Page 90 of The Snag List
‘Oh. Right. I see …’ The rush of adrenaline that had flooded through her seconds before reversed direction abruptly. The English were polite souls: he was definitely about to let her down gently. An Irish person would just lash it in an email.
‘We had a chat, the director, the casting director and I, after our Zoom yesterday and we’re in agreement that, no matter what, there’s a role for Roe O’Neill in the Christmas 2022 West End revival ofNewsies.’
‘Shut up.’ Roe clapped her hand over her mouth. To her relief, Colin started laughing raucously down the line.
‘Love it, Roe, you are going to fit inso wellwith the company as it stands. There’s a lot to put in place in a short space of time. As usual. When you come over for your in-person audition we’ll formalise the roles, but I know you are our Katherine.’
Roe looked into the kitchen to wave to Lindy and Ailbhe but they’d disappeared. Colin was now deep into logistics. Roe would need to be in London with a place to live by mid-September at the latest.Voices of Glory’s three-week run would be ending right around then, and she’d probably have to be on a flight the day after the final performance.
‘Offers and opportunities tend to snowball for talent like yours.’A West End producer is talking about ME!Roe wanted to scream. ‘I have a friend who’s an agent with incredible pedigree. I should be trying to get you for cheapbuuutI need to bank some good karma since casting Ant and Dec inThe Birthday Partylast year. Harrowing but not in the way Pinter intended. Anyway, when we hang up, ring Roberta Temperly – she’s expecting you. I’ll email all the details. She’ll come back to me with some extortionate price for you, no doubt. It’ll be well deserved.Bisous.’
‘Bisooooh …?’ Roe hung up and spotted Colin’s email dropping in. She’d ring Roberta Temperly when she was in a better state to ring a person with a name like Roberta Temperly. She felt untethered by it all. A new road stretching before her. Rehearsals. A London flat. An agent. The dream that she’d assumed was too farfetched to even try for.
She pulled out her phone and opened WhatsApp. The top three chats were the Snag List, the SopranHoes and Eddie.
She typed:I have news and you’re the only person I care about telling.It blue-ticked immediately, just like all the rest had in the last five days. She saw Eddie was typing but then seemed to stop and didn’t resume.
She flicked over to the Snag List. There was a new message from Lindy.
We’ve found Tom on the very top floor – just follow the screaming. Gird your lady loins, Eddie’s here too and they are messier than a couple of gals in the loos of a teen disco.
As Lindy said, the screaming started to dominate the thumping tunes as she hit the third-floor landing. A Monteray Mama was yelling into her phone. ‘I don’t give a shit, Esme, I need a transfer. It’s like a frat house. I am the only woman here. I was promised a fucking marriage pause. As in abreak. Not to be parachuted into a fucking dick stew.’ She looked up and spotted Roe. ‘Wait! Shut up, Esme.’ She held the phone away from her ear. ‘Are you new? I haven’t seen you. We need to get out. I’m trying to organise an extraction.’
‘No, no. I’m not staying, I’m looking for my husb—’ A long, shrill squall from above surprised them both.
‘Fucking Christ, I thought that was a bird of prey.’ The Mama resumed shouting into the phone. ‘Did you hear that, hun? That is what I am dealing with over here. Where’s my airbrushed life now, Esme? I took a piss in the downstairs loo and there was a number two in there. What kind of psychopath doesn’t know that it’s number ones only in a downstairs toilet?’
Roe started up the final flight of stairs towards the caterwauling. She could now also make out a soothing voice intoning, ‘That’s it, that’s it. So good, Tom.Sogood.’
On the top step she took in the scene. Tom knelt in the centre of the attic space surrounded by candles, cushions and fur throws. A tall man circled him, weaving his arms in and out as though he was conducting Tom’s screams. Ailbhe and Lindy were standing over to her right looking baffled. Roe scanned the rest of the attic and at last her eye snagged on a lump that looked like Eddie, prone, under a pile of blankets under the eaves. A few upended bottles of vegan wine lolled nearby.
Oh God, I’ve driven him to this.She rushed over to him and knelt by his head. ‘Eddie? Eddie?’ She had to lean right in to be heard over Tom. She gazed at the auburn curls at the back of his neck and felt a stab of regret. He was the most familiar thing in the world to her but she felt like she no longer had the right to touch him. ‘Eddie, please can we talk?’
He rolled over to look at her and she pulled back in shock. He looked like he’d been punched.He’s been crying, she thought, feeling the sting of her own tears starting. ‘Why are you here? Why did you leave the house?’
He didn’t answer, just stared at her. She sensed if she started to cry, he’d lose it at her again.
‘We have to talk …’ she tried again. She could hear Ailbhe shrieking a similar plea at Tom at the other end of the room. The bawling out of Tom was nerve-shredding, and Roe was relieved when the scream conductor made a complicated signal for Tom to stop. The signal involved him licking Tom’s elbow.No comment, thought Roe. Tom collapsed to all fours, panting like a rabid animal. He didn’t look at any of them.
‘Let me introduce myself – I’m Soren, Tom’s scream therapy advisor.’ His features were angular and his eyes bulged perhaps from so many years of screaming. ‘You must be Ailbhe.’ He approached and gave a very formal nod. ‘Tom is still feeling his feelings after today’s events, Ailbhe. It’s not appropriate for you to be here at this time. We are finalising a timeline of Tom’s projected processing, but we’ve earmarked 1 September for a potential reconvene. How does that sound?’
‘It sounds bananas, Soren. I want to talk to my husband. Tom,’ Ailbhe shouted over the arm Soren had raised to block her. ‘Tom! Please, I love you. Come home, please. We need to figure this out somehow. We need to talk.’
At this, Tom rose and turned towards Ailbhe. ‘Talk? I’m not ready.’ His voice was barely above a whisper.
‘That’s it, Tom,’ Soren encouraged him. He turned back to Ailbhe and Lindy. ‘Between screaming bouts, it’s important to counter the soul’s roar with the heart’s burbling stream.’
Beside Roe, Eddie snorted, and she looked down with surprise and renewed hope. ‘What does that even mean?’ she whispered.
He smiled faintly but then his face fell serious again. ‘Tom told me the whole Tilly thing,’ he whispered.
‘Yeah.’ Roe sighed. ‘It’s so bleak.’
‘I didn’t think there were things much worse than our stuff.’ He propped himself up on his elbow.
‘Uh-huh.’ Roe held herself in check. She didn’t want to get her hopes up, though this sounded promising. Maybe Ailbhe’s catastrophe could start her and Eddie down the road to forgiveness.
But what about the other road …?
