Page 9 of Welcome Home to Ivy Falls

‘Will my taking the position cause problems? Pretty much everyone knows about my past. My struggles. Parents might object to me being around their kids. If it’s going to be an issue, I won’t take the job.’

She straightened her shoulders and clenched her jaw. ‘How many people do you know who have gotten a second chance in Ivy Falls?’

‘There’ve been a few.’

‘This town may be into everyone’s business, but they also have big enough hearts to see when someone is putting their best foot forward. Learning from their mistakes and making a new life for themselves. Anyone who has been around you for the last year sees how you’ve been working your tail off. That all you want is the best for this town. I can’t think of anyone who deserves this job more.’

She pushed up the sleeves on her cream blouse and gave me a determined stare.

‘The question is can you do this while having two jobs and going to school? I won’t let you work yourself into the ground. Your mother, bless her soul, would never forgive me.’

This was another reason why I’d hesitated about the position. While I’d stopped taking classes at the community college, because I still had no idea what I wanted to do, working at the café and managing the coffee bar at the bookstore was still a lot. I also had to consider my commitment to my therapy sessions once a week. But every morning when I woke up, a hollowness in my chest warned I was missing something. It hadn’t taken long to figure out that something was creativity. A pull to immerse myself in the arts again.

‘I’m holding off on classes for a while, which means I can shuffle my schedule around to make it work.’ My gaze wandered back to the show posters.

‘You miss it,’ she offered quietly.

‘I do. While New York wasn’t the right place for me, I did enjoy the energy that came from going to auditions. Losing myself in a character if only for a few minutes.’

‘That’s the way I felt with the opera. Even if I had the smallest role, I didn’t care because I ached to be onstage. Needed to feel the hum of the creative process filling the air. That feeling, like your soul is snapping to life once the music begins, is something a true performer never forgets.’

As a young woman, Miss Cheri had performed with a few opera companies. She’d graduated from the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern and had sung all over the world, including the Sydney Opera House and the Opéra Garnier in Paris. She’d met her late husband in New York and they eventually moved to Ivy Falls to start a family. Every once in a while, we could cajole her into singing an aria for us, and the beauty of her voice made more than a few Ivy Falls locals blink away tears.

‘Rehearsals start at one o’clock tomorrow. Auditions have already taken place, and the kids are ready to go.’ She pulled a yellow file out of one of the drawers in the desk and handed it to me. ‘This is the script. Feel free to read it over. Make notes.’

She must have noticed the tremble in my hand as I took the file.

‘The kids can be a handful, but I’ll be here if you need anything, honey. I believe in you.’ Her voice went thready. ‘So does Mrs Vanderpool. All we need is for you to have confidence in yourself. Can you do that?’

I opened the file and read the block letters inked across the script: MARY POPPINS JR. The summary of the show spilled out across the page and adrenaline flooded my veins.

The scary voice that usually knocked around inside my head, the one that screamed I’d never be able to build a new life, that my darkest demons weren’t gone, clawed at my chest. I closed my eyes and tried to picture my favorite place like my therapist instructed, but there were only flashes of all the wrong roads I’d chosen. Instead of letting the fear take hold, I reminded myself of how far I’d come. How many of those demons I’d slayed in the past two years.

I opened my eyes to find Miss Cheri staring at me cautiously.

‘Yes,’ I said, gripping the pages of the script. ‘I can definitely direct this show.’