Pageant

I think I may have left my run too late.  This was my big chance.  The start of the road for me becoming household name.  Merril and I had a part in a Christmas pageant.  Mary and Joseph (Merril was Mary in case you are wondering).
I even researched the role – if growing a beard is research.  I did that.  One other thing I did too.  I coloured my hair.  The thing is, people still recognised me - well most anyway.  It did take some getting used to.  Who was this strange person staring back at me in the mirror?  There was a reason I coloured my hair.  I reckon Merril and I could have gotten into the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest Mary and Joseph ever.
We had not had a chance to rehearse.  The next time we did it was going to be the first.  That was not the only reason we were up against it.  The crowd that had hired the hall before us left the stage full of bags of stuff.  We wanted to use the stage, so we needed to remove the bags to do so.
The director had made costumes for all but Merril who made her own.  We looked the part.  It was a lastminute thing, and there were only five actors and four others involved.  The director said she could not find three wise men among us, but we will not go there.  Fortunately, the crowd was on our side.  It would be pretty sad to have a mass walk out of a Christmas pageant.
Merril and I had done some practice, but things did not go according to plan.  Merril knew what to say when.  But the narrator just kept reading and recited Merril’s lines.  She was on the stage just waiting and her bit came and went.  She successfully ad-libed.
Thing is though, we were against it from the start.  While waiting to go on, one of the shepherds asked if we were going to hold up the baby in a lion king pose.  We both laughed a lot at that comment.
Truth is, I am not really a baby person.  Merril knew how to hold a baby when I asked her.  Then while the baby was in the crib the same shepherd commented to me (the stage was not miked) that the baby did not have my eyes.  I lost it and laughed a lot.  I was told the laughter added to the authenticity.  That is good because it was authentic.
It did not get any easier for me.  My time came.  I was to hold the baby and walk around and sit down etc. while a song played. I got up holding the baby (which had been an education for me anyway).  I was walking the stage and the wrong song was put on.  After another false start the right song was played.  I spent more time wandering the stage than I anticipated.
Both Merril and I enjoyed doing it, but we would be lying if we said we were not glad when it was over. 
Now all I’ve got to deal with is this colouring.   I am tempted to leave it on, to give a relative of mine a hard time, as they say they have trouble looking at me like this.