working. " I would rather have you practice your cup holding skills. Ok." I nod, utterly hypnotised by his eyes. He lets go of my wrist and gets back to moping. I turn around before he can see my whole face turning into a tomato.

~~~•

" It's fine. It was your first day. Don't get so worried." Molly consoles me. As soon as I had gotten home, I called her to fill her up with today's details." Let's just forget about that, come at my place, we'll watch a movie together." Molly knew that nothing can cheer me up like a good movie with hot popcorns. " As much as would love to do that, I have to be at school in an hour." Since when did my schedule got so busy. I have never declined any of Molly's movie invites. This sucks." But why." She too was shocked at my refusal." Mrs. Hall has called me and Tyler to discuss something important about our characters. She didn't tell us what it was, but told us it's important that she talks to us about it after school." " Well that's weird." Molly says." Can't deny that. Tyler will pick me up in 45 minutes. We have decided to go together." Tyler had caught up with me after the rehearsals and had asked me if he could pick me up. I agreed to that as I too didn't want to go alone .

" Well good for you, if Mrs Hall has plotted against you, it won't work now." We both laugh at that. I put the phone down and start preparing my lines.

~~~•

" Where do you think she is, wasn't she supposed to be here before us." I ask Tyler, irritated by waiting for Mrs Hall." She'll be here, probably lost herself in the school building." He shrugs nonchalantly." Aggh." I roll my eyes. I was really happy for my decision to not come here alone.

Finally, the theatre's door opens and in walks Mrs Hall. She looks at us and smiles guilty. She starts apologizing as soon as she reaches us." I am really sorry my lovelies, I just got myself into something." She shakes her whole body in a dramatic way. I hear a small chuckle coming out of Tyler.
" So, here's the deal. I want to discuss the last scene with you both." " But we have only reached the third scene in our rehearsals." I flip the pages of my script to count the number of scenes between the third and the last one.

" I know" she continues," but the last scene is supposed to be the most perfect scene of the whole play, which means more practice." I hadn't read the script till the end so I didn't know which scene she was talking about. After flipping some more, I finally reach the last scene. I scan through the lines quickly," You mean the one where they finally kiss? " I look up at her an ask." Yes." She says excitedly.
" This scene is the backbone of this play." She looks at both of us. An awkward silence hangs all over us.

" So," Tyler's voice suddenly cracks the wall of tranquility," do you want us to do it now!" He says uncomfortably shaking his finger back and forth between me and him. I turn my attention immediately towards Mrs Hall." No , no dears. Of course not." She says shaking her head vigorously." I just want you to practice the part until the kiss. It should be more satisfying than romantic." Tyler and I exchange confused look. How is one supposed to change the emotions of a kiss and make the audience feel it too?

Mrs Hall sees our faces and sighs." Okay, I know it's going way over your tiny heads." She folds her hands." Let me make this easier for you." She motions her hand towards the empty seats in the front, telling us to sit." Firstly, this play is not a cliché romantic play where girl sees boy; boy sees girl; they instantly fall in love and after some predictable twists and turns, kiss in the end and then Boom!" She emits an explosion with her hands." Happily ever afters." She takes a small pause.

" Here both the guy and the girl are practical modern day novices, who want to explore everything before coming down to a decision." She looks down and sighs, contemplating over something. Suddenly a smile lights up her wrinkled face. " In the last scene," she starts," I want every single move of the protagonists to appear as 'well thought', not something they are doing in an impulse." She looks behind us, not focusing on particularly anything." Every emotion they feel should flow through the audience as well. And when they finally kiss, a wave of ecstasy should soak the audience." She finally looks at us." What!" She asks quizzically. I realize my mouth is half open. I instantly close it. " Wow, that's no pressure, at all." Tyler gasps." Yes, I mean , we didn't know this play meant that much to you." I say." Well now you do." She nods thoughtfully." I know what I say sounds a bit difficult but that is why I called you guys here, for practice." She claps her hands, all business." So, let's begin."

All three of us get on the stage.
Mrs Hall first teaches us the way our lines had to be spoken. I repeat the lines with same troughs and crevices in my voice as Mrs Hall instructs me to." I knew it Aurora," She says holding my shoulders." I knew you were the perfect choice for Erica." I smile at her comment.

Next she teaches us how to enhance the meaning of our small steps so the audience could get a better picture of what is going in Erica and Aiden's minds." No Tyler," she walks towards us from the front of the stage." Just giving her a look won't do. It's theatre not a Hollywood movie. Take your hand and slide it down her shoulder." He follows her instructions. The slide of his fingers down my skin gives me goosebumps." Finally, take her palm in yours and without breaking eye contact, kiss it." He does that too, increasing the bumps on my skin. He really is in his character.

The practice goes on for another hour. We can feel the atmosphere change around us. Mrs Hall has really created the whole world of Aiden and Erica around us by mere words . Finally she frees us from it and asks us to meet her again tomorrow at the same time." And oh , my dears." Both of us turn around to look at her." Don't forget to practice the kiss. I am counting on you two to be mature about it."

Oh yes, the kiss. That won't be difficult or weird at all.

Thank you so much for reading this far. Next chapter coming soon guys.😁