What Comes Next

Chapter 23: Leonardo

Chapter 23: Leo

"Leonardo Spencer you missed your cue!" A shrill voice shouted as I frantically hit send. Hi amazing girlfriend. Don't reply because I'm hiding to type this to you. Once I come out I'll have to surrender my phone. Rushing onto the stage I looked around for a focal point. "Um, Mary I have come to take you to Bethlehem."

"That's not the line, Mr. Spencer." Said an annoyed Mrs. Neanes. "Well, maybe this would be easier if I could actually talk to Mary and not...an empty stage." She looked up from her script, "Well, maybe you could tell your girlfriend to arrive on time then."

"Girlfriend?"

"Yes, Mr. Spencer. You do have a girlfriend, do you not?"

"Yes, but-"

"Next scene!" She brushed me off the stage with a wave of her hand. Confused, I wonder: Does Antoinelle attend St. Stephen's and I've just never noticed? My thoughts subside when I hear Mrs. Neanes sigh with an over-dramatic air of exasperation. "Ms. Morales, it's nice of you to finally grace us with your presence." Amber! "Sorry, Mrs. Neanes."

A few moments later, Amber rounds the corner and I run to hug her. "What are you doing here?" Pulling away, she grabbed my arms and looked at my smiling face, "You got back together with Antoinelle, didn't you?" She said excitedly. "Oh! Yes! Thank you for that." We separated as Mrs. Neanes finished insulting the believeability of the three wise men's beards and shouted, "Let's start from the top!"

After one painstaking hour of blocking, Mrs. Neanes refocused her attention on the barn animals and Amber and I were sentenced to costume duty. "You never told me why you were here."

"Well, apparently, Sara Jane fell in love with your replacement Joseph last year and decided to give up chastity for lent." She said, turning around with a baby bump under her shirt. "No way." Sara Churns had been the Mary to my Joseph ever since we turned sixteen, and she'd had a huge crush on me ever since we were twelve. "A Christmas miracle!" I exclaim. "Maybe for you." She scoffed. "Do you know how desperate they had to be to call the church's prodigal lesbian to play Mary?"

"Incredibly desperate, I'm guessing." She glances upwards in agreement. "You wouldn't happen to know why Mrs. Neanes called you my girlfriend,  would you?" I ask. "Oh I don't know. Probably because she's in denial, senial." "Vile." We laughed and I looked around, taking in the familiarity of the church basement; from the musty communion closet Sam and I used to raid to the hole under the stairs where the three of us hid and played cards, it all felt so surreal.

"How are your parents?" I asked, pulling Amber's attention from the set of blue robes she was examining. "Better." She exhaled and sat down on a box. "I think they felt guilty after the funeral and everything that happened. Kind of backed off. The distance helps too, living on campus and all."

"At least something good came from it all." She smiled softly in agreement before yawning loudly and falling back into a pile of costumes. "Come lay." She patted the space next to her. I joined her on the bed of fabric and we looked at the basement ceiling covered in old pictures of Christmas pageants past. Reminiscing on the old days, it felt like no time had passed.

"Hey, I don't know what you're doing this Thursday but Antoinelle and I are hosting an orphans' Christmas if you want to come? That is assuming we don't die of boredom at mass first." She laughed and rolled her eyes. "If  we survive, I'll let you know."

~

The most vigorous and challenging task of them all. Man vs. Man vs. Wallet. One third mental, one third physical, and one third cash. It's time for the ultimate adventure: Christmas Shopping.