"Till The End I..."

"Five minutes," the director, pursing his pasty, fat lips in frustration.

Alice patted her face carefully with the white powder in front of her. Five minutes. She had never done anything like this before, but she felt now that it was for the best. Five minutes and everyone would be staring. Five minutes and she would have to open her mouth in front of 2,000 people, which kind of scared her. Five minutes. He said he would be there waiting outside. Waiting to see her. Five minutes.

"Hey good luck Alice," a faceless backup dancer patted her on the back.

"Thanks," she muttered, while still staring in the mirror at herself.

Alice was not used to seeing herself with makeup on. She didn't normally wear much of it, and now, her artificially blushed cheeks, her crimson lips and blue eyelids seemed monstrously excessive. She smiled lightly, staring at the caricature of herself in the mirror. "Four minutes," the director barked.

Four minutes. And he said he'd be there didn't he? She imagined him sitting in the audience, with a white tuxedo, because he loved to stand out, and a bouquet of hazy purple lilacs - because he knew those were her favorite. Three minutes. "Alice, are you excited?," another faceless dancer in a pale blue leotard asked her. The girl's blond hair was tied into a carefully set bun on the top of her head. She wondered whether or not that girl had someone waiting for her outside in the audience. She had a small, sloped nose and tiny delicate features that made Alice absent-mindedly get out of her chair and walk over the girl, giving her a hug the she felt would probably should have crushed the young dancer.

Two minutes. Alice was tempted to run onto the stage and peer out through the curtain. She knew it was childish. But that was how he made her feel usually. His own outlandish behaviour made her feel that she could act however she wanted and not be judged. She pictured him in the audience again, weeping at her performance, as he often did at movies they watched. He was incredibly sensitive. Moreso than her anyway, and for some reason she found that amusing. She enjoyed wiping the tears from his deep brown eyes. It made her feel useful and important somehow.

"One minute, everyone!" A man with a large, black moustache yelled as he ran hurriedly through the backstage area.

"Ten seconds," Alice counted to herself. Ten. She wondered if he would be sitting at the back or the front. Nine. Would she notice at all? Eight. She could call herself an actor after this was all done. Seven. Would that make her a different person? And if so, how? Six. She knew she had to clear these thoughts out of her head. Five. Acting, that was all that mattered. Four. Nothing else, she was a vessel for the character she was playing now. Three. She started walking toward the slowly opening stage curtain. Two. Whereever he was, he would have to wait until the end of the show. One. Until the end.

Alice walked onto the stage and felt the hot stage lights rise on her face. She noticed a tall-slender man in a white tuxedo near the back of the theatre, placing his arm around a dark-haired girl with a red dress on. Alice bit her lip and thought to herself, "nothing now. Nothing until the end." and smiled to the applause of the audience in front of her.

************

There you go.

Enjoy,
Kalinka.