Giggleswick: The Amadán Map

Chapter Fourteen: Through the Storm Drain

Chapter Fourteen: Through the Storm Drain 

Though Elliot and Eliza now had a pretty good idea where the map was hidden, there was nothing they could do about it just yet. Their final dress rehearsal for Godfrey Gallagher: the Musical was the next day, and as Agnes had told them to bring their sleeping bags, they doubted there’d be much time left over for snooping around gravesites.   

“I just hope George hasn’t already found it,” said Elliot the next morning as he yanked on his costume. He and the rest of the cast had been exempt from classes that day in order to attend rehearsal.   

“He’s probably never even seen that article, Elliot,” said Eliza calmly. “He won’t have any idea where to look.” She slipped her feather-clad hat atop her head and adjusted it in the mirror. “As soon as the show is over with, we’ll locate Poppy’s tomb and retrieve the map.” 

“Right,” Elliot agreed, for lack of something better to say, but despite the fact that they were only a day away from the performance, he couldn’t help feeling as though time wasn’t on their side. 

They finished putting on their costumes and then joined a line of other cast members waiting to have their makeup done by Pauline La Russo. Eliza, of course, was not happy about this. “She’s going to make me look like a raccoon or something, I just know it!” she complained. Sure enough, when Mrs. La Russo was done with her, Eliza was a unicycle away from looking like a clown, and she had to spend the next ten minutes in the girls’ bathroom wiping off the excess. 

“Looks better,” Elliot lied when she reappeared, but Eliza knew better than to believe him and repaid the compliment with a pronounced huff.  

By this point, most of the cast had gathered on stage awaiting Agnes’s pre-rehearsal pep talk, and Elliot and Eliza joined them just as the withering woman was staggering toward the front of the theater.  

“Now listen up,” Agnes croaked once she’d steadied herself atop her stool. “You’ve got one more chance to get this right. After that, all of Giggleswick will know how miserable you are.” She leered at each student, sometimes pointing with a gnarled finger at those she must have felt were in particular danger of being miserable. When her eyes fell on Jamie Boot, her lip curled up, and the boy gulped at the sight of her. 

“As you may have realized,” she addressed the cast, her eyes still on Jamie, “Mr. Boot has proven himself thoroughly incapable of operating anything more than the curtain, and so my son George will be running the stage lights for tomorrow’s performance.” 

Elliot and Eliza nudged each other at the same time. “That’ll keep him out of trouble for one day at least,” whispered Eliza. 

The rest of the cast seemed happy George would be backstage as well, because it meant Agnes would likely be more pleasant. The only person who did not appear happy about this was Jamie, who was staring at his shoes with a face as red as the curtain he would be manning. 

They finished the first act feeling pretty good about themselves. No one had forgotten their lines or sang out of tune, and Jamie had pulled the curtain at precisely the right times. Nevertheless, Agnes looked so disgusted she couldn’t even speak, and they were dismissed to the cafeteria for lunch. 

Elliot and Eliza made sure to sit by Jamie to help cheer him up, but Marigold soon joined them, and as usual her gloom counteracted any amount of cheerfulness the rest of them tried to bring to the conversation.  

“I thought you’d been running the lights beautifully,” Eliza told Jamie, and he smiled weakly back at her. 

“Yeah,” said Elliot, “and Agnes probably just said what she did because she was dying to include her son in the show.”