So Sweet a Changeling: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 6)

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Rachel, Saturday

She knew Lauren was going to punch her in the arm as soon as she gave it to her, but then she was going to hug her and, hopefully, if the two of them were alone, they might do more than hug; Rachel hadn't been with Lauren, just the two of them, in a while, and she missed her. Though Lauren had promised her on Thursday that they'd have time together on Friday, she couldn't make the rota work and actually had to do the surveillance of Omar's colleague herself. It made Rachel feel like a housewife whose husband never took her out anymore, and she hated that feeling, because she felt it so rarely. Even Al never made her feel that way; she at least could reach for him at the end of the night, and he'd always be there. 

Of course, Rachel wasn't going to leave the gift shop without a little something for herself. She considered getting her own t-shirt with another quote from the play they were seeing, "Me thought I was enamoured of an ass," but she wasn't sure she could wear something so tacky, and she didn't want to make Al feel bad, even if she called him a dumbass sometimes, affectionately, of course. Instead, she found a lovely amethyst pendant necklace that had nothing to do with Shakespeare but complemented her eyes and hair. Once they put their haul in Lauren's tote bag, the bell sounded for the guests to take their seats for the play.

Their seats were on the left of the theatre and up high, and at first she thought their view wouldn't be good, but from the way the scenery was arranged, they were going to be able to see the actors surprisingly well, especially the ones off on stage left.

A woman in a red dress strode onto the stage to the applause of the audience. She welcomed everyone and announced the cast changes for the play.

After the first two, which didn't register with Rachel at all, the woman said, "And tonight, the role of Oberon will be played by Daniel Trybek."

"What?" Rachel said, a little too loudly, as guests in the seats in front of her turned and looked at her. Did they assume she'd been hoping to see the main actor for the role?

She looked at Al. He looked as stunned as she did.

"It has to be a coincidence," she said, keeping her voice down. "There could be a lot of people with that name."

He blinked and nodded, and said, equally low, "Yeah. You're right. It has to be. They said Daniel, right? Not Danny."

"Right."

They settled in their seats and watched the opening of the play. The court of Theseus, the injustice of forcing poor Hermia to choose between marrying Demetrius, a man she didn't love, joining a convent, or being put to death. Jesus, couldn't she choose none of the above? The pining of poor Helena, played by a tall redhead in glasses, whom Rachel found to be sexy in a nerdy way. The congregation of the "Rude Mechanicals," among them Nick Bottom who, Rachel could tell, was already going to steal the show. Emma was laughing hysterically at his antics, and she was sure the girl couldn't even understand most of what they said; even Rachel had trouble with the apocryphal language of Shakespeare, but you didn't need to be a genius to be able to interpret the actors' body language as they gave their lines, as they stumbled and barked and gesticulated. 

Then, the first fairy scene. Emma immediately quieted, and stared, awed, at the entrance of Puck, Titania and the rest of the fairies. She watched their choreographed movements, which looked a lot like ballet, with such wonder that Rachel was more moved by watching her than by watching the fairies.

Oberon, when he entered, was first encased in a tree-like costume that reminded Rachel of an Ent in the Lord of the Rings series. He was actually a little scary with his alien movements, and Emma clutched Rachel's leg but didn't look away. Eventually, though, his underlings helped him out of that get-up, and underneath he wore a long coat and a top hat that made him look quite roguish and cool. You just knew he was going to start fucking shit up.