on stage

I was in the curtain wings waiting to go onstage. I felt anxious as I couldn’t remember the lines or even the play, I just knew that I was required to perform. At the right moment, I walked out onto the stage with another woman. We faced one another and locked our right hands together in a grip much as though we were having an arm wrestle. We moved around one another, holding our arms strong, our bodies engaged in a kind of fight dance. I waited for her to say the first line, thinking that once said, it would trigger my memory and I would know what to do. I heard a man in the audience say how well we moved. I flipped her slowly over my shoulder and we continued our slow dance, interspersed with acrobatic turns. Minutes ticked by. Quietly and in character, I asked her if she had something to say, trying to frame it as though it were a line. She responded that she had nothing to say, that she didn’t know what to say. We moved around each other, around the stage in silence, neither of us able to recall the lines.