Act 5, Scene 3

Susannah sang quietly to herself. She rehearsed Malena’s songs whenever she had time, which, as of late, seemed to be something she had too much of. Since she still happened to be Maria’s understudy (thankfully), she wanted to be prepared, despite knowing the role by heart. It also kept her mind off poor Roxanne. Susannah had searched for her beloved cat in her apartment, but that venture had proved unsuccessful. After Phillip’s fruitless search for Roxanne in the theater, he’d promised he’d keep an eye out for her, but since then he hadn’t seen her, either. So Susannah sang. It was better than worrying about Roxanne and feeling sorry for herself about being cut from the operetta.

She stopped singing. Had she heard screams in the hall? She shook her head. Nonsense. Just her mind playing tricks on her.

As Susannah opened her mouth to practice the song from the beginning, her door burst open. Gasping, Susannah spun around and saw a group of girls fly into her room.

A tall girl with black hair wailed, “It’s Maria!” She pointed at the hallway. “She saw something! She saw something!”

Susannah, groaning, lifted her eyes to the ceiling. Ever since the incident with the dead cat, she’d been the one the young ballet girls rushed to for assistance or reassurance in various matters, usually those regarding the “ghosts” of the theater, or if someone acted… out of character, Susannah supposed. She always tried to maintain a calm façade, but often she felt as terrified as the girls.

“Everyone, I want you to take deep breaths,” Susannah ordered in a clear voice that belied her fear.

Some of the girls took deep breaths, their wide eyes roving the dark corners of the dressing room in search of ghosts. Susannah scanned the small group for Evelyn. In these chaotic moments, Evelyn always maintained her composure. As more incidents occurred, Susannah found herself needing Evelyn more and more. She spotted Evelyn in the back of the crowd, standing in the hallway, with Alma clutching her arm.

“Evelyn,” Susannah called as she waded through the shivering girls, “what happened with Maria?”

Evelyn shrugged. “I don’t know. It seemed like nonsense to me, Miss Brown. But she sounded frightened…”

Taking a deep breath herself, Susannah strode out of the room. She wondered for a moment if she should tell the girls to wait for her in her dressing room or if it would be best for them to stay together. A gaggle of terrified girls left on their own might not be a good idea, so Susannah waved her hand, an indication for them to follow her.

The group dashed to Maria’s room, their thunderous footsteps shaking photos on the wall and causing some items dangling by string to sway back and forth. When Susannah saw other people rushing to Maria’s assistance, her fear mounted. Others had heard the sound too, whatever it had been.

Salvatore slid to the door. Susannah hoped he’d help quell whatever episode had happened in Maria’s room. Susannah grabbed his arm and pulled him closer to her so the girls wouldn’t hear what she said.

“Salvatore,” Susannah whispered, “what is going on?”

Salvatore shrugged. “Strange things have plagued us for quite a time. We’ll just have to see what this new development is.” He waved for Susannah to step away and then opened the door.

Irritated at being brushed aside, Susannah shoved herself between Salvatore’s bulk and the doorframe, entering the room before he had the chance to.

The room was three times as large as Susannah’s, and it contained the most expensive furniture and the most ornate decorations Susannah had ever seen. Tall fronds stretched toward the ceiling, and thick carpets covered the floor. Degas’s green and blue dancers, set forever still in the middle of a dance, hung on the wall opposite the door. Underneath the painting, a huge Victor Orthophonic Victrola sat, classical music wafting from it.

Susannah’s gaze fell on Maria. Upon seeing the prima donna, Susannah regretted darting around Salvatore to be the first one to enter the room. Maria lay sprawled on a blue flower-printed chaise lounge, muttering under her breath, flapping a hand over her face as if fanning herself. She stared at the ceiling with vacant eyes.

A wave of sympathy swept through Susannah. She’d never gotten along with the haughty woman, and Maria despised Susannah (a well-known fact the entire opera company knew), but seeing Maria in such a sorry state angered Susannah. Something had badly frightened Maria, rendering her speechless, a feat Susannah knew impossible. Whatever Maria had seen must have been truly horrible. 

Something squeezed into the room behind Susannah. Susannah jumped. Relief swept over her when she saw it had been Alma. She watched Alma tiptoe to Maria, and then she gasped when the little girl began poking Maria’s face.

“Alma!” Susannah exclaimed.

“Just trying to wake her up,” Alma replied, still poking Maria. “Wake up, wake up! Perhaps I should poke harder—”

Susannah swooped in and grabbed Alma’s slim hand. “Alma! Honestly!” she said, gently shoving the little girl in the throng of people gathered in the large room. Susannah bent over the chaise lounge and stared at Maria’s unblinking eyes. Maria’s mouth moved, but no words came out, unlike the babbling from a moment before. A cold sweat broke over Susannah. She straightened herself and turned to her fellow singers. In the calmest voice she could muster, she asked, “Does anyone know what might have caused this?” She nodded at Maria’s trembling form.

The adults whispered together, but no one offered an explanation. The ballerinas poked one another’s arms and mumbled, but they also remained silent. Alma stared at her feet.

Susannah raised an eyebrow. She suspected the little girl knew more than she wanted to admit. She bent down to Alma and said, “Alma, it looks like you have something to say. Do you know what happened?”

Alma glanced up. She bit her lip, sighed, and then said, “If I say what I think happened, everyone will tell me I’m being silly.”

“Out with it!” one of the chorus members urged.

“Come on, if you know something, you need to tell us,” Salvatore urged.

Evelyn shook her head. “It’s probably the Phantom Cat again,” she muttered.

“It is!” Alma exclaimed, spinning around to face the crowd. Her next words came out in a rush. “I heard a loud hiss! It was like a snake’s hiss! And then Maria screamed! And then—and then—when I came in here to check on her—” Alma stopped, unable to continue.

“Seems like we have to worry about a simple snake to me,” Salvatore murmured to Susannah with a chuckle.

Alma’s face pinched in an angry scowl. “It was the Phantom Cat!”

From her spot on the chaise lounge, Maria burst out of her stupor. She threw herself to her feet and sputtered, “No more Phantom Cat! No more Phantom Cat!” She darted for Alma, who screamed and fell into the arms of the dancers behind her.

Susannah gawked at Maria. Those were the first coherent words Maria had spoken since Susannah entered the room.

Maria grabbed the girl’s shoulders and shook her. “I saw your damned ghost cat, you stupid brat! I saw it! After all your mindless chatter about it, I finally saw it!” 

Susannah dove between Maria and Alma and tried prying them apart. Salvatore grabbed Maria’s arms and yanked her off the girl. Evelyn and the other dancers pulled Alma back in their tulle-filled embrace. Shaking her head and groaning, Susannah turned to Maria. Once again, Maria stared at nothing, wringing her hands and moving her lips with no sound coming forth. Salvatore glanced at Susannah, his eyebrows knit together, his lips pressed tightly closed. Susannah’s breathing quickened. What was going on here?

“We should leave Maria alone so she can recover from whatever shock she’s endured,” Salvatore announced. “Peace is what she needs, not a zoo barging into her room. Penelope?” Salvatore lifted his head to scan the crowd. The ballerina with the black hair stepped forward. Salvatore asked, “Can you fetch the opera doctor? I’ll stay with Maria until he arrives. Caroline and Jackson? Can you two usher the girls and everyone else out of here?”

Susannah recognized Caroline and Jackson as two siblings who sang in the chorus. They nodded before shuffling people out of the room. Penelope snaked her way through the crowd and ran out of the room after them. Even over the din of excited whispers and pounding feet, Susannah still heard Penelope’s footsteps in the hallway. 

As Susannah turned to leave, Salvatore called her. She turned around, half expecting him to order her to stay with Maria instead.

“Susannah, you know we perform tonight,” Salvatore murmured. He had gently sat Maria on her chaise lounge again and was brushing her hair with one of his huge hands.

Her mouth dry at the realization, Susannah nodded. Her heart thudded so hard it made her ears hum.

“And in this state, you and I both know Maria will be unable to perform.” Salvatore tilted his head at Maria.

Susannah slowly nodded again. She swallowed, coughed, and said, “I agree. She’ll be quite unable to perform.” It felt as if Susannah had lost the ability to speak her mind. At the moment, she was simply parroting Salvatore.

“Then you should get ready. You’re going to be playing Malena again… tonight.”

Susannah stepped backward, bumping into an end table and sending it crashing to the floor. Keeping her gaze on Salvatore, she bent down to pick up the vase that had been on the table. “I can’t! Maria didn’t want me to sing because…” Susannah stopped, clutching the broken vase so tightly it sliced her skin. She didn’t want to mention the poisoning story, although everyone in the company knew about it. Instead, she said, “If I sing, what will she do to me?” She waved an arm over Maria’s shaking figure.

Maria clung to Salvatore, but she appeared to be lost in her own thoughts.

Susannah unceremoniously tossed the vase on a sofa, where it simply rolled off and fell to the floor again, more pieces snapping off. “What will Stone say? Shouldn’t he find a replacement, not us?” Susannah added as she bent down to pick up the table.

“We don’t have time to consult him or find another replacement,” Salvatore insisted. “Get ready. Regarding Stone…” A smile crept over Salvatore’s lips. “He’ll find out during the performance. Once you start singing, what can he do?” 

“Fire me,” Susannah said dryly.

Salvatore laughed, a booming laugh that startled Susannah. “Go get ready, my dear. We need you.”

Susannah gave a small smile before racing out of the room to her dressing room. For some reason, she didn’t fear what Stone would say or do. It seemed unimportant at the moment. The operetta came first. Despite the horrible incident with Maria, there was an extra spring in Susannah’s step. She’d be singing again!

After Susannah settled herself in front of her vanity, her thoughts drifted to what Maria had supposedly seen. What had she really seen? Certainly it wasn’t the Phantom Cat. A new idea occurred to Susannah. Had Maria seen Roxanne? Maybe Roxanne had become covered in dust and was trying to find her way to Susannah’s dressing room. Relief flooded through Susannah at the thought. That had to be it. Maria had seen Roxanne, and she’d imagined it was a spectral cat.

Susannah scolded herself for such an absurd idea. Who could say there had been a real cat in Maria’s room in the first place? Besides, if there had been a cat, there’d be no guarantee it had been Roxanne.

Sighing, Susannah returned to the task at hand. She hoped Maria would feel better nonetheless.