Day 83: The Last Theatre Day

“This is it, everyone,” Takkan said, “the last Theatre Day before the opening night.”

“Does it count as an opening night if it’s also our closing night?” Greta asked.

“Yeah,” Sagi said, “and you said we’re starting at noon.”

“Okay,” Takkan said, playing up his annoyance for dramatic effect, “this is the last Theatre Day before the opening-closing noon-until-sunset. Happy now? Anyway, this is our last chance to straighten out any flaws. Does anyone have any lines you still can’t remember? Anything you don’t understand?”

“There’s something I don’t understand,” one hare said. Something seemed off about her tone. “Why are those two carnivores suddenly hunting in this forest?” She indicated Jess and Gon. “A friend of mine knew someone who got eaten by them only a couple nights ago. The deal was that no other wolves would be hunting in this forest.”

“I understand your concern,” Takkan said placatingly, “but this isn’t the time for that. We can discuss politics after tomorrow.”

“Politics?!” a rat exclaimed. “You think people dying is politics?”

“As a matter of fact, yes, I think premade communal arrangements about whether people die in one forest or another are politics,” Takkan said calmly, “but can we please get back to th—”

“In case you hadn’t noticed,” Gon said loudly, “Gabu hasn’t been hunting at all for the past two weeks. I think this forest can survive a few more nights of increased hunting to compensate, don’t you?”

Everything was falling apart. Everyone was talking at once, and no one was listening to anyone.

“QUIET!” Greta bellowed. The noise faded. “Thank you. Jess and Gon, I understand you’ve been hunting on Gabu’s behalf while he recovers from his injury. This, I think, is fine, since the same number of people die as they would if Gabu himself were hunting. As for whether you’re entitled to hunt for yourselves in addition to this, we can discuss that another day. Until then, if you want to hunt for yourselves, please do so in the eastern forest. Is everyone satisfied with this arrangement?” As so often happened when Greta asked if everyone was satisfied, no one said anything. Gon nodded curtly.

The mood remained sour as Takkan said, “Good. Now, as I was saying, is there anything related to the play that we want to revisit?”

“Perhaps we could go over ‘I’ll Run Away With You’ again, just once?” Mei said. That ought to cheer people up, he thought but didn’t say.

It worked. The hare, who was part of the choir, made no more fuss as they all set up for the song. By the final chorus, she and everyone else were having fun and the atmosphere was lighter. Jess and Gon’s performance was as beautiful as the last time Mei had heard it.

They went over some scenes and a few more songs, including ‘Pleasure to Eat You’, which Mei was hearing now for the first time. Gabu wasn’t too fond of it, but Mei found it hilarious. Everyone acted extremely professionally, and they hardly ever needed to redo a scene because of a mistake. More often, they would find small things to improve, like changes to lines to make them easier to say or to sound better.

By the time the practice session came to an end, late into the afternoon, everyone was feeling confident about tomorrow’s performance.

“Remember,” Takkan said, “we want everyone to arrive nice and early. If anyone isn’t here an hour before the performance, I’m going to start prepping understudies. Now, everyone go home and get some beauty sleep. We’ve got a big day ahead of us.”

Gabu and Mei saw Jess and Gon again that night when the wolves brought Gabu a hare and a squirrel. “That’s not the hare who was at Theatre Day, right?” Mei asked warily.

“No,” Jess said, “I think Takkan would kill us if we hunted one of his choir members right before the big day.”

“I’m sorry about that, by the way,” Gabu said. “Did you have time to get any food for yourselves from the eastern forest?”

“No, but we ate last night, so we’re not too hungry,” Jess said, putting the hare down in front of Gabu while Gon put the squirrel down next to it.

Gabu looked at the dead animals. “In that case, you’d better have some of this. You’ll need the energy more than I will tomorrow,” he said with a smile.

Jess and Gon didn’t need telling twice. Mei looked away as the three of them started eating.