"Back to Where We Started"

Doris wakes up with a jolt. Her eyes wide open, and feeling a little woozy, she tries to take in what is happening around her. It takes a few moments for her to adjust.

Lydia calls out: “Miss Julie Miller”

Doris watches as Julie walks out on to the stage, in the auditorium, carrying her cello. She notices Lydia and Shorofsky are sitting in the stalls and she realises that she’s back where her strange adventure started. Julie begins to play her cello, while Doris ponders her situation, muttering to herself:

“Is this groundhog day?”

Behind her she hears the noise of Bruno and Montgomery entering the auditorium. Doris wonders if she has to relive all the previous events she encountered since she found herself in the past. She decides that if that is the case she will certainly do things differently and not interfere with anything. That way she won’t find herself in any difficult situations and won’t change what is supposed to happen in the future. She decides to get out of the auditorium and find somewhere quiet to hide out.

She quickly and quietly moves towards the entrance. As she opens the door she nearly collides with Coco, who is on her way into the auditorium looking for Bruno.

Doris: “Oh I’m sorry Coco, you’ll have to excuse me, I wasn’t looking where I was going.

Coco is confused as she doesn’t recognise the older woman and wonders how she knows her name.

Doris hurries off into the corridor and Coco watches her leave but something else catches her eye. For a moment it appears that she’s looking into the auditorium rather than looking out and she sees herself in the distance performing on the stage:

“This is Showtime and my heart starts to.....”

The auditorium door closes and the music stops. Coco opens the door and rushes back in to the lobby, which is now empty. She looks around but there is no sign of the older woman or any performance. Coco pauses for a moment feeling confused, she shakes her head, thinking she must have been mistaken. She then heads back into the auditorium and calls to Bruno as she approaches:

Coco: “Hey Bruno did you see that middle aged woman? Do you know who she is?”

Bruno throws her a dirty look and putting his finger to his lips whispers: “Shhh”.

Coco looks to the stage where Julie is still playing: “You dig that kind of music?”

Bruno turns to her indignantly: “I like any kind of good music, and she’s good!”

Doris makes her way to an empty music cubicle where she thinks she’ll hide out. She sits next to the synthesizer but resists the urge to touch it. Instead she sees a guitar standing in the corner and picks it up. It had been so long since she’d played a guitar or even held one. She lightly brushes the strings and the sound feels familiar and comforting. She feels the urge to sing but something stops her. As a student and for a couple of years after she graduated she’d always used music to express her feelings. Now all she was feeling was lost and confused and she couldn’t find the words to express how she was feeling.

Doris didn’t know what to do next. She remembered being in hospital and the joy of thinking she was back in her own time and then the realisation that Mrs Berg couldn’t be there at the same time looking exactly the same as she had 25 odd years before. Then all Doris could remember was everything going black and waking up again in the auditorium. Nothing seemed to make any sense to her and the more things happened the more confusing everything seemed to be. There were so many familiar people and things around her but ultimately she felt lost and alone.

Still, she felt slightly comforted by the peace and solitude of the music cubicle, with the knowledge that at least nothing could happen or go wrong while she was there. As she strums the strings on the guitar again the music cubicle door suddenly opens. A plump black girl stands in the doorway carrying a pile of sheet music. The girl is startled to see Doris in the cubicle and apologises for interrupting.

Doris vaguely recognises the girl from when she returned to the school a couple of years after graduating but can’t put a name to the face. Doris does however notice that the girl looks like she's been crying and also seems lost and unhappy.

Doris: “Are You Okay”?

Dusty: “I’m sorry; I was just looking for a quiet place to think. I’m new here and finding it a little overwhelming.

Doris smiles: “Well I’m old here and I’m finding it a little overwhelming too”.

Dusty laughs a little at Doris’ attempt at humour: “I’m just not sure I belong at this school”.

Doris feels the need to offer advice to try and comfort the girl but just as she’s about to speak she hears a voice in her head telling her not to interfere, so she just smiles instead.

Dusty realises that she maybe interrupting, so apologises again, turns, shuts the door and leaves. As she goes a piece of the sheet music she is carrying falls to the floor. Doris goes to pick it up and notices the title “I need a place to belong”.

Doris mutters to herself: “Don’t we all?”

She quickly opens the door and heads out of the room. She sees Dusty, who is just about to go down a flight of stairs and calls after her:

Doris: “Excuse me, Miss, you dropped your sheet music”.

Dusty doesn’t hear and goes down the stairs, with Doris following behind. At the bottom of the stairs and on the ground floor Dusty goes into the dance room. Doris sees her and quickly follows. As she opens the door she hears a strong voice:

“You want Fame, well fame cost and right in here is where you start paying, in sweat, ladies I just want to see some sweat.”

Doris smiles as she marvels at Leroy lecturing his students, which include Nicole, Holly and the girl who dropped the music. She’d known Leroy had become a teaching assistant for a couple of years after they’d graduated but this was the first time she’d seen him in action. She was amazed how far Leroy had come from the first day she’d met him all those years ago arguing with Miss Sherwood.

As the up-tempo music begins to play, the girls start to dance bringing Doris back into the moment where she notices Lydia standing in the other doorway smiling proudly as she watches Leroy put the dancers through their paces.

Leroy turns and then looks directly at the open doorway where Doris is standing but it’s not the older woman that has caught his attention. He slowly moves closer to the doorway as he watches himself dancing in another room that looks exactly the same as the dance room he’s currently standing in. Doris turns and looks too and is also surprised to see another Leroy dancing in another dance room. She lets out a gasp of surprise which catches the attention of both Leroys. The first one looks directly at her and is surprised:

Leroy: “Doris? Is that you?”

The second Leroy had been in mid flight during his dance when Doris’ gasp had caught his attention and he saw himself looking back from the other dance room. This has caused him to fall, where he is now crying out in pain. A concerned Lydia and the other dancers swarm around trying to help.

The first Leroy watches the events in amazement, his questioning eyes meet Doris’ eyes, as she stands frozen to the spot looking back at him.

To be continued.......