Jade's Plan

The room was so loud. Thirty-three children and two adults crammed into one classroom. What made me believe volunteering for this Christmas pageant was a good idea? Jade must have caught me at a weak moment when she asked if I could help.

“Come on, Kate. You have fantastic sewing skills. I would just need you to help in the costume department. Please?” She looks at me with her puppy-dog eyes, and her hands folded as if she’s going to pray. “Please, please, Kate?” She now has her head tilted to one side, like a dog begging for a treat.

“Okay, fine, but only sewing. If you rope me into anything else, I’m walking. That is your warning.”

“Jeez, where’s your holiday spirit?”

“It doesn’t show until December. This is mid-October. Christmas isn’t on my mind at all.”

“I want this to be the best Christmas program ever put on. Remember how lame they were when we were kids in Sunday school? The lines and costumes are always the same old ones, and I’ll bet no one has washed them in decades.

“They may have been lame, but what else are going to do on Christmas Eve? You tell the Nativity story. I just didn’t like that I never got picked for a part.”

“Well, I’m going to change that whole thing up, and we will put on an actual play the Saturday night before Christmas Eve.”

“I’m assuming you got Pastor’s blessing on this?”

“Of course I did. It took a little persuading, but he’s on board and looks forward to watching it.”

That was last week, and now it’s Saturday morning and I should still sleep, but I’m here for tryouts. Since this is Jade’s story, there are many more parts than the usual Wise Men, shepherds, angels, and the holy family.

“Hey, everybody, settle down,” Jade says, but no one is listening. She says it again, trying for louder, but when that doesn’t work, I climb onto a chair overlooking the kids.

“SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN!” I yelled. The room fell quiet in an instant. “Thank you.” I smile sweetly at the kids and jump down, giving Jade the floor.

Jade starts the auditions with minor character roles. There’s the librarian, the janitor, the mailman and the shop clerk. We get a good laugh when Bryce comes out with a rainbow clown wig he found in the storage closet. When seven-year-old Sadie tries out for the librarian, and has the lines memorized, Jade gets a confused look on her face. What’s up with that?

“This isn’t going well,” Jade says, while we wait for more kids.

“What do you mean it’s not going well? It seems okay to me.”

“Sadie can’t be the librarian. That should be one of the older kids.”

“Did you put age suggestions down for the parts on the handouts?”

“I didn’t even think of that. I guess I just assumed that the parents and kids would figure that out.”

“I don’t have to tell you that was a mistake, right? But what difference does it make if the librarian is short? Sadie had the lines memorized. She’ll be great.”

“I guess so. You’re right, it will be fine. She can stand on a stool and be taller. I’ll make a note of that for props.”

The next batch of kids comes in, and we get started right away. These are for parts that are bigger. There’s the neighbor kid, dog walker, bus driver, two shepherds, and the school principal. I sure hope Jade knows what she’s doing. When Wendy Sue wants to try out for the part of the principal, I see that look on Jade’s face again. I bet she wanted it to be a male role. How unprogressive of her!

By late afternoon, I’m pulling my hair out. Some kids read their lines in a monotone voice, especially the boys. It’s like listening to cicadas, just a low humming noise. Jade feels frustrated; I know. I guess she thought there would be more talent in the kids.

The last group of kids is here, and there aren’t many. We’re talking about the meaty roles. Mom and Dad, the angel, a head shepherd, a teacher, the mayor, and the two lead characters who are girls and best friends. The remaining kids will be the chorus.

“What a long day,” I say to Jade walking to our cars. “Are you okay?” She is quiet.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m just a little disappointed. I’ve built this up to be more in my head and reality is hitting me.”

“If you wanted child actors, you’d have to hire them. The kids will be fine. Their parents will sit in the audience and take pictures, and no one is going to care that Tina forgot her line about exact change for the bus.”

“Again, you’re right. I just want this to be better than the same old, same old.”

“You’ve already achieved that. It’s a play using the school stage, on a Saturday, with more characters. The parents and grandparents are going to love it. You’ll see. Now I’m starving, so let’s go get something to eat.”

“Okay. My treat.”

“Not going to argue about that!”

***

The following Saturday, all the kids who got a role are here for our first rehearsal. Jade assists them with their actions and lines, while I am in the storage closet with the costumes boxed up. Pulling one down, I’m covered in dust. I sneezed twice and brushed the dust out of my hair. The contents of the box are sad, sad, sad. I drag out the angel costume. The halo and wings have seen better days. I have a list of characters, and while some of them only need regular clothes, some need to be made. Uniforms, a couple of suits. A new angel gown. I’m glad there are two months to work on them. Before I get too involved, I need to ask Jade if there is a budget. I will definitely check out the resale shops.

During the next month, one of our shepherds dropped out. He wasn’t hard to replace him, but Jade was worried this was the first of many setbacks. It doesn’t help that more than half of the kids don’t have their lines memorized by the end of that month’s rehearsals. The costumes are going great. I didn’t know at the auditions that some parts played two characters. Like Dad, the principal, and the bus driver are the three Wise Men. The librarian is an angel, and Mom is Mary. I’m thinking Jade should have started this in July.

“Kate, what am I going to do? This just isn’t coming together the way I envisioned. I should have known there was a reason they always did the same thing year after year. Not much work was involved. Maybe I should just tell Pastor I’m going to toss in the towel and we’ll just go back to the Christmas Eve service.”

“Oh no, you aren’t. You committed to yourself, Pastor, me, and the kids that you were putting on a play. There’s no backing out now. Come hell or high water, we are putting on this play you wrote, so quit feeling sorry for yourself and let’s brainstorm ideas to help the kids along when they can’t remember their lines or when they are supposed to be on stage. This doesn’t have to be perfect because nothing is perfect. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Wow, I guess you told me. Don’t hold back your feelings.”

“Well, stop sulking like your dog was just kicked and get your head into the game. We can do this. I didn’t want to do anything but costumes, but I’m invested in this and we are going to put on the best damn Christmas pageant this church has ever seen.”

“Uh, you swore in church.”

“God, please forgive me, but my friend here needs a kick in the butt. Amen.”

I ended up volunteering to get props and a set made. I got a few parents to help with designing and painting simple sets. Eleanor, the pastor’s wife, told us she would get refreshments covered by the women’s club. There was no stopping us now.

Well, that is until the flu and strep throat started going through the kids. We were getting down to the final two weeks before the show. It never occurred to us that we needed understudies. I mean, who thinks of understudies for a children's play?

“Jade, I think I have a plan if any of the kids are out sick. Let’s ask some of the high school kids to see if they’d be willing to step in and cover roles. They wouldn’t need to memorize all the parts; they could just improvise dialogue.”

“Oh my gosh, that is a brilliant idea, Kate. You’ve been coming up with all the good ideas to make this play a success. Making costumes that are reversible for the dual parts, genius. I can’t thank you enough.” Jade starts to tear up.

“Hey no tears. There’s no crying in acting. You’re my best friend since 5th grade. I would do anything for you. Now give me a hug and then get a list of teens we can contact.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Jade gives me a salute.

“We got this, Jade! I believe in us.”

It looks like God is shining down on us because we’re in the last week before the show and no one has come down sick in two days. We have finished the sets, and the costumes are ready, pressed, and hanging in the dressing rooms. The high schoolers came through to help with makeup and hair. We came up with the idea that some of them dress in black to be off to the sides of the stage to help with lines or directions. Three more days. I can’t believe it’s here! Oops, I spoke too soon. Our “dad” fell and broke his arm.

“Kate!” Jade yelled into the phone, almost breaking my eardrum.

“Jade, is everything okay? Why are you yelling?”

“Bryce broke his arm in P.E. today. I just got off the phone with his mom, and she said he can’t be here on Saturday. What do we do?” Jade sounds so forlorn.

“Breathe, Jade, breathe. We've got this covered; Charlie will step in. He’s not too tall, so it won’t look weird. I'll call him after we’re done.”

“Yes, yes, you are right again. I don’t think I can take any more surprises.”

“No more surprises. I forbid them.”

I call Charlie and he’s more than happy to fill in. He’s been to enough rehearsals to know the part. I told him what to wear for Dad and the Wise Man. Crisis averted.

Friday morning I wake up and look out my window and see that we got some snow overnight, and it’s still snowing. I turn on the news and the forecast is for three to five inches by Saturday night. That shouldn’t interfere with the show. It is going to get freezing, though, and overnight temperatures can drop below zero. Well, as long as the cold is when I’m sleeping in my comfy bed, I’m not worried about it. I head off to work feeling good about tomorrow night.

At lunchtime, snow covers the cars in the lot, and snow continues to fall. I ate in the cafeteria. I only want to clear off my car once. The TV in the cafeteria shows the amount of snow we’ve gotten so far, which is four inches. But the map they’re showing is pink and dark pink, meaning it might snow more than expected. Around two o’clock, I got a call from Jade.

“Hi Jade. What can I do for you?”

“Have you seen the snow outside? The weather guy said that the wind would increase and expected blizzard conditions. We may not do the play after all. No one is going to want to come out in that.”

“Do they say how long it will keep snowing? I mean, if it stops tonight or overnight, the roads will be clear and cleaned up by five when the kids are to be dropped off.”

“Why do you always see the glass half full? Aren’t you in full-on panic mode?”

“It doesn’t help to be in a panic this far in advance. Things will work out. There’s another call coming in on my office line. I’ll touch base with you later. And Jade? Breathe.”

“I think I’m going to hyperventilate. I’ll talk to you later.”

By the end of the workday, our cars have piles of snow on them. While we all work to clear our cars, there’s always that one person who does the bare minimum, clearing just enough snow to see out the front window. We all stop and stare as he pulls out of the parking lot with snow blowing off his roof.

“What an idiot,” Brandon says. He works in accounting next to my department.

“Is that something you can get stopped for? Though what cop is going to pull someone over in this weather.”

“It certainly is a safety hazard. Hey, that play is this weekend, right? I hope the weather doesn’t cause any difficulties for you.”

“Thanks Brandon. I’m thinking positively. I’ll fill you in on Monday.”

“Well, I wish you good luck. Be careful driving home.”

“Yeah, you too, Brandon. Have a good weekend.”

It’s a slow drive home, but I see a lot of plows out. They seem to keep up with it. While I drive, I go through an imaginary list of what I need to do and what I need to bring with me tonight. All of our volunteer parents and the high schoolers are meeting to get the set in place and work out the kinks.

“Hey Jade, I’m going to stop and pick up something for dinner at Mr. Beefy. What can I get for you?”

“Kate,” Jade’s voice was a whisper.

“What happened to your voice?”

“Laryngitis. I woke up with my throat sore and scratchy. What am I going to do?” Jade sounds terrible. “This has to be a sign. The weather, now this, Bryce’s broken arm. This play will be a disaster.”

“Jade, that’s crazy talk. Everything is going to turn out okay. There is no other outcome. You stay home tonight and rest, and I mean rest. There’s going to be enough parents to get everything done. Tomorrow, the roads will be clear. Your throat won’t hurt as bad and there will be a full house, and in two hours it will be over, and we will be sitting in a bar toasting to our success.”

“Kate, I hope you're right. I don’t have your positive attitude.”

“This was your baby. You can’t give up now. Remember there is no plan B. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”

***

“Good evening! I am Kate Blisfeld and I want to welcome you to our original Christmas story play. Jade Wilson wrote and directed it. And without further ado, I present ‘Our Little Christmas Story’.”

The audience clapped enthusiastically, and I whispered a brief prayer as I walked off the stage. Jade gives me a hug. “This is it!”

The first fifteen minutes went by without a hitch. “Where is Jenny?” I say to myself. She’s supposed to be on stage. “Has anyone seen Jenny?” I whisper.

“She threw up in the dressing room,” Susanna says, running up to me.

“Susanna, do you know Jenny’s part?” I ask her.

“I do Miss Kate.” She’s beaming as she runs out onto the stage. If I didn’t know better, I wonder if she made Jenny sick. Nah. My back is to the dressing room when Jenny runs out onto the stage and pushes Susanna off the chair. Jade says on her mic, “What should we do?” I hear the audience laugh as Jenny tells Susanna to get off her chair, and Susanna runs off the stage.

“I guess she handled it,” I say into the mic, chuckling.

As the play moves along, there aren’t too many problems with forgotten lines, but there is a lot of improvisation. The audience takes it all in stride. There is a short intermission to change the set into the Nativity stable. I check on the costume changes. Charlie did well with his last-minute costumes.

The second act starts, and so far the only thing to go wrong is when one of the cardboard palm trees falls over, hitting our sitting shepherds. But the best part is when the Wise Men come onto the stage because there is Bryce with his arm in a cast and wearing the rainbow clown wig on his head!

The audience gave the kids a standing ovation, and one kid brought a bouquet to Jade and me. Everyone pitches in to clean up, and in no time it’s just Jade, Pastor, and me.

"Well, that was a success, Jade,” Pastor says. “Are you up for doing it next Christmas?”

“Ask me in July.”

We all laugh. Yeah, I don’t want to hear of props or costumes for a long time. The pastor returns to his office to work on his sermon. We turn off the lights and open the door to leave. As the door closes behind us, Jade looks up to the sky and screams, “I did it!”