you said.’ He tapped the board with his finger. ‘Here we are. The Wild Birds. You’re late.’
‘Only by a few minutes, we couldn’t get parked and –’
‘It says on here that you were supposed to be on stage for a run-through at half past four.’
‘Half past four?’ Helen felt her stomach tighten. ‘It can’t say that. You’re joking,’ she said. ‘The man told me half past five.’
He pulled a face. ‘Do I look like the kind of man who’s got the time for jokes? Have you seen how many people we’ve got to try and get through here tonight? Now that is a bloody joke. The management want shooting. They should have asked me. I was in variety for years, me – on tour with the greats. I told them. I mean this is a complete farce.’
As he spoke Helen tried to get a look at what was written on his clipboard. ‘I’m sorry, but your list can’t be right,’ she said. ‘The man at the box office yesterday told me that we had to be here at half past five.’
‘Did he indeed?’ The little man pressed the board close up against his puny little chest. ‘And which man was that, then?’
‘Tully, Mr Tully,’ she said, feeling her pulse quicken. ‘He told me yesterday, he said we’d got to be here by half past five.’
‘Like he knows anything,’ said the man with a sneer.
‘He was the only one here when I got here. At lunch time. I gave him our music.’
The man snorted. ‘You gave him your music, did you? Well God only know where that’s ended up, then, it could be anywhere. The man is a complete nightmare. He’s a glorified caretaker.’
‘He seemed very nice. Very kind,’ Helen said, feeling totally lost. ‘He had a clipboard too. He said half past five and that I could leave the music with him, and that he’d look after it and make sure he passed it on to the right people.’
‘Well, you just better hope that he gave it to someone who knows what they’re doing,’ said the man. With that he ticked something on his board and waved her through. ‘Female changing, first floor, room three. You can’t miss it, up the stairs, just follow the sound of the bitching and smell of the hairspray. Go right along there. I’ve got a lot of people to see and you’re holding everybody up.’ With that the man’s attention turned to the next person in line.
Helen didn’t move, instead she stayed exactly where she was.
‘What?’ snapped the man.
‘What should we do?’ asked Helen.
‘What do you mean, what should we do?’ The man peered at her. ‘What should you do about what?’
‘About not being here at half past four?’ said Helen.
The man pulled a face. ‘There’s not a lot you can do really, is there? All the acts were allocated a time slot for a run-through and sound checks. It was tight as charity without people buggering about.’
‘And so you’re saying that we’ve missed it?’
‘Were you here at four thirty?’
Helen felt sick but tried very hard not to let it show. ‘No. But –’
‘But nothing, sweetheart,’ said the man, tapping his clipboard. ‘You were down for a four thirty run-through and you weren’t here. End of story. All right? Mister Tully should have given you a copy of the new schedule. There’s nothing I can do about it now. So if you’d just like to move along there please. Female dressing room, first floor, room three.’
She stared at him, refusing to budge. ‘Is there anyone I can talk to?’
‘No, now can you just move yourself? I’ve got a troupe of Eastern European acrobats unloading at the moment – all foreign – vich this and osky that, bloody nightmare making sure they’re who they say they are.’
Helen glanced around. She couldn’t spot anyone who looked as if they were anything to do with the theatre management. ‘So what will happen now, then?’ she asked.
‘I’ll count them I suppose; it’s the best I can do under the circumstances.’
Helen put her hands on her hips, her anxiety rapidly turning to anger.
‘I meant what will happen because we’ve missed the run-through. It wasn’t our fault.’
The man shrugged. ‘Look, sweetheart, the resident sound man they’ve got here is really good: he’s wasted in a place like this if you ask me. But he probably took a guess at what you need from what you put down on your application form and set it up accordingly; to be honest he’s not often that far out.’
The application form, thought Helen miserably, which was currently folded up in her handbag.
‘And there’s no one else I can talk to?’
The man shrugged. ‘I don’t know. God, maybe?’
At which point Helen caught sight of Charlotte further along the corridor. She was standing at the bottom of a flight of stairs, waving frantically. ‘Over here, Helen, here,’ Charlotte called.
‘Female changing –’ the man began.
‘I know, I heard you the first time,’ snapped Helen, pushing past him.
‘God, where on earth have you been? I was getting worried; where are the costumes?’ said Charlotte, all outrage and indignation as Helen hurried towards her. ‘I can’t believe you took so long. You knew I was waiting. Don’t tell me, Harry ended up having to park right down on the far end of the quay, didn’t he? I’m just glad I got out when I did. It’s complete madness here and it’s like a bloody cattle market upstairs. Have you been up there looking for me? I can’t believe this, how come there are so many people? It’s totally mad. And they’ve put everyone in together. I can’t even find anywhere to sit down. And the toilets are disgusting.’ Rant over, she looked Helen up and down. ‘So where are the costumes?’
‘Harry’s bringing them.’ Helen bit her lip, feeling a growing sense of panic. ‘He should be here in a minute.’
Charlotte stared at her. ‘What’s the matter with you? You’re not still nervous about singing tonight, are you?’
There was no point lying or beating about the bush. ‘No, it’s not that. The man down there who signed me in said that we should have been here at half past four; they must have changed the times, Charlotte. We’ve missed our sound checks.’
Charlotte’s expression hardened up. ‘Don’t say that, Helen. You are kidding me, aren’t you?’ she snapped. ‘Tell me it’s a joke.’
Helen shook her head. ‘No, it’s not. He said that the man I saw yesterday didn’t give me the right schedule.’
‘Oh for God’s sake. How could you be so bloody stupid?’ spat Charlotte. ‘How could you get the time wrong?’
Helen wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole. ‘I’m really
