Day 58: Theatre Day

Mei awoke early the next morning to find that Gabu was missing, which greatly alarmed him until he remembered that the wolf had taken to hunting at night during his absence. Trusting that Gabu would return soon, Mei closed his eyes. Sure enough, when he opened them again, he found Gabu asleep next to him and the sun considerably higher in the sky than it had been what felt like a moment ago.

Since Gabu was now fed for the day and showed no sign of wanting to get up any time soon, Mei took the opportunity to get some food for himself. He left the cave and began grazing on the soft grass that covered the hill. It had been a while since Mei had taken the time to fully enjoy his food with nothing else to distract him. He spent a good few hours eating one bite at a time, chewing it fully and then swallowing it.

He was interrupted some time after midday by the sound of fluttering wings and a small body landing a short distance behind him. He turned to see a woodpecker he didn’t recognise looking up at him.

“You must be Mei,” the woodpecker said tersely. “Takkan wants to know where Gabu is. He’s late for the practice session.”

“Oh, I forgot that was today. Gabu must have overslept. Tell Takkan we’ll be there in a moment.”

The woodpecker nodded and flew back towards the forest.

Mei ran back up the hill and woke Gabu up.

“Good morning, Mei. Did you have a nice night?” the wolf said as he awoke.

“It’s afternoon, silly!” Mei said with a laugh. “Come on, we’re late for Musical Day.”

“Theatre Day?” Gabu peered out of the cave to check the time. “You’re right, they’ll already have started by now. We’d better get going.”

Gabu led Mei to a spot on the riverbank where a large group of animals was already assembled. As it happened, they weren’t far from Toto and Riri’s nest, although not close enough for the sparrows to join in.

The first people Mei recognised were Jess and Gon, who were perched on a rocky ledge overlooking the slow-moving river. Most of the animals assembled were on the far side of the river from Gabu and Mei, on the same side as Jess and Gon. A handful were on the near side, including Takkan, Sagi, Janice and Frank.

The fox called out to Gabu and Mei as they approached. “Good afternoon, you two. Gabu, I hear you overslept again.”

“Sorry, Takkan,” Gabu said cheerfully. “It won’t happen again.”

“Hello, Mei,” Janice said. “Welcome back. Are you joining the theatre group?”

“If you’ve got a place for me, I’d love to,” Mei replied.

“Having your creative input in addition to Gabu’s wouldn’t be amiss,” Takkan said. “It adds authenticity.”

“Takkan won’t let us play side characters,” Gabu explained. “He says it would confuse the audience.”

“I’ll just follow Gabu’s lead for today,” Mei said.

“Excellent,” Takkan said. “Now, we’re about to start practising the scene where you two, played by the gorgeous Jess and Gon, of course, decide to run away and jump into the river together.”

“Prepare to get wet!” Sagi called to the two leading wolves.

“Prepare to get splashed!” Gon called back.

“Actors and choir members into position,” Takkan instructed.

“You’re going to love this song,” Gabu whispered to Mei. Takkan shushed him.

“Start from ‘There’s something I need to tell you,’” Takkan said. “When you’re ready.”

“‘Gabu, there’s something I need to tell you,’” Jess said. Everyone went silent, completely focused on the two wolves. “‘The other goats told me that the only way I’d be allowed to see you again is if I found out from you everything the wolves were planning.’”

Gon laughed darkly. “‘That’s a coincidence. The wolves told me to do the same thing to you. But now that we’re together, I could never dream of betraying you.’”

“‘Neither could I, but what option does that leave us?’”

In the background, the choir of animals arranged behind the two wolves began to sing in wordless harmony. After a short pause, the wolves began to sing.

I’ll Run Away With You (“All I Ask of You” from The Phantom of the Opera)

Gabu:
Now that they have found us
It seems we must decide
Stay here, home but without you
Or leave here and start anew

Mei:
Why must they come between us
How dare they cloud our light
Why stay, if I’m without you
With those who only doubt you?

Say we leave this place and go together
Leave behind the clouds and rainy days
May we find ourselves a place we call home
Anywhere is home if I’m with you
I’ll run away with...

Gabu:
I could be your shelter
You could be my light
I’d be never without you
And I would never doubt you

All I want is freedom
To love whom I do love
And you, always beside me
To sing to me so kindly

Say we leave this place and go together
Leave behind the clouds and rainy days
May we find ourselves a place we call home
Anywhere is home if I’m with you
Mei, I’ll run away with...

Both:
Say we leave this place and go together
Leave behind the clouds and rainy days
May we find ourselves a place we call home
Mei: Anywhere is home
Gabu: If I’m with you
Gabu/Mei, I’ll run away with you

Whatever comes our way, I’ll be with you
Come with me, I’ll run away with you

As the choir faded, Jess and Gon looked down into the river.

Jess turned to Gon. “‘Promise you’ll live so we can meet again, Gabu.’”

“‘I promise, Mei.’”

In unison, they took three steps back and, with one final nod to each other, they ran and leapt into the water. Unlike the fast-moving river that Gabu and Mei had themselves jumped into, this river wasn’t strong enough to carry the wolves along with it, so they had to paddle downstream to create the same effect.

Takkan ended the scene there and set about giving praise and criticism as he saw fit. Mei wasn’t paying much attention.

“Are you all right, Mei?” Gabu asked after a moment.

Mei had been staring at the same spot for several seconds without moving. He turned and looked to Gabu with tear-filled eyes. “I’m fine. It’s just...how many songs are there? In the play, I mean.”

“About seventeen, I think. Why?”

“Are they all as good as that one, and the ones I heard the other night?”

Gabu thought about that for a second. “Hmm, no. There’s one song where I—Gon, I mean—sing about trying not to eat you when we first met. That one isn’t exactly the best. You just happened to see some particularly good ones.”

“What’s this I hear?” Takkan said indignantly. “‘Pleasure to Eat You’ is a masterpiece and I won’t hear another word said on the matter.”

Mei, who had been on the verge of weeping only a moment ago, now laughed uncontrollably both at Takkan’s indignation and the ridiculous song title.

Takkan shushed Mei. Apparently, they were lining up to rehearse the scene again from the start. Mei leaned into Gabu’s side and watched on, this time paying more attention to the artful choreography than to the song itself.

From the way Jess and Gon looked at each other while they sang, it was clear their love for each other was no act. Even as they called each other ‘Mei’ and ‘Gabu’, Mei was convinced they truly meant every word they sang.

“That was a lot better,” Takkan said, “but some of you in the choir still need to learn the chord progression; I’m hearing too many wrong notes. Split into pairs and go over your parts together. If neither of you can remember them, come and find me.”

When Jess and Gon had shaken themselves dry from their second jump into the water, Mei leapt over the river at a point where it was narrow and walked up to them.

“You two are amazing singers,” Mei said.

“Thank you,” Jess said, “but it’s the choir that really makes the song sound good. You wouldn’t want to listen for long if it was just us singing alone. Our neighbours in the eastern forest could tell you as much.”

“We’ve had complaints,” Gon added.

“Do you only visit the Emerald Forest on Theatre Days?” Mei asked.

“More or less,” Gon said. “It’s a long way to come for an informal visit.”

“Tell me about it,” Mei said. “Gabu and I went there once, back when everyone was still worried about Gabu being here in the forest. Greta insisted that he go there to hunt until they’d decided what to do about him.”

“And you went with him?” Jess asked.

“I wanted to experience him hunting for myself. It didn’t go all that well in the end.” Mei remembered the heated discussion they’d had that had almost turned into an argument. “How do you two feel about this whole arrangement? It must be difficult being around so many animals you’re not allowed to hunt.”

“It was confusing at first, but I think we’ve grown accustomed to it,” Jess said. “It must have taken quite some work to convince the entire forest that wolves can be trusted, and I would hate for us to ruin that for everyone. As for all that stuff about whether eating meat is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, I don’t pretend to understand Gabu’s perspective on that. I would certainly think twice about eating an animal I was friends with, of course, but an animal I didn’t know? There’s nothing wrong with doing what’s natural.”

Takkan trotted up to them at that moment, presumably having crossed the river while Mei wasn’t looking. “Actually, there can be plenty wrong with doing what’s natural,” the fox said. “Some felines actively torment their prey before killing them, just for fun. You two should come to the philosophy group one of these days. I did a lecture on the relationship between nature and morality only last week.”

“While we appreciate the offer,” Gon said, “I think we have enough on our plate right now without having to worry about the injustice of our own existence.”

Takkan shrugged. “Suit yourselves.”

After the fox had hopped nimbly back across the river, he called out, “Everyone to your places. We’re going over the scene again in five minutes.”

“I’d better let you get back to work,” Mei said.

“Thank you for the kind words,” Jess said.

Takkan made everyone perform the scene about eight times in total. To Jess and Gon’s relief, he let them end the scene without jumping into the river every time. Mei couldn’t discern much difference between one attempt and the next, but Takkan seemed satisfied with whatever progress they were making.

Unlike Takkan, Gabu didn’t do much criticising, but praised everything from the way Jess and Gon delivered their lines to the choir members’ timekeeping. Occasionally, he would make suggestions, like having Jess and Gon look towards the mountain whenever they sang about finding a new home. The actors took these suggestions seriously, and many of them stuck.

Everyone was exhausted by the time Takkan finally announced they had finished. “Nice work,” he said. “Next time, I want to go over ‘Goats and Wolves’ again, so make sure you all know the words.”

“Goats and Wolves,” Gabu told Mei, was the most complicated song in the entire play; almost everyone had a part in it, and both Frank and Greta had lengthy solos.

After saying goodbye to everyone, Jess and Gon set off back to the eastern forest at a run, so as to get there before nightfall. Gabu and Mei went back to Moonrise Hill to watch the sunset together.

“That was fun,” Mei said as they sat atop the hill, gazing into the twilight sky. “Tomorrow is Philosophy Day, right?”

“That’s right. Are you going to go to that?”

“I want to try everything at least once. And besides, that first lesson Takkan gave us was sort of interesting, right?”

“His lessons are a lot more abstract now,” Gabu said. “I liked it better when it was simple problems where we had to decide what to do. I could understand that.”

“Abstract might be all right. I’ll have to see for myself.”