Mother-Daughter Theatre
Phoebe and her 18 year old daughter Joyce both enrolled in the same Theatre Acting class in Flin Flon. Their instructor, Carolyn, naturally speculated on what sort of "family friendly" coercion had been employed to get Joyce to agree to such an arrangement. Phoebe requested to be Joyce's scene partner until she became more comfortable in the class. She was considerably older than most of the other aspiring Thespians in the group, and claimed as an additional reason that she suffered from social anxiety disorder, which she hoped the class would enable her to lessen. Joyce seemed remarkably compliant in supporting her mother's request. There did not seem to be a a hint of visible shyness in Phoebe's method of rehearsing with Joyce. She not only side-coached, but front-and-back coached her daughter, repeatedly insisting that Joyce needed to BELIEVE what she was saying and doing if Phoebe were to perform her own part convincingly. Carolyn worried that she had given the students too much freedom in scene selection. Phoebe somehow wound up playing wise therapists, determined coaches, and somber Chaplains for prisoners on Death Row. Joyce submitted without protest to her recurring role of beleaguered f**k up in need of a shake up and emotional breakthrough. Carolyn at last intervened with the suggestion that Phoebe should choose to do a scene in which she was not the all-knowing authority figure. Imagine her surprise, and the group's, when the following week the pair presented the fire escape love scene from West Side Story. Phoebe played Tony and Joyce played Maria, and as they sang the Tonight duet, Phoebe tried to show the viewers that with these two smitten young folk, Tony was clearly the one who loved more completely. Carolyn was beginning to feel that the time was right to inform Phoebe (privately) that her daughter possessed exceptional acting talent, and that Phoebe had proven herself a "good sport" by turning up week after week to encourage her.
Willard asked a crow perched in his persimmon tree whether this would be another week in which an abominable adventure would befall him.
Yes, Talbot had come back from the dead, but only half-heartedly.