A Midsummer Night's Cast Party [League of Heroes, Ep. 1]
A chronicle from the League of Heroes
I am the last surviving member of the Midsummer Night's Cast Party. Now that my husband has passed, the last of the original heroes of our city are gone. Now, the world can finally know the truth of how Power City's League of Heroes rose and fell.
It was the spring of 1956, the closing night of Gold Bend High School’s production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (That was the name of the town back then. It did not become Power City until some time later.) I played Hermia. I thought, at the time, that my best friend, Deborah, had played an electric rendition of Titania, Queen of the Fairies, and only later realized the irony in my review. Like my character, I had spent much of the production enjoying the attentions of two men, but neither of them were the ones I kissed on stage. Johnathon played a commanding Oberon, while Grant was a mere stagehand. Our stage manager, Walt, was his best friend and had talked him into being a backstage unseen member of the show. I don’t think he would have otherwise done it, and we would never have met. That show proved to hold many ironies for us.
The final show had closed around ten that night, and after half an hour of signing autographs for parents and underclassmen, and posing for photographs in costume and makeup with each other, we resigned ourselves to a night of celebration, as is the custom of theatre folk everywhere. By midnight, we were on the bleachers of the baseball field, and on top of the world.
Kris, our cheerful Lysander, perched at the top of the bleachers and called to the air, “How now, spirit! Whither wander you?”
Some called that this was not Lysander’s line, but TM, still in the wild, multi-colored Puck makeup, responded gamely, “The king doth keep his revels here tonight!”
Johnathon, still wearing Oberon’s fairy crown and wings, bowed stately and yelled “Hell yeah, I do!” and was met with cheers and laughter.
“Remember,” said Steven, “what happens at the cast party-“
“-Stays at the cast party!” responded several at once.
Walt watched from the top corner of the bleachers, next to Vanessa, our lighting tech. Rumor had it that they were sweet on each other, but no one could catch them at more than a clandestine glance. It seemed Vanessa was the one part of the theater where Johnathon wasn’t in confident control. Puck (It was hard to think of him as the TM we all knew in that makeup.) joined Joanna, still wearing Helena’s dress, on the ground dancing to no music. Steven, the set builder, and Matt, our charming red-haired Demetrius, thumped a beat for them on the old wooden bleachers.
Perhaps, if the baseball team had won their away game that night instead of suffering a crushing defeat, the night would have been merely the memory of another delightful show. It was just after midnight when the team rolled in, championship hopes dashed, egos wounded, and testosterone high, to find their territorial baseball field invaded by theatre kids. Or perhaps it wouldn’t have mattered, for the two groups rarely got along in the best of times.
“Well, look at the fairies on our field!” Mick, captain of the team swaggered up to TM and Joanna, who had stopped dancing. He traded his lurid look at Joanna for a disgusted look at TM. “What is wrong with your face?”
“It’s makeup. What’s wrong with yours?”
Mick put his finger on TM’s chest. “You’d better watch your mouth and remember who runs this school.”
“Leave him alone. We’re students here, too, and we’ve got just as much right to be here.“ Joanna stepped up and pushed Mick’s hand away from TM. “Why don’t you go chase some balls.”
Mick shoved her back into the bleachers. “Don’t touch me, you drama freak!”
Quick as a dance step, Matt and Steven jumped down the bleachers, but Kris was closer. The unexpected punch took Mick in the mouth and turned him sideways, but his feet didn’t move. Kris brought his balled fists up, ready to fight, as Matt and Steven dropped into place on either side of him.
Walt was on his feet at the top of the bleachers. “Everybody settle down! If we get expelled, there won’t be theatre or baseball.”
It was a valiant effort to diffuse the situation, but Mick was long past listening. “Oh, the little actors want to play hardball, do they?” He reached back and snatched a bat from the closest of his friends. “Batting practice, boys!” The gloves and ball bags hit the ground as bats swung into view.
Kris and the others were brave, not foolish, and took several steps back. The other theatre kids moved down from the bleachers as the baseball boys stepped up, bats over their shoulders.
Mick swung at Kris’s face, who ducked back. The jock was toying with him. “I’m king of this school.” One of the other players snatched Oberon’s crown and tossed it to Mick. “Off with their heads, boys!” The team laughed and advanced on them.
“Run!” cried Walt, and like any good cast, they did exactly what their stage manager told them. With the team between them and the school, they sprinted across the field toward the dark woods that bordered the outfield. The baseball boys loped behind them, wolves playing with their prey.
They scrambled over the fence at the edge of the shadowy field, and drove into the dark woods. The baseball team stopped at the fence and gave each other high fives, throwing jeers and taunts into the wooded darkness that hid us.
From behind a tree, a voice projected “What’s wrong, losers? Scared of the dark?”
“Joanna!” hissed Walt, “shut up!”
“Everyone follow me!” Kris lead the way between a pair of old trees, and the group followed. “I used to explore these woods. There’s a cave not far away.”
The sound of chain link fence rattling urged them on through the darkness. They stumbled, and helped each other up. They found the cave in the darkness, a narrow crack in a half-buried boulder with a huge oak spreading out over top of it. The thick roots ran down along the stone, helping to conceal the entrance. They filed in a shoulder at a time.
“Hang on, I have a flashlight.” He dug his flashlight out of his backpack and switched it on, playing it around the cave, and counting faces. “Is everyone here?”
“That light is going to make the crack shine like a lighthouse,” advised Vanessa.
“She’s right, but there’s more cave. This way.” Kris led the group through another opening in the stone walls. Three rooms in they stopped to catch their breath.
“Everyone relax, have a seat. We’ll hide out here for a while until they’ve gone. I doubt they’ll search long, if we keep quiet.” He threw Joanna a reproachful look.
She shrugged. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay, but maybe next time, don’t pick a fight with the entire baseball team while they’re carrying their gear.” His light flickered, and plunged them into darkness. Two squeals and a chorus of groans echoed in the rock chamber. “Everyone stay still.” The sound of Walt slapping his flashlight a few times resounded around the cave with no result.
A yellow swirl of light from their midst illuminated the room. It emanated from a large crystal in the center of the room. As it brightened, it showed Vanessa sitting on the ground leaning against the crystal. The luminance deepened into an amber light and swirled around the crystal and into her back. Vanessa herself began to glow as the crystal faded into a more normal milky translucence. In Vanessa’s amber glow, two other crystals lit up. One beside Grant turned black and flowed into his hand, which was resting on the top of the crystal. The other, against Deborah’s leg, crackled to life in orange jagged streaks. As the streaks shot into her leg, sparks flitted between her fingers.
The crystal against Vanessa turned as black as Grant’s, but whirled, instead of flowed into her back, spinning around the crystal like a dark silent tornado as it touched down and was absorbed into her back. Grant’s crystal gave off a deep red pulse, seeming to emanate from Grant’s hand, still touching it. After three pulses, a bright red swirl of light filled the crystal and vanished into his hand.
The crystals ceased glowing, but the cave was lit by Vanessa’s amber light, showing the shocked faces of the entire cast and crew.
“What was that?” asked Walt. “Are you three okay?”
Grant finally tore his hand away from the crystal and stepped back from it. He tripped and fell into the wall behind him. His legs remained visible but the rest of his body was now inside the wall. “I’m okay,” he called form inside the wall. “I think.” He slowly sat up, bringing his back up into the cave with the rest of them, though his hips were still hidden inside the rock.
Deborah silently stared at her hands, moving her fingers back and forth creating sparks between them.
“Cool!” Joanna rushed toward the crystals, her hands out. “I’m next!” TM was right behind her.
Walt stepped between them and held out his hands. “Slow down. We don’t know what these things are. They could be dangerous.”
“They’re fine.”
“They got super powers!”
Walt looked back over his shoulder. “Grant? Vanessa? Deborah? How do you feel?”
Grant grinned at Walt. “Actually, I feel pretty great.”
“Me too, Walt. The sparkles kind of tickle.”
Vanessa looked at her glowing hand and the amber light shifted into a red, then blue. “I’m fine, too.”
Walt considered a moment before dropping his hands. “Alright, if you two want to try it, but I’m doing it with you. There are three crystals. One for each of us.” Walt turned to the one Grant had been touching. He offered Grant a hand up.
TM reached for Deborah’s sparkly crystal, leaving Vanessa’s for Joanna. Vanessa tried to move away, but ended up a foot in the air instead.
Joanna squealed. “Score!” She gripped the crystal with both hands. Walt and TM both touched their own crystals, a mix of excitement, curiosity, and nervousness on all their faces. Orange and purple lights flowed into Walt’s hand. Blue light swirled against Joanna’s fingers. TM’s crystal turned a brilliant white and swirled into his hand.
Walt’s eyes widened, the pupils vanishing. TM’s stage makeup stretched and warped along his face, as his ears grew pointed, the colors on his cheeks stretched up into his temples. He had looked wild as Puck, he was supernatural now. Joanna let go of her quiescent crystal and leaped into the air, arms outstretched. Kris caught her before she fell face first into the rock floor.
“Hey, no fair! Why can’t I fly?”
“I don’t think it gives the same powers every time,” said Kris. “I don’t see sparks or glow from you or TM. Walt, what’s going on?”
“I’m fine.” His eyes returned to their normal brown, and he shook his head. “Kris is right. The powers are different each time. Kris, Matt, and Steven are next. I saw it. Don’t be afraid.”
Kris glanced to Matt and Steven, who shrugged.
“I guess that’s our cue,” joked Matt. They took their places, and after flashes and pulses of red, green, and white lights, they step back.
Kris nodded at Grant. “I see what you mean. I feel incredible!” He leaped in the air on the spot, and flipped off the nearby wall, landing on his feet. “Sweet. I couldn’t even do that on a trampoline.”
Steven held out one hand and focused on it. The skin turned gray, then blue-silver, as if he were wearing a steel glove. He flexed his fingers. “Let those baseball losers fight us now.”
Johnathon took my hand. “Last ones to the party. Let’s go.”
I pulled away. “I don’t think I want to.” The lights and changes frightened me.
“Go ahead, Greta, it’s fun!” called Deborah, throwing little sparks into the air.
“It doesn’t hurt. They said so. And look at all the cool things they can do.” Johnathon squeezed my hand before stepping toward the nearest crystal. “I’ll show you.” He reached out and touched it. The crystal flashed a blinding rainbow of colors all at once accompanied by a loud sizzling sound. There was a glimpse of Johnathon in the air before the crystals plunged the cave back into darkness. The event had been so startling that even Vanessa and Deborah’s lights had gone out.
Walt was the first to speak. “Vanessa, some light, please? Quickly. Johnathon? Where are you?”
Vanessa glowed softly, lighting the cave. Johnathon was nowhere near the crystals. He did not answer Walt’s call. She increased her glow, filling the dark corners of the cave.
Johnathon was lying crumpled in a far corner. His head was bleeding where he’d struck the wall, and his right hand was badly burned in jagged lines from his contact with the crystal. He was unconscious.
“Damn it.” Most of the crew rushed toward him. I confess that I rather lost it. Deborah’s arms were around me before I even knew she was beside me, soothing me, wiping away my tears and quieting my sobs.
“Walt, you said it was safe!”
“I didn’t see this far.”
“Those burns are bad,” said Vanessa. Every good lighting tech was familiar with burns.
“Head injuries are no joke, either,” answered Matt. “He needs a doctor.”
Kris stepped up. “I can carry him.” Like lifting a sleeping child, he slid his arms gently under Johnathon and stood. Vanessa narrowed her light to illuminate the way out.
“There’s an emergency phone in the dugouts. I’ll call for an ambulance.” Grant turned and ran not toward the labyrinthine cave tunnels, but directly through the closest wall.
The rest of us followed them out of the cave and through the woods. The lights of the ambulance were already visible turning into the parking lot by the time we reached the fence, which Kris easily leaped without disturbing Johnathon.
“We could do a lot more than beat up the baseball team,” said Joanna as they walked across the outfield. “We could be heroes.”
“Our parents would never let us,” responded TM.
“They wouldn’t have to know,” said Steven. “What happens at a cast party-“
“-stays at the cast party.”
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