life is a cabaret [trudy]

Trudy wasn't quite sure if their play was actually working out the right way. It was fun for sure and it would come down to a bit of an improvisation for sure as they weren't writing down the plot and not even taking notes. It should be fine though, there wasn't a whole lot of action going on and the plot was pretty easy. Yet, she had a feeling they had talked about some different approaches and now she wasn't entirely sure which one they'd go for.

The girl nodded as Isis said they'd be fine if they stayed together, thinking that it was reasonable enough albeit not exactly fitting the idea of one of them running out of the house while the other remained inside but it didn't matter, she assumed. Confronting a ghost unexpectedly people might just follow their instincts rather than act reasonably.

“It's there,” Trudy said in a high pitched screech after making a few more steps behind the bush. She would have liked to rather whisper this statement but as they were going to be on a stage with an audience not exactly right next to them she figured nobody would hear her then. “The ghost…” she let her voice fade out.

In a deeper voice she now slowly said. “Hello my dears, do come in. I rarely get visitors these days...”

"He's where? Scooter?" isis continued, liking the idea of granny not realising that there was something there right away. By now though, Trudy would be out of sight to the audience so they could pretend she'd vanished somewhere within the house. "I don't hear him. Do you think he ran outside?" She went as if to retrace her steps out of the house, thinking she would then be in a good position to peer back around the 'door, when her friend spoke again in a quite different voice.

Even though Isis had been expecting it, it was still quite scary and thus she found it easy to throw up her arms and shriek, and then run a few paces - old-lady style - out of the 'house' where she paced back and forth saying "On my...oh my...there really is a ghost...oh my..." she did this for a moment or two for effect before she seemed to gather her courage, patting her chest where her heart was and moving more slowly back to where the voice had come from.

"Who are you, and what have you done with my granddaughter?" she demanded in a fierce tone. She figured that would be the most important thing the old lady would be thinking right about now, even more than her lost dog. She wondered about calling for the 'granddaughter' but realised they hadn't actually named their characters so thus it might sound a bit strange, even if she could think up a name right on the spot. Instead she shook her walking stick in a threatening fashion...which, of course, wouldn't threaten a ghost at all.

Trudy had to suppress a giggle when Isis played her role as slightly confused and half deaf grandmother further. She really did a good job there, the Ravenclaw thought. It was even better (and funnier) because Isis did look nothing like an old woman at all.

Trudy covered her mouth with her hand as she watched Isis run out of the house, or rather stepped out from behind the bush again. She thought that it was a well decision to drag out the confrontation with the ghost for a bit longer for the dramatic effect. The anticipation was there. The audience would know that this was just an internal struggle of the grandmother who could hardly leave her granddaughter and dog behind in the haunted house.

“I have done nothing with your granddaughter.” Trudy said in her deeper and slower voice adding just a bit of a melody in now. “Grandma!” She exclaimed in the high pitched voice now. “I'm fine. I've found Scooter!”

She used her ghost voice to proceed. “Come in and see for yourself, I'd offer you some tea but… alas! I can't!” She tried to express some real exasperation to her voice at the last words. Trudy stifled her giggles biting her lips.

Well of course the ghost would say that, she thought, before remembering that this wasn't real and she didn't need to feel irritated about anything. She figured that granny would take a step or two forward now and peer back into the house, but wasn't expecting Trudy to use her little-girl voice to say that everything was fine. "You have dear? Oh, you're such a good girl!" she replied, hoping the ghost wouldn't be offended that she hadn't acknowledged her presence...what? What was she thinking!

Isis stifled a small grin. The two voices were great and she thought the audience would really enjoy it. "That's a pity...tea would have been lovely...it's very warm weather for the time of year" she said, as if passing the time of day with someone she'd met in the street. She took another step forward so she would seem to be just inside the doorway of the house now, and looked around. She supposed that an abandoned house would be covered in layers of dust and probably quite untidy, but she said "You have a very pleasant home...have you lived here long?"

That was so funny she almost did laugh out loud, because ghosts weren't alive, but they'd said she would have a conversation with the ghost, and that seemed like a reasonable thing to say. And then, because Trudy was playing two different characters now, she called out "Are you alright in there, dear? I hope Scooter's been behaving himself!"

Standing behind the bush, Trudy quite liked her roles but the longer they played the more she hoped for a decent stage setting for later. It would improve the whole play if they had something like a house to disappear in.

She wasn't sure if she had been too quick to admit to her grandma that she was fine but it felt like the little girl would say such a thing even if it was more interesting if the grandmother didn't know if her grandchild was fine before stepping into the house herself.

“Oh it is warm?” Trudy said in her ghost voice. “I wouldn't know…” She sighed dramatically. “For me every day is exactly the same...” She let her voice trail off. Isis' question inspired another dramatic sigh. “Oh!” the Trudy ghost exclaimed. “I haven't lived long at all,” she said, trying to sound bitter. “But I have been here for decades… Many decades…”

Isis now addressed the grandchild Trudy again and the girl replied in her high and excited voice again. “Oh yes, I am!” She wondered briefly if she should imitate the barking of a dog but decided against it. It if didn't sound good it might ruin the entire play. “Scooter is examining the house,” she, therefore, said. Sadly she didn't bring Edna with her to the workshop today or else she would have already shown herself carrying the dog, well, erumpent plushy now. “I'll try and catch him now!”

Had they planned to have this sort of a conversation with the ghost? Isis wasn't sure they had, but she figured it was fine to go along with it anyway "Oh sure, it's a fine day, not a cloud in the sky..." she confirmed, and then remembered what else they'd said. Clearly Trudy remembered as well and was trying to steer the dialogue around to who the ghost had been in life.

"Were you..?" she began, and then decided on a different way of phrasing the question, one that would be more interesting to the audience. She had to remember that nobody knew what they had discussed, and thus she was effectively saying all this for the first time. "When I was a girl, I used to walk past this house on my way to school. The garden was always so beautiful, but we never saw the lady who lived here. My friends believed there was already a ghost here then?" she made it sound like a question, because it seemed rather rude to ask 'how long have you been dead' of somebody you'd only just met.

She then switched her attention to answering the child, making her voice louder as if she was calling up to someone she could only faintly hear inside the house...and of course, she was an old lady who was hard-of-hearing, so that made even more sense that she would be practically shouting. "Do you have a biscuit in your pocket? Scooter always comes for a nice biscuit...oh! Make sure he doesn't jump on the furniture, won't you dear? He knows he's not allowed to do that at home..."

Isis had to duck her head a little as she really did giggle then. She'd do better later on, she promised herself.

“I vaguely remember those days...” the Trudy ghost said reminiscently, responding  to the nice weather. She didn't want to keep this topic up for too long, it was not an exciting topic to discuss and certainly not an entertaining one for the audience but it seemed to fit in here anyway.

She noticed that Isis was rephrasing her question and hoped she'd just go with whatever she first said when they were on the stage. A phrase that was not idea might be soon forgotten but an unfinished sentence that gave away that she had forgotten her lines or in this case decided on rephrasing a question might remain in the audience's memory for longer.

“Oh the garden,” said the Trudy ghost dreamily now. “I used to love my garden but… then I got sick and things changed. I haven't been outside in many many years, haven't seen flowers in what feels like forever.” She sighed again dramatically. “I'd give anything to pluck a bouquet of flowers again to put on the kitchen table...”

Trudy rather liked how they were having two parallel conversations but she wondered if the audience would like it as well and would be able to follow. Then again she really did her best to make the voices sound differently.

“I do!” she responded to the biscuit question. “Scooter! Look, what I've go for you!” she squeaked. “Oh, here he is. Finally. Good boy,” she said, “I've caught him.” she called out louder for the grandmother.

"Oh, my. That beautiful garden was yours? I would just love to have a nice garden to sit in, but my apartment only has a balcony..." Isis said, thinking that this could lead nicely around to the planned end to their play. She wondered if she should offer to go out and pick some flowers right away, but as they'd already said the house and garden looked abandoned it might sound strange to say that now. Hopefully the 'ghost' would pick up on her comment but if not... Isis smiled as she decided what she would say next to the ghost, but it seemed logical that she would be more concerned that her grandchild was safe.

She straightened up a little and put a big smile on her face, trying to show that she was both relieved and pleased that they were both safe. Turning her head to the side as if she were again talkng with someone upstairs, she called "Oh, well done! Now, you take care coming back down those stairs if there aren't any lights on... and didn't I tell you that ghosts were nothing to be afraid of?" she seemed to turn her attention back to their invisible companion and added "No offence dear, I'm sure you've done the best you can here..."

Then she seemed to have another idea, and she snapped her fingers with an "Oh!"

"You know, I just had a fine idea. Why don't I bring you back some flowers for your table here? Don't you go telling my grandchild, but this old lady gets quite lonely while she's off at school..."

“Oh yes,” the Trudy ghost sighed again. “back in the days I couldn't have imagined a life without a garden… but then again I haven't been alive in ages...” Another sigh and Trudy turned from her ghost role back to the role of the little girl.

“Of course I'm taking care, grandma!” she exclaimed loudly, bouncing towards Isis again. “This ghost really is a nice one,” she admitted, nodding now. “She would have offered tea and she likes flowers. That's quite lovely, right?” Trudy would have liked to walk past Isis now to get out of the 'house' but as the other girl spoke to the ghost again she couldn't do that. Her voice would then come from the wrong side and she'd be seen speaking while she should be the ghost that was invisible to the audience.

“Oh my dear, you would do that for me?” she said in the deep and dreamy ghost voice. “I would love the flowers and some company even more than the flowers. I'd appreciate it if you told me about the world outside and how it has changed… It has changed, hasn't it?”

Trudy thought that a little girl would by now get impatient and thus, she went right next to Isis and gently tugged on her arm. “Can we go now, grandma? I'd like to play outside with Scooter!” she squeaked and wondered if them stepping outside would mean the end of their play. “Good bye” she said turning back towards the inside of the 'house'.

"Yes dear, it certainly is" Isis agreed, thinking that this was turning out even better than they'd planned. True, they hadn't created a scary story, but instead something rather nice that ended up having a moral at the end of it, that it was always important to be kind to people and have friends, even if they were different from you.

"Why, I would love that. I think you'll find the world has changed some since you...well, since you last went outside" she said, and now she was imagining what her own grandmother might say "I'll stop by tomorrow with the nicest bunch of flowers I can find and we can talk. And perhaps you won't mind later on if I spend some time pruning your old roses. If I pull that curtain you'll be able to look out of the window and see them" she added, thinking that this was the sort of thing someone would offer for a housebound friend. The ghost sort of fell into that category, she decided.

Now that Trudy needed to leave the house, the conversation with the ghost would have to end. "Oh, there you are, dear" she said as Trudy reappeared next to her "and Scooter too, we'd best buy him a new leash on the way home, and get some icecream, too" They had't talked about that part, but it seemed like a logical next step, just one they wouldn't need to act out.

"Now, remember your manners and say thank you, dear" she said, as they made as if to leave the house.

Trudy loved how well they improvised together. Her real grandmother certainly would be proud of the improvisational talent they showed and of the impersonation of different roles. Isis was such a great grandmother and Trudy thought that she was doing decently well at the little girl's role and spoke the text of the ghost quite convincingly. Her grandmother would applaud them if she saw this, she'd tell them all about the good things they had done, slipping in only tiny remarks as to what they could still improve. It was one of the reasons why she liked to play with her grandmother. She always made her feel good about herself and confident even if she also voice some criticism.

“Oh my dear… I'm so touched. You are such a generous person,” the Trudy ghost said, her voice trembling slightly as though the ghost was really emotional now. “This will be the first night in decades that I'll be looking forward to the next day and not wondering about how horrible it is to be condemned to exist for all eternity.” Trudy felt like she was playing her role very thoughtfully and maturely now.

“Yes!” the Trudy girl exclaimed cheerfully which even to her seemed like a strong contrast to the thoughtful ghost before. “You'll buy me ice cream, grandma?” she asked bouncing up and down excitedly. “I love ice cream. And can I pick the colour of the new leash for Scooter?”

Stepping out of the 'house', Trudy turned around towards the bush again again to do as the Isis grandmother had told her. “Thank you!” she exclaimed brightly at the bush, feeling not quite certain what she was thanking the ghost, that is herself, for but she'd go along with it. That was what made an improvisation work anyway.

Isis felt really sorry for the non-existent ghost they'd created. It must be awful to be in that situation and know that nothing was ever going to change. She tried to imagine what it would be like. She liked school, for example, but imagine knowing that she was going to be there for hundred of years with no chance of growing up or leaving...that would be horrible. "Well, I'm glad we brightened up your day, and I'll see y'all tomorrow" she said, and then as a afterthought added "It sure was nice meeting you!"

Now she was interacting with just one character, she was able to step away from the bush a little, and they were once again playing grandmother and granddaughter "Of course, dear. Let's get the leash first so the ice-cream doesn't melt". Now Isis felt that she was being mature and sensible by thinking like a grown-up would.

She wasn't sure whether they were done now, but it seemed that they now knew what they were doing so would have a good play to perform later. "Do you think that was okay?" she asked, beaming at Trudy "I think they're going to like it..." for the first time in some time, Isis became aware that she was feeling rather hot in her costume-dress. "Uh, I'm just going to duck into the 'house' for a minute" she said, grabbing her dungarees and disappearing where she couldn't be seen to change. Isis was feeling pretty good about what they'd achieved and they probably had an hour or so before they'd need to prepare for the actual performance.

A minute or so later she was dressed normally again and had rejoined Trudy by the lake. Now that they'd finished the planning stage of their play, she felt that they could relax for a little while. "You know what I think?" she asked, walking to the edge of the water and dipping in her hands to cool them "I think we've got time to swim before we need to prepare for the performance. What do you think?"

Trudy would have liked to respond again in her ghost role but as she had already stepped out of the 'house' she couldn't do that. She suppressed a disappointed sigh and instead decided to get into her role as excitable little girl again.

“Oh okay then!” the girl said, sounding only a little disappointed. “Come on, grandma, let's walk a little faster so we soon have the leash.” She bounced at every step she made, pretending to be impatiently waiting for her grandmother to catch up with her.

Isis seemed to want to end the play here and Trudy was fine with it. Stopping her bouncing walk and turning to look at her friend. “Yes, I think it was quite good, actually.” she said. They only had half a day for this and she thought that considered they had done pretty well and they might even be better when they were performing in front of an audience. Her grandmother had always told her that it pushed her to give her best to see all these people watching her.

Isis was now changing back into her dungarees, the dress she had worn to perform was apparently a little hot. Trudy had not changed from her shorts and t-shirt into the dress yet, having put it aside for later use on stage.

The suggestion Isis made was unexpected but Trudy rather liked it. “Yeah,” she agreed. “We could do that. It is a pretty warm day and it might feel nice to cool down before we have to actually perform. Besides we can still rehearse some bits of the story while we're swimming.” She said thoughtfully.

They'd done well, she thought. Of course it was going to be hard to tell exactly how well they'd done until they saw what the other groups had created, but Isis felt sure that theirs was going to be one of the better performances on offer. She wondered if they ought to run through it again, but the lake looked so enticing, and besides, she felt as thought she might stop sounding so convincing if she said the lines so often that she began to get tired of them.

"I wonder what the others have done..." she mused, though of course they'd find out soon enough "and I wonder how they'll decide which order we perform in..." Isis realised she was rather excited at the prospect of seeing what everyone else had created as well.

A little reluctantly, she stood up, taking her hands out of the water and wiping then dry on her dungarees as she did so. "Alright, shall we go back to our cabins and get changed?" she suggested, gathering up her costume and props. Then another thought occurred to her. "Shall we have another race, and meet up outside the cabins in...five minutes?" She had barely waited for a response before she was off, running back across the grounds.

[out]

Trudy hadn't thought of the others until Isis mentioned them. She shrugged indifferently. “I have no idea and… well, I'm looking forward to see the performances but I'm most looking forward to our own performance,” she admitted.

It was nice to see how excitable Isis was but while Trudy was looking forward to jumping into the lake as well, she was more focused on their play, going through the plot again in her head, thinking of how she could word some phrases better so they'd be more to the point and there wouldn't be time and energy wasted on random elements that could as well be left out.

“Sure,” she nodded as Isis suggested getting back to the cabins and change into bathing clothes. “Okay, let's go then,” she agreed with the race and the idea of meeting up outside of the cabins in five minutes. She took the dress and ran, bouncing in her step every so often to get more of a feel of the little girl she was going to play later.

[out]