Chapter 05
As we walk across the car park to the hall and the pantomime read-through I have worrying thoughts about my relationship with Alan.
I have persuaded him to consider taking part in this pantomime even though he will be humiliated on stage by every woman in the cast, all eight of them. As a dwarf he faces humiliation and discrimination on most days. Am I being fair to him? What are my motives for our newly changed relationship? Am I being entirely honest with him? My last two men had been controlling bastards who diminished me in every contact. Perhaps they were trying to compensate because I was larger than they were, as I am taller than almost everyone in our town. Am I compensating for their abuse by making Alan, a man who can never be a threat, my new partner?
Alan is holding my hand. Anyone seeing us walk across that dark car park would take us for a mother and child. The size difference is that great. Alan’s head is only a few inches above my waist as we walk. My long trench coat’s skirt swirls around him.
“Marie?”
“Yes, Alan.”
“I’m petrified.”
“I’m not exactly happy about this either, Alan. Do you want to change your mind and turn them down?”
“No… I said I would. I’m just not sure how I’m going to cope. With you it’s different. I trust you. I think I’d trust Andrea. I’m not sure about the others and worried about Teresa and Emma. I think they hate men. Do they?”
“I wouldn’t put it as strongly as ‘hate’ but they do have reason to be wary of men in general and those two had bad experiences with the men they had as partners. So have most of our group, including me – remember?”
“Yes, Marie, I remember. I don’t know why anyone would want you to be less than you are but I appreciate that some men are like that. So are some women.”
“True. But what do you want to do, Alan?”
“Go in and face them. Could I have a hug first? I’d like to know I’ve got at least one friend in there.”
I pick him up and hug him. Then we kiss. I am supporting his whole weight but I could stand like that for a long time. I sling him to straddle my hip and look at him.
“Ready?” I ask, walking towards the door.
“Yes, but I should walk in. This is nice but not good for a public entrance.”
“OK.”
I put him down. He grabs my hand again, takes a deep breath, and we walk into the hall. He lets his breath out with a ‘whoosh’ as we see that the hall is empty. We hear voices from the side room.
I am surprised when we walk in on the group. Andrea comes to meet us and drops to her knees to kiss Alan. He responds. Still on her knees, she takes Alan’s hand.
“Alan, this is going to be difficult for you. I know it is. Please be aware that it is difficult for some of us as well. You are not the only one who will be uncomfortable with this script. If you are willing, I want you to kiss everyone here. You are going to have to do things far more intimate than that if we go through with the pantomime. If you can’t kiss them, or they can’t kiss you, then we stop right here. Are you OK with that?”
Andrea looks straight into Alan’s face. He nods.
“Yes, Andrea. I’ll try.”
She kisses him again.
“That’s me.” She says. “Off you go.”
Alan walks straight towards Teresa. I see her shrink back, clamp her legs together and turn them to one side before she opens her arms to him.
He presses against her legs, between her open arms, and tilts his head back. They kiss and her arms close around him. As he withdraws Teresa’s eyes glisten and a tear rolls down her cheek. Alan lifts her hand to his lips.
“Thank you, Teresa.”
He moves to Emma. She spreads her legs wide and tucks her skirt down. Alan moves between her legs. They kiss lightly. Alan starts to retreat but Emma’s arms stop him. He looks up at her. A faint smile greets him. They kiss again, a proper kiss this time. As he moves away her hand strokes his cheek.
The kisses with the other four are easier. They kiss as if they are used to kissing and there is none of the hesitation shown by Teresa and Emma.
Andrea claps her hands to get everyone’s attention.
“Thank you Alan, and all of you. Judith has been called away on a course so Teresa is taking her place. We've revised the script so that we all use our real names at the moment. That will changed before the performance, if there is one. The purpose of this evening is to establish whether we can live with the embarrassing aspects of the script. Nothing more. If we can’t, or if any of us can’t, then we have to rethink the whole project. The quality of the script, the production details, everything other than the embarrassing bits, are irrelevant tonight. Alan will be in action almost all the time but everyone will have to get down to business. April will set the scene for the first entrance of Alan. Everyone got their scripts ready? Yes? April – over to you.”
“Right,” says April. “The premise is that Princess Marie and her ladies, us, went away from her father’s court to study female magic for a long weekend, taking Marie’s tutor, er, Teresa, with them. Marie will be a witch Queen when she inherits the throne. Her father is a Wizard King. As yet Marie doesn’t know enough magic and her father can’t teach her the female magic. Marie has her dead mother’s book of spells but doesn’t know how to use them because the spells assume basic knowledge her mother didn’t have time to teach her. All Marie knows is that using magic without understanding is dangerous. Unfortunately Teresa has other plans. She wants to rule with Marie as her puppet. Teresa can’t use all the spells herself so she wants to enslave Marie and make her little more than a tool. That has to be done before Marie falls in love with a man. Once Marie knows love Teresa can’t override that and her plot will fail. OK so far?”
“We have read the script, April,” comments Chloe. “Get on with it, please.”
“I’ll try. Teresa has some magical powers.
One. She has built a magical hedge barrier around the retreat. That barrier is impassable by man, woman or child but has one flaw. An adult male who is child sized can get through it.
Two. She has a magical potion that makes whoever inhales it obey the person who has administered a mist or spray in the face. That potion is cumulative. Each application lasts longer and eventually becomes permanent but that would take longer than the planned weekend. It can be reversed by a kiss on the lips from a person of the opposite sex. The commands given to somebody under the influence of the potion can be either explicit and known or can be like a instruction under hypnosis where the subject doesn’t consciously know the command has been given. Teresa has commanded all of us not to let a man approach our faces. If an adult male dwarf penetrates the barrier we are told to capture him under our skirts, to hold him between our legs, and wait until someone else can take a message to Teresa. That is why we wear full long skirts. She could not risk us trying to tie the intruder up because in the struggle our faces may be vulnerable.
Three. Teresa has accomplices, Emma and Julia, who will aid her once she is the power behind the throne. She sprays them as well, but her instructions to them are to watch Marie carefully for signs of rebellion. If they see any they are to spray Marie at once and send for help. Three. Teresa has made the area inside the barrier a different time zone. Outside it appears as if the ladies are away for a long weekend. Inside time is passing in weeks and months. At the end of Teresa’s plots, she will emerge with a controlled Marie after an apparent couple of days.
That is the situation just after the prologue. Marie is sitting on a bench in the open air close to the hedge barrier, reading her mother’s book of spells when she hears Prince Alan crawling through the hedge. She rises, bends down and peers into the hedge and sees the top of Alan’s head. She looks around for help but there is no one. She can see a hole in the hedge where Alan will come out. She lies down placing her feet either side of the hole. Her skirt forms a tunnel into which Alan crawls.
Ready, Alan and Marie?”
“Not yet, April,” I say. “I haven’t got my hoop petticoat on.”
I struggle to heave the petticoat up under my skirt, then lie down. Alan crawls across the floor looking embarrassed. He crawls into my skirt. I roll over, wrapping the skirt around him. I look at the script lying on the floor beside me.
“Help!” I shout. “Anyone there? I’ve caught a man.”
The rest giggle nervously. This script is unbelievable.
