Beautiful Ways

The Play

Phillips POV

After all that happened last night I went home trying to think of ways to apologize to Lia so I had tried to talk to her today but she wouldn't even look at me. Alex was also appearing to have the same problem with Anne. I found myself with Alex in P.T's office who was unraveling a poster Lia designed no doubt.

"Why can't you just put more shows in New York?" Alex asked P.T. "Why do you need to tour the country?"

"Why did Napoleon march on Russia?" P.T. fires back.

"Napoleon was defeated." I point out as he closes a box and grabs keys from O' Malley to lock it.

"Napoleon didn't have a 60-piece orchestra." He says as I look at his plans.

"A 60-piece orchestra?" Alex asks bewildered.

"Just get the cheapest musicians you can and watch that." P.T. says and I follow him and he hands me the key.

"We'll still have to board them." I told him.

"We'll get married ones, they can share a bunk. O' Malley, that's Caroline's piggy bank." He calls out leaving the room and I continue following.

"Custom sets?"

"Yeah." We walked across a rafter.

"Fireworks?"

"Uh-huh."

"Inside theaters?" We stop in the middle of the catwalk and he turns to me.

"That's genius." He says before walking off again.

"No. Hey, P.T." I caught up with him. "These are the most famous theaters in the country. They make you buy the seats in advance just to book them."

"Yeah. I took out a loan."

"And we have to pay Jenny in advance?" I say ducking under a pole.

"It was a large loan. Okay?"

"You're not gonna see a penny of profit until your 40th show..."

"41st, actually." He says cutting me off.

"You're risking everything you built here."

"Well, how do you think I built it? We'll have plenty of profits to go around after this."

"P.T.?"

"What?" He asks annoyedly and I turn him around.

"Your attention has been divided long enough. Our gates are down, we have more protesters every day."

"You just need to get people to come back. 'If you haven't been at the Barnum Museum lately, you haven't been at the Barnum Museum.'"

"They come to see you. You're crazy ideas... Your new acts, the unusual."

"Well, then how about you show them a smile? That'd be unusual." He says before continuing. "Keep rehearsing. Just make it very clear I expect them to afford you all the deference you deserve." He walks down the stairs and I just follow him with my eyes shocked at his behavior before catching up with him. "and that they should be nice to you anyway." He rushes away.

"Ain't that a sight for sore eyes?" Lettie says sitting on a bed fanning herself as Alex catches up to me.

"Couldn't even say 'Hello.'" Tom says.

"Or 'goodbye.' He's going on tour. Sorry, guys." Alex says and takes the paper from my hands and looks at it.

"Oh, pull yourself together, Carlyle, Woods. Don't you have somewhere to be?" Lettie responds.