Saving Juliet by Suzanne Selfors Read Free Book Online Page B

Insanity occurred to me. I really, really didn't want to be insane. My mind could have snapped from all the pressure -- a classic nervous breakdown. Actors have nervous breakdowns all the time. My mind could have created this place as a coping mechanism because I couldn't handle my real world anymore. But if I were truly insane, I wouldn't be worried about it, would I? If I were insane I'd have no problem with the fact that one minute I'd been standing outside the Wallingford Theatre in New York City and the next minute I was half a world away in Verona, Italy, where characters from Romeo and Juliet walked the streets -- speaking English, no less. That would seem perfectly reasonable to an insane person and it didn't seem perfectly reasonable to me. So, not insane.

    I don't know how long I sat there -- long enough for my arms to start to sunburn. Deep in thought, I didn't notice the little boy until he tugged at my skirt.

    "My lady?" His eyes were wide with curiosity. He tilted his head and scrunched his freckled nose. "My lady, are you injured?"

    It's so much easier to admit confusion to a child. I had an overwhelming urge to hug his little frame, to feel the warmth of another human being. "I don't know where I am." A few goats had followed the boy from the field. One started nibbling at my hem.

    The boy frowned. "You're sitting on the old city wall, that's where you are." He came closer. "Did you bump your head on something? Once I bumped my head and it made me forget for a little while."

    When I fell into that puddle, had I bumped my head? Dorothy bumped her head and woke up in Munchkinland. It made perfect sense that I had woken up in Romeo and Juliet land, having lived the story for the last six months. I felt my scalp but found only the regular bumps. Maybe I had inhaled too much of that ash and it had knocked me out? Could this simply be a dream? Could I be lying in the alley next to the theater at that very moment, with Fernando leaning over me, worried about me smudging my mascara? Clarissa had probably gone back to the dressing room, ecstatic that she was finally going to get her chance. I didn't care. Let Clarissa entertain the stupid admissions committee. I'd take a break in dreamland while she did her thing onstage. My mother could yell at me about stage fright, but she couldn't blame me for being unconscious. A dream, then.

    "I might have bumped my head. I don't remember," I told the little boy. "I'm kind of messed up right now."

    "I guess your dress is a bit messy." The goat tugged at my dress. "Get away," the boy said, pushing the creature's bony rump. It ambled off, taking half my hem with it. "I'm sorry about your dress. How'd a lady like you get it so dirty?"

    I held out my mud-splotched skirt. "I fell in a mud puddle. And last night I vomited all over the front of it." I laughed weakly. "I hate this dress. Your goat's welcome to eat the whole thing."

    "Are you hungry?" the boy asked, pulling something from his pocket. "This one got a bit flattened but I know where we can get more. Come on, I'll show you." He took my hand and tugged. "Come on. After I got that bump on my head, my mother made me eat. She said food would help me feel better. Come on." He tugged again.

    Such a nice little boy. Maybe he had come to guide me through my dream. If I followed him I would probably figure out what the dream was about. Dreams took girls to wonderful places like Oz and Wonderland. I let him pull me through the grass until we came to a tree, heavy with apricots. He reached up and plucked one, then bit into it. Juice dribbled down his soft chin. "Go on. Try one." A black and white goat affectionately rubbed its head against the boy's back.

    I picked an apricot and cupped it in my hands. It seemed so normal. "I don't know what I'm doing here," I confessed.

    "You're eating apricots, that's what you're doing." He stuck the rest of his apricot into his mouth, then spit out the pit. "They're delicious."

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