Free Found by Karen Kingsbury Page A

fellowship hall, where Rhonda would try and complete choreography for a scene that would need to look intense while still somehow safe.
    “The key,” Rhonda told them before they headed into the next room, “is to treat it like a dance. That way no one will get hurt.”
    Katy was in charge of the archery contest. The scene would have Kaspar challenge Robin Hood to a competition to win a golden arrow and a kiss from Maid Marian.
    The main characters would stand upstage on the left side, shooting their arrows across diagonally to the hand-painted target backstage on the right side.
    The magic would happen this way. The actors would only pretend to shoot arrows.
    Instead, they’d grab hold of a thick black-painted rubber tubing attached to the bow. When they drew back, the tubing would take on the appearance of an arrow.
    Because the actors would look at the target as they released the bow, the audience had the very realistic sensation that an arrow had actually flown across the stage.
    Meanwhile, stationed behind the oversized target was a crew member who would quickly pop an arrow out from a predetermined spot behind the target. The black circles on the target were netting, so the boy had a clear view of when Robin Hood released his supposed arrow. If the timing was right on, the eyes of everyone in the audience would be tricked to believe that an arrow had not only been released but that it had landed sharply somewhere near the center of the target.
    From the beginning the scene had serious trouble.
    Bryan Smythe, a teenager with one of the best voices in CKT, was Robin. He was first to shoot, and he pretended to be lost in 58
    the intensity of the moment as he drew back what looked like an arrow. Only as he released it, the target remained completely void of any sign of an arrow.
    After eight or nine seconds of silence, the crew member stood up and scratched his head. “Which arrow goes first, the center one or the ones off center?”
    “Robin Hood wins the contest.” Katy sprinted up the stage steps and hurried to the place behind the target. She took a pen from her pocket and numbered the arrows. “There.” She smiled at the crew member. “That’ll make it easier.”
    She returned to her place in the aisle. “Let’s try it again.”
    Bryan lined up, made a keen eye toward the target, and pulled back his rubber tubing. But before he even made a move to release it, an arrow proudly appeared near the bull’s-eye. Bryan let his bow fall to his side. He looked at Katy and shrugged.
    “Wow …” Katy jogged up the stairs again. “Robin’s better than we thought.”
    A round of chuckles came from the older kids positioned around the stage, the ones playing townspeople in the scene.
    Bryan grinned at them and took a bow.
    Katy moved behind the target and came face-to-face with the boy responsible for the special effect. “Okay, now listen.” She took hold of his shoulders. “Timing here is everything. You can see Bryan, right? Through the netting?”
    The boy’s face was red. “Actually I can only see his knees.” He scratched his neck. “I have to sort of guess when he releases the bow.”
    Katy put her hands on her hips. There had to be a solution. They couldn’t have arrows disappearing across*he stage, and it wouldn’t work to have arrows appearing long before the archer released his bow. She looked at Al and Nancy Helmes, and in a flash an idea came to her.
    She snapped her fingers and headed in their direction. “Can you play some sort of edge-of-your-seat-type music? You know, 59
    just as Robin Hood and Kaspar are loading their bows and pulling back?”
    “Of course.” Al grinned at her and rattled off a series of piano notes that was perfect for the moment.
    Nancy was sitting beside him on the piano bench. “When they release their bows, Al can play a dissonant chord.” She nudged him. “Go ahead.”
    “Something like this?” Al played a chord that somehow sounded like an arrow whizzing