The Actor

the actor When very young I wanted to be an actor, my uncle Lars had been an actor, I remember seeing him playing a detective and shouted,  this is my uncle, mother took me outside so the play could resume. Twice a week I took drama classes at the local theater and after some time someone thought I was good enough to be on stage to play a butler; the job was simple when the lady of the manor rang a bell I was coming into the room with a tray, serving coffee and cakes. She rang, I opened the door but when I saw the audience the tray slipped out of my hands; not knowing what to do, I dived to the floor trying to hide under a carpet. The actress, who played the lady kept her cool” it's OK John, the maid can clear the broken cups, just bring me another tray.” Oh, how the audience laughed I heard the giggles out in the cold street where I had fled; what a total humiliation! Coming home, my mother thought my fall was staged. No mother, it was supposed to be a serious play and I made a mess. It happened a ship loaded with copra docked, they needed a cook the old one had broken his arm, I got the job. Two years later, when the ship returned, I was paid off Surely, my humiliation must have been forgotten by now Not so, after all, my home turf was a small town, and nothing much happened from one year to the next. Sitting in the park reading a paper, a man stopped and said: “I know you, you are the man who fell on the stage, it was very funny.”