Lindsey got an uncomfortable feeling in her belly. Ms. Cole, nicknamed “the lemon” by Beth because of her sour disposition, was an old-school librarian who believed in shushing and the prompt payment of fines.

Lindsey was pretty sure Ms. Cole would be delighted to use thumbscrews in order to encourage their patrons to pay their fines if Lindsey would only let her. As crazy as Ms. Cole made her, however, Lindsey really didn’t want to see the woman humiliate herself. Lindsey had never been one to take joy in the misery of others.

She had never thought of Ms. Cole as a theater type, but then again, Ms. Cole kept to herself. Who knew what went on under her monochromatic clothing? Each day, she dressed in a variety of shades of one color. Today it was head-to-toe blue, from her navy shoes to her pale blue blouse. Until she met Ms. Cole, it had never occurred to Lindsey that not all shades of blue complement one another. On the upside, it was infinitely more cheerful than her usual all-gray or all-brown outfits.

“I didn’t really think of Ms. Cole as one to get the acting bug,” Nancy said. “She seems too buttoned down to cut loose into a character.”

“From the top,” Violet instructed.

Lindsey rose from her seat to watch the performance as did the others.

Milton read Oberon’s lines in a deep and resonant voice. Without even looking at the pages in her hand, Ms. Cole spoke Titania’s part. Her voice was clear and projected throughout the theater.

Lindsey stared in wonder. Ms. Cole, with her stout build and head full of gray sausage curls, was not how she would have envisioned the faerie queen, but her voice was musical as it wrapped around the bard’s words, making them dance on the air and in the ears of the listeners.

Nancy and Mary were gaping at the stage as well. Lindsey knew they were thinking the same thing she was: that if Ms. Cole lost the monochromatic clothes and wore a flowing gown with a wreath of flowers in her hair, um, perhaps with a wig of flowing hair, well, it was possible she’d make a lovely Titania.

“Is it just me?” Mary whispered in Lindsey’s ear, “or is the lemon blowing the doors off of the place?”

“It’s not you,” Lindsey confirmed. “And if Violet is willing to cast an older Oberon and Titania, I think the two of them just nailed it.”

When the reading was over, Violet thanked both Milton and Ms. Cole. Milton smiled and put his sheets on the edge of the stage for the next audition, but Ms. Cole strode to the front and center of the stage and gave a deep curtsey as if she were practicing for her curtain call on opening night. Lindsey couldn’t help but smile.