Cinderella

Before taking Anna Rose to theater camp, I prayed. It wasn't out loud. I wrote it down actually. It said this, "Please let her have a role."

She was getting one, of course. Everyone in play camp got a role. But what I was praying for was that she wouldn't get a role like Flower #2" or Mouse #11 not that there's anything wrong with being a mouse of any number. It's just I wanted her to be Lilly the Villager. Something like that. Or Whiskers the Cat. It just seemed cooler to me. That's why I prayed it.

So later that day I pick her up from play camp and ask her what role she got. She said, "Cinderella."

CINDERELLA!

That's not the role I was asking for.

"Are you nervous?" I asked. I was nervous.

"No," she said.

Now for those of you not familiar with the Children's Theater of Winston-Salem. At the end of play camp there are two live performances in front of hundreds of paying customers.

"Really?" I asked.



"It's not that big a part. Caroline gets to be a mouse." She says this as if she is big time disappointed.

"But you're Cinderella!"

"I'm just young Cinderella."

"Oh," I said, finally able to breathe.

"I don't even have any lines. I just have to act."

"How do you have to act?" I ask.

"Sad. It's hard actually. I have to bite my tongue to keep from smiling."

"That is hard," I said, biting my tongue.