Stage-Struck
By Felicity Sidnell-Reid
The first snow fell late that year after an unusually warm fall. Even November was mellow, the sun turning the long grass pinky gold in the morning, the cedars holding their green, and the earth sending up a faint mist through the frost. Edward the donkey rolled in his field next to the house and brayed for his summer friends, who had been put out to pasture with him. By December they were all gone; he was left in his empty field with its small barn, where he could huddle in his straw bed on cold winter nights.
I’d inherited Edward from my uncle and aunt when they sold their farm. For several years he was my daughter’s pet, sharing the field with a couple of horses, which were boarded with us for the summers. But Megan was away at college that winter. She came home infrequently so Edward had to make do with me. I felt sorry for him—he needed company.
Early one morning at the beginning of December, the phone rang. I answered, “Nina Harris speaking.”
A deep voice I didn’t know said, “Oh hello. I believe you own a donkey. Is that right?”
“I do,” I replied, walking the phone to the window to check that Edward was safely in his field. There was little doubt in my mind that he was bored and ripe for mischief. I worried and felt I needed to keep a close eye on him. He had been known to escape in the past to seek his own entertainment, though he hadn’t done so since coming to us.
“I’m Ron Greene,” the voice continued, “I’m working with a youth group in town for a few months.”
“Oh yes, I’ve heard of you. Don’t you have a drama group that performs once in a while?”
“That’s me. I‘m calling to ask, if I could use your donkey in a Christmas play?”
Visions of Edward, who could be very obstinate, bringing the production to a complete halt, kicking one of the actors, or even escaping somewhere down-town flew through my mind. On the other hand…
to read the rest of the story Stage-Struck.
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