Chapter 7 — Why Margaret Said She Hated Theater
After Evelyn left, Margaret stopped acting.
Completely.
She avoided Westfield Playhouse.
She threw away scripts.
She told people theater had been a teenage phase.
Eventually she began saying she never liked performing at all.
“Why?” Daniel asked.
Evelyn answered:
“Because it hurt less than explaining why she quit.”
Margaret associated the stage with everything she had lost.
Evelyn.
Trust.
A friendship.
The belief that adults in authority would do the right thing.
So she rebuilt her identity around something quieter.
Books.
Libraries.
Family.
There was nothing false about the woman she became.
But it wasn’t the whole woman.
Daniel listened to another cassette.
Margaret and Evelyn were talking after closing night.
Evelyn asked:
“What if we’re still doing this when we’re seventy?”
Margaret laughed.
“I’ll be too embarrassed.”
Evelyn answered:
“Then I’ll embarrass you.”
Daniel covered his mouth.
His mother had reached seventy.
But she never returned to a stage.
Evelyn did.
Not professionally.
She became a drama teacher.
For thirty-four years, she taught teenagers to write and perform their own plays.
“Did you ever use The Summer Window?” Daniel asked.
Evelyn shook her head.
“Never.”
“Why?”
“Because for most of my life, I couldn’t decide whether it belonged to me or to a memory I hated.”
Then Margaret called her again shortly before becoming seriously ill.
She had one request.
“Do something with the play before we’re both gone.”