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A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Part 06

“A newspaper reporter? Well, I’ll be! Guess this really is the big city. Sir, about this lion here…”

Kazuya’s group had followed the man in the lion costume, weaving around the path that looped the lawn, until they arrived at an outdoor theater tucked deep within the park.

The theater sat in a quiet, green nook. It was a small stone amphitheater, a miniature version of an ancient Roman coliseum. At its center was a circular stage, encircled by tiered seating arranged in a bowl shape.

Stone statues were scattered throughout the seating area—figures dressed in medieval attire, enchanting mermaids, and half-human, half-beasts with animal heads. Each statue depicted a different pose: laughing, weeping, shaking a fist in anger, all facing the stage.

A troupe of performers scheduled to perform tonight gathered in one section of the amphitheater, their colorful costumes and props stacked in piles nearby. The group was made up of Black boys, girls, and young adults, all dressed for their roles: fluttering fairies, gloomy monks in black robes, infantry soldiers, and a half-man, half-donkey, among others. They paced around while practicing their lines.

“Over the hills!”
“Through the valleys!”
“Under the water!”
“Past the fire!”
“I roam, anywhere and everywhere!”

Passersby on the path stopped to watch, chatting curiously about the play scheduled for that evening.

“It’s just a theater costume.”

“Oh, theater costume?”

“Yup. I play a lion, you see.”

A young Black man stood before Kazuya, who eagerly jotted notes. Short but solidly built, he wore a lion’s head prop strapped to his waist. He was finishing the last bite of his hot dog and taking a swig of soda. Each time he nodded, the lion’s oversized paper head bobbed comically along.

Meanwhile, Nico wandered around snapping photos. Victorique, however, had parked the bicycle under a nearby tree and sat beside it, munching on her AtoZ chocolate balls.

“Such flashy costumes,” she murmured, watching the performers. “They’re like chess pieces with no king or queen.”

Kelly Sue, nibbling on chocolates beside her, murmured, “Huh, I see.”

The lion man eagerly went on, “Our troupe came all the way from the Midwest. Name’s Lysander.” The lion’s head nodded, its button eyes staring up at Kazuya. “We figured we’d take a shot at performing in the big city, so we applied to use the outdoor theater here in Central Park. Turns out, it was available tonight! We got to New York just yesterday.”

“Ahuh.” Kazuya scribbled in his notebook.

“We prepped all night without catching a wink of sleep. Got a special permit from city hall so we could come and go during the night.”

“You prepped all night?”

“Yup! But who’d have thought someone would call a newspaper to come see us? Big-city folks really are something else.”

Lysander laughed. The lion’s head shook so hard that its mouth opened wide in a toothy grin.

Hearing his laughter, a petite young Black woman came over. “Lysander, what’s so funny?”

She was dressed in an indigo shirt and skirt and carried a large, round mirror roughly thirty centimeters in diameter. The sunlight glinted sharply off its surface.

“Stop pointing that thing around. It’s blinding!”

“Can’t help it. I’m playing the moon,” she replied.

“Well, that doesn’t mean you can go flashing it willy-nilly. Be careful, will you?” He turned to Kazuya. “Mr. Reporter, this here’s Puck. Hey, Puck, this gentleman’s from a New York newspaper. He’s here to cover us, the Brothers’ Orphanage.”

“Brothers… Orphanage?” Kazuya froze mid-scribble, then exclaimed, “The Brothers’ Orphanage?!”

Victorique’s eyes widened. She toddled over, looked up at them, and asked, “You’re not a theater troupe, but an orphanage?”

Lysander and Puck exchanged glances.

“Yup,” Lysander replied smugly. “We’re orphans, you see. Used to live on the streets, pickpocketing to get by until we got arrested. The orphanage took us in, and when we grew up, we became staff.”

“The staff and orphans perform plays together,” Puck added. “We visit hospitals and other places to bring joy. Folks back in Kansas love us.”

“You have to stay and watch,” Lysander insisted, gesturing toward the boys and girls rehearsing their lines.

“A cataclysm!”
“Frost on gray heads!”
“Scarlet roses in bloom!”
“Lap pillows!”
“We are the creators of chaos!”

Just then, someone from the props crew called out to Lysander with a question, and he turned to respond. Kazuya’s eyes caught on a stack of black, slender cylinders stacked among the troupe’s luggage, forming a pyramid-shaped pile.

Victorique, smoking her pipe, studied the orphans of the Brothers’ Orphanage. Both adults and children were laughing joyfully as they rehearsed. They seemed harmless.

Victorique eventually lifted her head. “Hey, Kujou. Didn’t the Kid & D’Artagnan Brothers build an orphanage and a girls’ school back in Kansas?”

Kazuya whispered back, “They did. Apparently because their friends suffered in those places. They named it the Brothers’ Orphanage.”

Victorique exhaled a thin stream of smoke from her golden pipe. “According to Doug,” she said hoarsely, “Kid spent forty years in prison before falling terminally ill. He then sent a letter to the Brothers’ Orphanage. No one knows what it said, but they replied immediately. After that, someone from outside helped him escape.”

“Wait, are you saying those people might’ve helped Kid break out?”

“Doug suspects they’re his new accomplices. If they will be involved in today’s bank robbery, what do you think is going to happen?”

“Uh…”

“Either way, the real question is: where is Kid himself?”

“Good point. He’s not here.”

They scanned the area. While they could see the faces of the prop handlers, the performers were hard to identify under their costumes: donkey masks, faces painted gray to mimic walls, or other disguises. But from the glimpses of skin, they all seemed young and Black.

“So, Kid is not here,” Victorique murmured.

“Candy Holiday! There you are!” called a man from the distance.

Victorique turned. “Doug’s back.”

Doug sprinted toward them, panting heavily. “I checked the cops around the nearby buildings. No one suspicious. I thought maybe Kid or folks from the orphanage were blending in with them, but nothing.”

“Good work, Doug. We just found the folks from the Brothers’ Orphanage ourselves.”

“You did?!”

Victorique gestured subtly with her pipe.

Doug’s face darkened. “So, they’re the ones who helped Kid escape. Damn it.” His jaw clenched, teeth grinding. “And considering they’re near the bank, doesn’t this confirm they’re Kid’s new crew? They’re probably planning to help with the robbery too. Damn it!” His frustration echoed loudly.

Nico, swinging his camera idly, wandered over. “Who are you again?”

“Me? I’m the idiot guard who let Kid escape,” Doug said. “You saw it in the papers, didn’t you?” He pointed to the bandage on his head.

“R-Right, the papers,” Nico stammered.

“Kid bashed my head in last night, and I passed out.”

Nico’s face twisted sympathetically. “That’s rough. So, that’s why you’re looking for Kid. I’ll give you a hand.” He turned toward Victorique.

“While we’ve found Kid’s possible accomplices,” Victorique said, “Kid himself isn’t here. The group is made up of young men, women, and children, all Black.”

Doug nodded grimly, but Nico frowned.

“Not all Black. There’s one white dude among them. He’s young, though. Over there.”

“What?”

Victorique rose on tiptoe to look, while Kazuya and Doug spun around.

A shirtless handsome young man with only a white cloth wrapped around his waist strolled down the alley.

Kazuya quickly clarified, “Oh, that’s Sparky. His outfit’s misleading, but he’s okay.”

“The caretaker of the Carousel, right?” Doug said.

“His outfit threw me off, but he was nice,” Kelly Sue added.

The caretaker, Sparky, noticed them and waved cheerfully. Kazuya waved back.

Doug, Kelly Sue, and Victorique huddled together for a discussion. Nico leaned in to listen.

“Do you think the orphanage is working with Kid?” Doug asked.

“Where could Kid be hiding?” Kelly Sue wondered.

“Good question.”

“Old man Kid isn’t mobile anymore. He’s got to be close by.”

Kazuya craned his neck beside Nico to listen in.

Suddenly, a loud voice bellowed near Kazuya’s ear. “Kid?!”

All five of them jumped. When they spun around, they saw Sparky standing behind them. He’d somehow snuck up on them without a sound.

Sparky spread his arms wide and shouted in an absurdly loud voice, “The ingenious and philosophical detective and her oriental assistant. Are you planning to catch the bank robber Kid?”

“Shh!”

Victorique silenced him with a sharp hiss. Kazuya’s eyes darted toward the Brothers’ Orphanage group.

The Black youths and boys in the audience seating turned slowly to stare at them with eerie, blank faces. Kazuya swallowed hard, locking eyes with them.

The look on their faces completely changed the moment they heard the name Kid.

Kazuya moved next to Victorique to protect her.