Olivia Flies High by Lyn Gardner Page A

Josie Cutwell was always impatient when she spoke to him.
    He didn’t blame either of them. Last night, when he’d come to put on his costume, he couldn’t find his trousers anywhere, but when he had gone to wardrobe to ask if they’d taken them away for washing or mending, the wardrobe mistress had sworn blind that they had put them back in the dressing room. When Lacey had accompanied him back to the dressing room, his trousers had indeed been hanging over the back of his chair, and he’d had to stutter an apology. Lacey, who Tom knew wassympathetic to him and thought that Josie gave him a hard time, gave a little tut as if even she was finally losing patience with him.
    “Is everything all right, Tom? You don’t seem quite yourself,” said Alicia quietly, once the tea had arrived.
    Tom looked at her, his green eyes cloudy. “They’re going to sack me, aren’t they?” he said desperately.
    Alicia knew she had to choose her words carefully. “Tom, I’m not going to deny that you’ve made yourself unpopular with Jon James and the rest of the creative team. But the boy they tell me about doesn’t sound anything like the boy I know. I want to help you, and I promise you that I’ll do everything that I can, but I need you to tell me the truth.”
    So Tom told her everything that had happened, including the disappearing clothes and the phone call to his house. “You should ask my mum; she took the call and she said it was Josie. I am telling the truth, Miss Swan, really I am.”
    “I believe you, Tom,” Alicia said. “But it’s very mysterious. You’re going to have to be on your very best behaviour over the next fewdays and you’re going to have to be extra alert.”
    She had walked with him back to the stage door of the theatre because she had wanted to give Bert some cream for the arthritis in his fingers. Bert was delighted to see her, and had kissed her hand and immediately started reminiscing.
    “Those were the days, Miss Swan. Happy times. You were always my favourite. I used to creep into the wings to watch you whenever I could. I loved your Goneril in King Lear . The Queen came to see it, didn’t she?”
    “She did,” smiled Alicia. “And when I was introduced to her afterwards, she said, ‘Really a rather unpleasant family, those Lears,’ and I could hardly keep a straight face.”
    Bert suddenly realised that Tom was standing there.
    “Here you are, Tom lad, I’ve got some first-night cards for you. You’d better sign in and take them up to your dressing room.” He handed a sheaf of cards to Tom who took them and wandered miserably away towards the stairs.
    “Nice boy, that Tom,” said Bert. “Much nicer than that snooty Katie girl.” Then headded, “Mind you, they’re lucky they’ve got a full team of kids at all tonight. I’ve never known anything like it. Both the other Gretls are out of action; thank goodness that Freya is such a little trouper. She may not be the strongest performer in the world, but she’ll make sure that the show goes on.”
    Up in his dressing room, Tom had begun to open the cards. He knew they would be good-luck cards and at the moment he needed all the luck he could get. There was one from his mum and dad telling him how much they loved him and how much they were looking forward to being in the audience this evening. There was a hand-drawn one from his little sister, Lily, with a picture of a star on it. There was a card from his gran and granddad who lived in Manchester, saying how proud of him they were and that they would be down to see The Sound of Music next month. It made Tom feel very sad. The way things were going, he probably wouldn’t be in The Sound of Music next month.
    There was one from Aeysha saying how sorry she was she couldn’t be there, another from Miss Swan and everyone at the Academy and another from Georgia saying, “Break a leg,”which theatre people said because wishing someone good luck was considered a jinx. He’d sent