Open Wardrobes

As an actor I have long had this fantasy. I find the time between auditions and getting the "yea" or "nay" to be the most nerve-wracking, stressful part of the acting process, and so I have long had this fantasy where as soon as auditions are done I get the call from the director to do the part I really, really want to do.


Tonight that fantasy came true. The second night of Doubt auditions wrapped up at about 9 PM tonight, and at 9:07 PM I had a call from the director. "It must be about callbacks," I thought, for the director hadn't been certain last night if he would have them or not. It was not about callbacks. It was the director asking me if I wanted to play the part of Father Flynn in Doubt.


I said yes.

"Aye, but why come to us an let us know it?" Jat pressed.
Red thought that over and agreed it seemed strange. Suddenly she called out to the helmsman.
"Bring us out!" she ordered and see that the Sorcerer's vessel does not leave the harbor!"
The Black Arrow pushed away from the dock and speedily made to intercept the Sorcerer's vessel. Soon the Arrow prevented them from leaving port.
"What is the meaning of this?" the Sorcerer's messenger demanded.
"We might as well ask you the same," Red stated. "You are commanded to return to our vessel."
The sight of many armed pirates staring grimly at him from the ship's rails encouraged the messenger to comply. The Sorcerer's vessels did not carry great numbers, nor were they heavily armed. Speed and stealth, not to mention fear of the Sorcerer, were their greatest weapons.
Red Foxx led the messenger into her cabin, along with Jat, and bade the messenger sit. He clearly had not anticipated this turn of events.
"Now," Red began, "perhaps you can tell us the true reason for the Sorcerer sending you to us."
"I do not know what you mean," the messenger, called Henron, insisted.
"We are not so easily fooled," Red told him. "Clearly your master knows of our errands, even if he does not choose to share them with you."
"The Sorcerer does not keep such secrets from his trusted servants," Henron said stiffly, but he still shook in his boots to be closeted thus with the feared pirate king.
"How good of 'im," Jat observed. "In that case, ye may as well be tellin' us his reasons, for surely ye must know them well yerself."
Henron maintained his silence, as the fear of what the Sorcerer would do to punish betrayal was far greater than even the fate that might wait for him at the hands of the pirates.
"I cannot say anything beyond what I have been given," was all Red and Jat could force from the messenger.
"Very well them," Red answered, "you shall remain with us until you find yourself a looser tongue."
"The Sorcerer shall know of this," Henron threatened, "and he shall not be pleased."
"He will know little more than you have not returned," Red said. "Many things may happened to a ship on the open seas."
"I am certain he knows already," Henron said smugly.
"Indeed?" Red replied, interested. "And what sorcery allows this?"
"I cannot say."
"Remember," Red warned, "that your ship lies in my power. It shall be searched, every inch, if you do not share what I wish to know."
"You have no right to do so," Henron trembled.
"You sail in my dominion. I have every right, and perhaps it is time your master remember that."
Red ordered the messenger imprisoned in the brig until such time as he should decide to be more cooperative.
"Come, Jat," she said to the first mate, "and let us see what the Sorcerer's ship itself may teach us."
Leading a dozen pirates-at-arms, Red Foxx boarded the Sorcerer's vessel. Never before had any pirate dared to so infringe upon the Sorcerer's property, but Red Foxx did not put much stock in the tales of fear around the Sorcerer. Most, she suspected, were woven by the old wizard himself.
The Sorcerer's crew looked uneasy. They too had expected the Sorcerer's veil of mystery to always protect them.
"By the authority invested in me as king of the Island Kingdom," Red Foxx proclaimed, "do I hereby impound this vessel on charges of suspected treason. All members of its crew are to be brought ashore for questioning and the vessel itself searched." Red Foxx paused. "Unless there is one among you who wishes to cooperate more than your spokesman Henron?"
No one volunteered.
"I did not think so," Red said. "I commend your loyalty."
Red Foxx ordered her crew to remove the Sorcerer's from their ship and once that was done Red began her search. The ship was a small one, meant primarily for shuttling the Sorcerer's messengers from one place to another. Beyond that, it was crewed with only enough hands as were needed to sail it. Red and Jat took the officer quarters while the others began their search below deck. There were three small, private quarters: one for the messenger, one for the ship's captain, and one for its first mate. Red began in the messenger's quarters. It was sparse, with little more than a simple bed and a couple changes of clothes, identical to what he wore at present. Red found a few other odds and ends, the same as she would find aboard any ship, but nothing that struck her as unusual. She moved onto the captain's cabin and found nothing different there, nor did Jat in the mate's quarters. Red sent Jat to help the others below deck, but she remained in the officer quarters. Something did not feel as it should. It was true she found nothing, but that was what she found the most peculiar. There was virtually nothing here, save the barest of essentials, nothing that gave any hint as to the personality of those who occupied these cabins. Never had Red seen a cabin so empty, but what did it mean?
Red took a second look at the messenger's cabin as a new thought occurred to her. While the Sorcerer might trust to his veil of secrecy, it seemed unlikely he would take no further precautions should someone choose to violate the sanctity of one of his vessels. Red studied every inch of the cabin, scouring the floor and walls for any clues. At last, near the corner the wall made with the outer bulkhead, she saw something strange. There were faint scrapes in the wood, worn as if through frequent use. Red examined the wall and somewhere hit the hidden switch that caused part of the wall the swing forward. Red passed through the opening and found herself in a strange chamber. It was cramped, with barely room for Red herself to fit inside. But it was the objects inside that most caught her attention. Red could not identify them and they clearly bore the signs of the Sorcerer's magic. Red gazed upon a shelf filled with glowing objects from which emanated faint humming sounds. What gave them their inner light Red could not fathom, but they intrigued her and she could not resist experimenting with the moving knobs on the devices. The devices hissed back and suddenly Red caught the sound of voices. They faded again at once as the dial kept moving.