Member-only story
She Used a Sword to Free Them
She ruined our show
Humphrey winced.
His beloved theater was bustling again. Actors and musicians laughed at bad jokes. A fat man in a filthy t-shirt hollered into perfectly good microphones to check the sound system as if Humphrey hadn’t guaranteed perfection.
He should be happy.
Rehearsals meant a show was coming. A show meant money coming. Money meant he could afford to fix that leaking pipe, maybe repair the cracked plaster in the lobby.
Fastening his genial theater owner/manager face, Humphrey smiled at giggling dancers, hurried backstage to assist inept —
A whimper stopped him.
If that mangy alley cat had managed to sneak in again, he’d hurl it back to the hellmouth from which it issued.
A black-clad woman with a bristling headset smiled, pointed up at overhead lighting bars.
“These are state of the art. We don’t usually find these in small, regional theaters. Such a joy!”
Joy cost money.
Those lanterns were the reward for running The Rocky Horror Picture Show for drunken revelers to make his accountant happy. State of the art also attracted serious, revenue-surging shows on their way to big city stages.
