What If Dreams Came True?

Story by Bea Zorzella

| WHAT IF? CONTEST

“Five minutes! Five minutes, everyone, places!” the director yells to us. “We have a full house today, make this a good show!”

What if dreams came true?

“Break a leg, Lil!” Emma calls to me as she takes her place in the left wing.

Mine did, did you know that?

“You too,” I whisper as I walk onto the stage.

How would you feel...

I shake my hands, getting rid of the nerves.

...if your dream came true?

I take a deep breath in, then out. I stare at the red velvet curtains and hear the muffled voices of the audience through it.

If someone had told me my dream would come true two years ago…

The curtains start to open, slowly.

I wouldn’t have believed them.

I pinch myself one last time.

Yet here I stand. 

Just to make sure I’m not dreaming.

My dream came true.

To make sure I won’t just wake up and realize this is all in my imagination.

I won’t stop dreaming, I just won’t.

The pinch hurts. So this is real.

But for now, this truly is real.

Was real. As in, maybe once before, but now… it’s all gone. All my hopes… crushed. My dreams… buried. My life… thrown away. I mean, look at me! I’m sitting on the couch of my parents’ house, drinking lukewarm coffee and reading Anne of Green Gables for the fourth time because it’s the only good book here.

“Honey, you’re gonna be late for work!” Mom calls as she walks into the living room.

“I know!” I respond. Sighing, I get up off the couch and put on a coat. I finish my coffee, step out the door, and start my walk down the block.

I arrive about five minutes later and feel the blast of the warm heater as I open the door.

“Good morning, Lillian,” my boss says. I nod in acknowledgement, putting on my uniform. “You’re late again.”

“Sorry,” I mumble. “It won’t happen again.”

“Good. There are boxes in the back that need to be unloaded and organized.”

I sigh again, putting on my nametag and making my way to the back room. I step inside and see seven big, unopened boxes, stacked in two piles.

“Well, this is going to be a long day…” I say to myself. Working at the local supermarket was the only job I could find after I moved back in with my parents. I have been here for two weeks, and it is the most boring job I’ve ever had. Not that I’ve had many jobs, but unloading and organizing boxes every day? Seems pretty boring to me. Every morning Lizzy, my boss, greets me and sends me off to work. The only other things she’s said to me are:

“You’re late, Lillian!”

“Stop singing, Lillian!”

“Smile at the customers, Lillian!”

“Get back to work, Lillian!”

I peek inside the first box, which is full of cereal boxes. I sort them into a cart and wheel them outside to shelf them. The store is eerily quiet, with just the noises of an opening cash register, Lizzy whispering to another employee, and me stacking cereal boxes onto shelves. My foot starts to tap subconsciously, and I quietly hum a tune to keep busy. By the time I’ve finished stacking the cereal boxes and gone into the back again, I’m singing.

“You can’t stop the motion of the ocean or the sun in the sky…” I sing to “You Can’t Stop the Beat” from Hairspray as I open the next box. Granola and energy bars. I drop them in my cart and wheel it around to go back out. “You can try to stop the paradise we’re dreaming of, but you cannot stop the rhythm—” I come to face Lizzy, standing in the doorway.

“How many times do I have to ask you to stop singing, Lillian?” She sounds annoyed.

“Sorry…” I reply, wheeling my cart full of granola bars past her.

“If you can’t follow instructions, I might have to fire you, Lillian!” she calls as I walk away from her. I nod, knowing it probably won’t happen. This is a small town in Illinois… it won’t happen. They need all of the employees they can get. Of course she can’t fire me. Right?

Right?

Starting to doubt myself, I resume sorting items, humming softly so Lizzy won’t hear me.

I don’t want to risk getting fired.

Just in case. To play it safe.

I need to keep this job.

Walking away from that Broadway stage…

I can’t keep living with my parents forever.

It was hard.

I had a life… now I just need to suck it up and get used to this new one.

Now I have to get used to this completely normal life.

Lillian Raine, a name I thought I would see in big city lights…

One without dreams coming true.

Lillian Raine.

Or any dreams at all.

Lillian Raine.

Because I’m too scared to dream anymore.

“Lillian Raine!” A voice snaps me out of my thoughts. I turn around. “Well, it is you! What a pleasant surprise!”

“Mr. Deer! Oh, um, hey?” Mr. Deer, my old musical director from middle school. “How… how are you?”

“Doing fine, and yourself? Are you taking a few vacation days from Broadway?” He winks at me.

“No, I actually am not—” I can’t tell him. “Yes. Yes, my debut finished early — I was just… um, getting groceries. For my parents.”

“It’s nice to see you decided to come back to our old home town! Some people here are really inspired that you made it to Broadway! That Broadway stage, who would’ve thought?”

“Yeah… sure,” I respond, wanting this conversation to end.

“You know, the middle schoolers have just started their production of Mary Poppins, and I think it would really make their day if you came by and helped…”

“Oh, no, I couldn’t distract you from—”

“You won’t be a distraction at all! Plus, it’ll be nice to have someone helping there who actually knows what they’re doing.” He winks at me again.

“Okay, I guess I can try it out.” I give in. He won’t leave me alone until I agree.

“Great! See you tomorrow at school in the theatre, 3:00 PM sharp!” he calls.

And that’s how I got involved in this whole mess.

“I want to be just like you someday!” A twelve-year-old girl comes up to me as I’m sitting in the audience seats.

“No, you don’t, kid,” I inform her. “You really don’t.”

“Why not? You got to the big Broadway stage!”

“Look, sometimes things just don’t go your way. Sometimes you may be having a great day, but it’s all ruined by the fact that you failed to fulfill your life dream and — it’s just… complicated, okay?”

“But you didn’t give up, did you? You kept going, right? The show must go on!”

Should it? This girl’s comment kept coming back to me. Why did I give up? Even after everything I went through? Mr. Deer always told me that I should believe in myself. That I should pursue my dreams even though circumstances were hard… guess I didn’t take his advice.

“Give me more emotion! Make me believe that you are Bert, not playing Bert,” I say to a young boy who’s playing the part of Bert. Mr. Deer managed to get me to come back every day after school to help direct the kids. Guess I got too inspired… Wait, what am I saying? Inspired by a bunch of kids? No way.

“I’m trying,” the kid whines.

“How about we take five, everyone?” Mr. Deer tells the cast.

“What have you been teaching these kids? Do they even know the fundamentals of theater?” I ask him.

“Give them time, Lillian. You remember when you were still trying to become your characters. They aren’t perfect. Neither were you.”

I sigh, sitting down on a prop bench. I wasn’t perfect, he’s right. I’m still not.

“I have something to tell you, Mr. Reed.”

“Shoot,” Mr. Reed says.

“I didn’t come back for vacation days from Broadway… I— I don’t have a job there anymore. That’s why I actually came home.” I come clean. I have to. I can’t keep this fact from Mr. Deer any longer.

“I know,” Mr. Deer says calmly.

“You know?” I ask him, dumbfounded.

“Your parents told me. Now, don’t get mad at them, they did the right thing.”

“Are you disappointed?”

“Not one bit.”

“But, I’m a failure! I failed you, I failed myself—”

“A young girl once told me that dreams are meant to be dreamt, not always fulfilled. She also told me that no one’s a failure for trying. She was a wonderful little girl, and I’m sure she grew up to be a wonderful young woman.”

I chuckle at this, reminiscing on my very own words, spoken so long ago.

“I guess she was a very wise little girl,” I say.

“Still wise to this day.”

I snort and say, “Not really.”

“She may be lost, but I’m sure she will find her way soon. She was never one to give up.”

I think for a moment, then reply, “I guess you’re right.”

I stand in the left wing, watching the kids end their last show. They really did come through, as Mr. Deer said they would. They gave it their all, and even if their all wasn’t perfect… it was great.

What if dreams came true?

And as they all give their last bows, I smile.

But not in the way you expected?

They seem to have grown on me.

I know what that feels like.

Mr. Deer even asked me if I would like to keep working in the drama department.

Because it happened to me.

I told him I would think about it… but I think my heart already knows the answer.

And now here I stand.

I may not have made it all the way through Broadway…

Different hopes emerged.

But I made it back here.

Back home.