Read Online Kissing in Manhattan by David Schickler - Free Book Online

what?”
    “Plus, I suspect you understand Fourth Angry’s sensibility.”
    “He doesn’t have a sensibility, Michael. He’s a fucking mouse .”
    Michael snapped his fingers. “That. Right there. The way you just spoke to me. That’s Fourth Angry’s tone. His Weltanschauung.”
    “Forget it,” said Jeremy.
    “Three hundred a night,” said Michael.
    “Done,” said Jeremy.
    Rehearsals began twenty minutes later. Jeremy suited up in a giant mouse outfit and took the stage. The other mice gathered around.
    “Who’s this guy?” they asked.
    “It’s me,” said Jeremy. His breath felt warm and close inside the mouse head, which was held to the costume’s body by hinges. Jeremy’s eyes peeked out through a grille in the costume’s mouth.
    “I’m Jeremy Jax,” said Jeremy.
    Third Kindly Mouse put his paws on his hips. “Michael. This is absurd.”
    “Yeah,” said First Angry Mouse. “We’re professionals. You can’t just stick some random employee into—”
    “The kid knows the part,” said Michael Hye. “Besides, Fourth Angry only has one line.”
    Fourth Kindly Mouse patted Jeremy’s back. “Let’s give him a chance.”
    “What’s his background?” said Third Angry Mouse.
    “He’s Robby Jax’s grandson,” said Michael.
    The mice all nodded, impressed.
    “Let’s hear him,” said First Angry. “Let’s hear him try his one line.”
    Michael urged Jeremy onto the roof, which was a giant promontory piece of the set. It was from this roof that Fourth Angry Mouse proclaimed his line.
    “Go on, Jax,” said Michael.
    Jeremy climbed the roof, looked out at the empty seats of the Lucas. A spotlight came on in the ceiling, singled him out.
    Three hundred a night, Jeremy told himself.
    “Do it up, kid,” yelled Fourth Kindly Mouse.
    Jeremy took a breath.
    “ ‘I have arrived!’ “ he shouted.
     
     
    Within two weeks an extraordinary thing happened. New York City fell in love with Of Mice And Mice .
    There was no rational accounting for it. Manhattan’s theater tastes had ranged over the preceding decade from men drenched in blue paint to maniacs thumping garbage cans, so the popularity of eight giant mice was perhaps only a matter of savvy timing. On the other hand, Of Mice And Mice ’s playwright was furious. He’d intended Of Mice And Mice as a somber allegory about the divisiveness of the human heart, and audiences were finding the play outrageously funny. Children and adults loved the show with equal ardor, the way they might a classic Looney Tunes. Susan March, who wrote the editorial column “March Madness” for The New York Times, claimed that “these eight mice show us, with their tongues in their divine little cheeks, how laughable are all our attempts at serious human contention. Who would’ve expected such charm from the Lucas?”
    Receiving particular laud was the character of Fourth Angry Mouse. He wore unassuming blue trousers and had only one line, but there was something about his befuddled manner, his confused scampering to and fro among his fellow mice, that endeared him to audiences and won him standing ovations.
    “Fourth Angry Mouse,” wrote Susan March, “is petulant, skittish, bent on private designs. But he is so convincingly lost in his own antics that we can’t help but laugh at the little guy. He could be any one of us, plucked off the street, tossed into public scrutiny. Would any of us seem less goofy, less hysterically at sea?”
    Compounding the intrigue around Fourth Angry Mouse was the fact that the program listed his actor’s name as Anonymous. This was unheard of. Benny Demarco, the character actor of film and stage fame, was carrying the role of First Kindly Mouse, and garnering good reviews. Trisha Vera, as First Angry Mouse, had some brilliant moments, including a Velcro routine on the walls. But it was the unknown man behind Fourth Angry Mouse that Manhattan wanted to meet most. Some critics speculated that it was Christian Frick,