Baileaf's blog: "The Silence of Cranwood High"

(C) 2010 by rmsl

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrival system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper, magazine or journal.

An Audience For Juliet

The next morning Cory waited for Leigh to show up in the basement. He ran his L’s cautiously, staring at the door each time he passed it. When she came into the basement hallway, he ran over to her. Leigh never looked happier.

“Hey, Kym called me last night.”

They talked for an hour. He told Leigh that Kym had no idea what happened in the gym and when she found out she laid into Gwen. But not too worry, they would be friends again by lunchtime.

“I’m glad she’s not mad at you.”

“Me too,” he said.

She glanced over at the alumni room and then said, “I have to practice my lines. See ya in English, okay?”

Cory nodded and started running down the hall.

In ninth period study hall Cory sat next to Leigh. They didn’t talk much because she told him she had homework to finish because she needed to make her dad dinner when she got home.

Cory pulled out his journal. He hadn’t written in it for sometime now, but an unknown force compelled him to slide the pencil over the page.

The days went by like this for a couple weeks. He would see Leigh in the morning and then wait to talk to her in ninth period. However, she always had something to do in study hall. She either needed to study Juliet’s lines or draw up plans for a stage prop or do her homework.

Kym talked to him more than she ever did during this time, though. She called him at least twice a week and sat next to him during English class. Her flirting even increased. Cory felt something was going to happen between them sooner or later. He just wished it were sooner than later.

Gwen even settled down. She stopped making comments to Leigh even during her new character research. Leigh started wearing gobs of make-up and poodle skirts to school everyday. But something told Cory that Gwen had just been more covert about her insults. If she were still bothering her, Leigh would’ve never mentioned it to Cory.

Leigh told him that the new character’s parents were stuck in the fifties and only bought her poodle skirts and sweaters. Cory didn’t care; he just looked forward to seeing what Leigh would wear everyday. Her behaviors interested him.

One morning during his L’s, he stopped in front of the alumni room. Leigh was wearing a long white gown-type dress with long sleeves that flowed under her arms and her hair was tied in a pink ribbon at the middle of her back. The positioning of the ribbon made it look like she had a drape on her back. She had no make-up on but her face was bursting with natural color and enthusiasm. She cared about becoming Juliet probably as much as he cared about making the varsity baseball team.

He listened to her reciting lines of Shakespeare. He guessed they were from Romeo and Juliet but Cory couldn’t tell. He had read the first act of the play last night for homework and didn’t have the faintest idea what had happened.

When it seemed like she finished, Cory clapped. Leigh turned towards the door, blushing.

“I didn’t know anyone was watching me.”

“Well, you better get used to it because you know Mr. Jurgenson always packs the house.”

Cory thought Leigh was strange, but Mr. Jurgenson took the top prize. He was a short, frazzled man with a doughy appearance. He had to weigh at least three hundred pounds, maybe more. For some reason, he thought he was English. He used words like lift for elevators and lieu for bathrooms. And god for bid if you interrupted him during teatime!

He wasn’t considered faculty, because he didn’t have a teaching degree, but he had an office next to the English Department. He had gone to Cranwood High and a few years after graduation won the lottery. He donated loads of money to the school for the drama program so they made him the head of it. It wasn’t really a job anybody wanted so his appointment didn’t cause any waves in the faculty. But ever since Mr. Jurgenson took over, the gym was packed with people on show dates. Cory always thought he paid people to show up.

“Hey, was that from Romeo and Juliet? Because I don’t have a clue what I read last night. Could you fill me in?”

Leigh immediately went over to her book bag and pulled out her copy of the play.

“Here, sit down. Shakespeare’s easy when you get the hang of it.”

“Easy? It all sounds pointless to me. Why didn’t he just say what he wanted to say instead of talking all funny?”

“That’s how they talked back then. Well, not in poetry like his characters do but they used the same language.” She paused and stared at him. “I would have thought you of all people would understand Shakespeare…I mean because of the way you write. You’re just as good.”

“I’ve never been good at interpreting other people’s stuff.”

She looked at him again but this time with a sort of sadness in her eyes. “Maybe because you just have so much to say, you don’t pay attention when someone else is saying something to you.”

He had always felt that way. He didn’t believe there actually was another person who understood something about him. Leigh was strange but she was smart.

As she talked about the Montagues and the Capulets her face energized. As she explained the feud between the two families, using Shakespeare’s words and translating them into real English, her eyes sparkled. She really loved this stuff! She explained how the servants from both families opened the play in order to lay down the foundation of the feud and how even they hated each other.

“So the families hate each other, but we never really know why. I get that. But I thought Romeo loves Juliet, not this other girl…Rosa something?”

She hit his leg. “Rosaline. See you’re getting it. The reason for Shakespeare using Rosaline is unclear, though. Some say its so he can show how easily Romeo can fall in love and others say it’s to show his immaturity that quickly develops when he falls for Juliet. Because before Juliet he was just as involved in the feud as any other, but soon realizes they would be considered his family and he tries to change how he treats them.”

Cory was a little jealous of how smart Leigh was. But as she continued to explain the play, he realized that she wasn’t showing off—she was sharing her passion.

He wondered if he shared his passion for poetry with Kym if she would see the same wonder in him.

“…but what does it mean when Capulet says, ‘What noise is this?—Give me my long sword, ho!’ and his wife tells him, ‘A crutch, a crutch!—Why call you for a sword?’.”

Leigh stood up and danced around. She grabbed one of those tiny American flags on a plastic pole and pretended to stab him with it. “What are crutches? Think about it.”

“Crutches? The things you use when you break a leg or a foot? They had those back then?”

“Of course, I mean they didn’t look like they do now. I suppose it was meant to mean a cane or something.”

“So Capulet has a broken leg?”

She giggled. It was a laugh he never heard her make. “His wife was telling him that he was too old to fight, that he should be using a cane instead. It also shows that Lady Capulet is getting tired of the feud.”

During homeroom, Cory tried to reread as much of Act I as he could. He didn’t see it. At least he knew what happened and he could talk about it in class, but Shakespeare’s words still made absolutely no sense to him.

When they discussed Act I in English, Cory was glad that Gwen wasn’t in the class. She would have had more material to make fun of Leigh with other than the clothes she wore. It almost appeared as if Mr. Maragelloto and her were having their own private discussion of the play. He would ask a question, look around the room, and call on Leigh. It even made it to the point where she stopped raising her hand and he would just ask her her thoughts.

“Man, she’s incredible. How does she know all that?” Jason was easily awe struck.

Cory was impressed with Leigh’s interpretations, but at that moment he was more impressed with the way Kym looked in that short black skirt.

“Yeah, she’s good.”

Jason saw Cory staring at Kym. “You have a one track mind.”

During study hall Leigh tried to help him understand Act II. But he wasn’t getting it. He couldn’t concentrate and she seemed preoccupied with her thoughts. She attempted to describe one of the characters in her play she was writing, but Cory couldn’t think of any good questions to ask so that conversation fizzled as well. Finally, he just asked her what her favorite color was.

“Green. My mom looked beautiful in green.”

It did the trick. They didn’t stop talking until the last bell. They talked about favorite colors, favorite movies, favorite television shows, favorite foods, favorite numbers, favorite athletes (Leigh didn’t have one), and any other favorite that could’ve been thought of. Boy, did they laugh together.

As they were leaving the room, Cory noticed Gwen give Leigh a nasty look. Leigh scowled back. She made waves with her hands next to her ears to point out Gwen’s hair. Cory laughed again. He didn’t expect her to fight back.

Cory made his way to the gym. He planned on asking Leigh if she needed a ride home because there was a basketball game that day. He knew she wouldn’t have set crew. But as he was walking over to her by the stage, Kym stepped in front of him.

“Can you give me a ride home? Joey was out sick today.”

He melted. He loved it when she needed him. They met the brothers and Kelly outside and went home.

 

His morning workouts became shorter and shorter.

As soon as Leigh showed up in the basement, he met her in the alumni room to go over the previous night’s reading assignment. As the days passed, Cory learned that Leigh was an excellent teacher. Shakespeare’s words became less and less cryptic to him and he even began to give his own interpretations, which seemed to fascinate Leigh extremely.

The alumni room was the only place they discussed Shakespeare or Leigh’s play. The room inspired a certain feeling or atmosphere. Freedom from prying ears or taunts let Cory become Romeo or Leigh Ophelia from Hamlet. He expressed Romeo’s angst, as Leigh put it, and she could swoon all over the room lamenting Hamlet’s aloofness towards her as he searched for his father’s murderer. She used the best words to describe Shakespeare’s characters.

It started to make Cory think he wasn’t as good of a poet as he thought he was. Not with the way Leigh used words.

Even Mr. Maragelloto noticed the change in Cory. As they studied Hamlet, Cory participated more and more in the class discussions.

Jason asked Cory to help him with the play. And Cory didn’t mind teaching him between periods and having Jason look at him with amazement gleaming in his eyes. Jason knew about the alumni room and Cory felt at times that he waited to be asked to join the two of them. Six and a half hours with someone like Jason was enough for any person so he never brought it up. But he did enjoy helping him understand Shakespeare. Actually, he liked helping anybody with it now that he could understand it.

Leigh was an amazing actress. You couldn’t say the same for Cory, though. He attempted to help her recite lines and scenes from Romeo and Juliet, but both of them would always end up laughing when he stumbled over a word or said a line with a completely different tone than Shakespeare intended. Leigh would always tell him his performances helped her—helped her to laugh. They always laughed non-stop when they were in the alumni room.

Cory liked it best when Leigh would talk about one of her characters from her play or a scene she was working with. Her characters would come alive as she told their stories. She would prance about the room, sometimes taking on their personalities. She’d throw herself on the couch or fling herself over one of the round tables, still saying her lines as if she couldn’t control it; they just flowed out of her.

Leigh started going home with him everyday. Some days Kym would ask for a ride as well. His car was always packed. Leigh would let Kym sit in the front seat and never mentioned it otherwise. During these rides home, Cory sensed that Kym didn’t like Leigh tagging along for some reason. Jealousy? Wouldn’t that be wonderful!

On the days that Kym came with them he dropped Leigh off first. On every other day, Leigh would be the last person taken home.

They barely talked about Kym, or his feelings for her, but when they did Leigh would listen and give advice like she was their relationship coach. But Leigh was too serious during these conversations so he would change the subject as soon as he could to something senseless. If anybody would’ve heard them together outside of the alumni room, they would’ve never guessed that in the early morning hours they discussed Hamlet.

On the Friday of the big basketball game against Trenton High, Kym went with the cheerleaders to the game early. Joey played point guard on the team and liked her to be at away games. Bobby, Kevin, and Kelly took the fan bus provided by the school going to Trenton High so they stuck around after the last bell to catch it.

When he pulled into Leigh’s driveway, she asked him if he wanted to come in and meet her dad. He had been doing a lot better and wanted to meet the boy who was helping his little girl become the next Juliet.

Her house was nothing like he expected it. He figured it would be glamorous with bright colored drapes and polished tables. He guessed she would own so many books that they would’ve had to dedicate one room to all of them.

The inside was small and cramped like the builder used too much wood in places he shouldn’t have. The side door opened into the kitchen. It was only big enough for a few wood-stained cupboards, a refrigerator, and a stove. The counter space was almost non-existent. His mother would’ve hated that kitchen.

The kitchen went into the living room. The room had dark green carpeting with purplish drapes over the picture window.

The house was simple except for one thing: one of the walls in the living room was a giant mirror. In front of the mirrored-wall sat a black grand piano. The keys were covered with the lid and there was a framed picture of a young, beautiful woman who reminded him of Leigh.

“My mom. This was her piano. She used to play every night. We can’t seem to get rid of it,” Leigh said, picking up the picture and staring at it for a few seconds.

“Can you play?”

“A little, I guess. But my mom was amazing. She was a part of an orchestra in New York before she got sick.”

This was the most serious conversation the two of them ever had. But it warmed Cory inside. He was happy. He didn’t feel like laughing but he felt a sense of friendship he never experienced before.

“Play me something,” he said.

She shot a look at him and her eyes widened. The brown of her eyes appeared a lot softer than he remembered.

“Oh…I don’t think…” She stopped.

“If your mom taught you to play, let her live on through your fingers. There’s nothing wrong with remembering someone special now and then.”

She looked at the picture and ran her fingers over the cover to the keys. She was thinking. Cory learned to let her be at these moments and not interrupt. “Okay, sit with me.”

They sat next to each other on the short black bench. She lifted the key cover slowly, as if it would break off if she moved it too quickly. The keys were a brilliant white and they reminded Cory of Leigh’s smile. She tested a few keys and began playing.

The song was beautiful. Cory didn’t recognize it but it flowed and calmed you like the sounds of the ocean crashing onto the shore.

Leigh’s expression was so solemn that he wouldn’t have been surprised if she started to cry right then and there. Half way through the song, though, she started smiling.

“What the—”

Leigh stopped playing. Her skin paled even more than usual and her eyes expressed a concern Cory had never seen before in anyone.

The man who entered the living room was tall, at least six-five, and very skinny. He wore a pressed, button-down collared blue shirt with thin black slacks. He had slippers on his feet and no socks.

At first Mr. Reynolds looked horrified to see someone sitting behind the piano, let alone playing it again. But then his hardened expression relaxed and he smiled at Cory or at Leigh; he wasn’t sure. He came over behind Leigh and kissed her on the top of her head. His eyes were watering but no tears fell. She continued to play.

Mr. Reynolds sat down on the couch and just listened to his daughter play. He appeared off in his own world and didn’t make any effort to approach or introduce himself to Cory.

It seemed to Cory that they sat there for only minutes, laughing and Leigh playing and discussing songs. Mr. Reynolds even told stories of his wife and her concert days. They all intrigued Cory. But when he looked at the clock on the wall on top of the front door it was already five-thirty.

“Oh, Leigh I have to go. My dad wants me to pull up his garden before it gets too cold.”

He felt odd leaving without introducing himself to her dad. So he went over to him and held out his hand. Mr. Reynolds took it and they shook hands.

“I’m Cory Sutton. I go to school with Leigh.”

Her father looked up at him and smiled. “I know all about you. Call me Paul.”