Destiny – a work of fiction!

I was 12 yrs old back then when I wrote this! It was a piece I wrote to be featured in a local community magazine! 

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“Haven’t I told you a hundred times that I am NOT MADE OUT OF ACTOR STUFF? Don’t you just get it, mom? I’m a director. A DIRECTOR”

“So you’re saying you can’t even fulfill one dream of mine.”

“It’s not about that. I mean I don’t act and never will. WOULD you spare me?”

“Vanessa, dear, everyone’s destined to be something as you are to be an actress. Believe me…….” But she’s cut off when Vanessa’s phone rings

Mumbling something about it being past her to talk to her mom she walks out to attend the call.

“Vanessa, just get to the studio, hurry!” an anxious voice urges.

Once in the studio room, she looks around at the grim faces of her crew. One of them comes forward and speaks almost inaudibly, “Sabrina’s met with an accident. Broken a leg.”

It was enough to freeze Vanessa to a state of shock. What did he mean by that? Sabrina was their protagonist! And tonight was the inter college competition! And she was the director! The first play directed by Vanessa!  Was her career going to end before it ever started?

 “Now what?” someone asked.

“It’s all over.”

“Think of the money we’ve spent!”

“The actress can’t be substituted at the last moment, I mean…”

“Nothing doing. Vanessa you’re our new lead role. Just get prepared.” This last opinion snapped her out of her frozen state. This was said by their principle, Dan Grimoire.

“NO WAY. I can’t ….” Vanessa started but was cut off.

“I didn’t ask you, I ordered. What’s the problem? I mean, you have the looks, you’re the director so you know the dialogues, and that’s all you need. I won’t take a no. Do it or we’ll be disqualified. Think about it, you’ll lose a chance to show your skills and so will your co-artists here.”

She stared at him. Chewing her lower lip she thought of the odd coincidence, in the morning she had a fight about not acting and here she was, on the verge of accepting to do so. Well, but could she do it? What if she screwed it up? Then again her mother, being a psychic, had predicted that she would be an actress….. No way, what was she thinking? She wanted to be a director and she was. But if she didn’t act, she won’t be, as Dan had threatened.

She nods her head and then says, “But I’m not responsible if it doesn’t turn out to be good.”

The producer agrees, asking, “I hope you don’t have a stage fright.”

Shaking her head, she walks away to get her costume together.

Finally, the time comes to show her skills. She walks on the stage to take her position. The curtain rises, she takes a deep breath, repeating in her mind again and again, “Don’t overdo it. Don’t overdo it. Don’t…”

Once she starts, she doesn’t stop. As it is she knew the dialogues by heart. All she had to do was be expressive. And just then she noticed her mother sitting in the audience, nevertheless, she kept up her acting thinking, yeah mom you won! But am I good?

Once all that was over, she went backstage. Her cheeks pink under the rough. But before she could do anything other than sip water, she was pushed on stage again. On the stage, every lead actress from all the plays acted today were lined up. By the talks, it appeared to be something about some silly award that she was sure she was not going to win.

“Really, now I know how hard it is to act. I vow never to be rude to the artists again.” she muttered under her breath.

“And the award for the best actress goes to….” the host announced dramatically, “Miss Vanessa Maguire!”

It took a moment for Vanessa to realize that her name was being called out.  Ok, she thought, all this is getting pretty dramatic. Was she hallucinating or did she really get an award for the unprepared acting which she thought was horrible? Looking at her mother’s eyes that screamed ‘I told you’, the latter one was probably the truth. And these people were not fools that meant her acting was not horrible, she told herself.

She walked forward to receive her prize and smiled at the audience. She raised her trophy, and looked at her mother with a tear trailing down her cheek and mouthed the words ‘ for you’. Yes, she thought secretly, you were right mom, everyone is destined to be something and that something for me’s this.