I've Been Rainbowed

My friend M is going to love this story because he predicted that this was going to be just a matter of time. One night over dinner when N lived in the B&B we got to laughing with L about all of the people that have lived at the house that have gotten pulled into her theatre shows over the years. They used to call it being “rainbowed”. I have been curious to see her act. She has been a children’s entertainer for parties and theatre shows for twenty years. Because of work being done on the Underground trains, going to London this weekend would have been a very long trip, so I decided just to stay around here and relax. Over breakfast L said to me that she was doing a 45 minute show today for a four year old’s birthday party in the next village. She said if I wanted to go with her to get a “flavor” of the show I could and I thought why not. It wasn’t until I said yes that she threw in, “the only thing is that I will have to put you in costume”. L had also told me over breakfast that she could feel my depressed mood across the breakfast table, and I think looking at the costumes, she was hoping that a mixture of colorful satin and silver piping might do the trick. I chose a costume and thought to myself as I looked in the mirror, boy a clown costume can hide a multitude of sins, who knew clown pants could have a slimming effect, hahaha. When I came down the stairs in my costume (note, no face makeup except two circles of red on my cheeks) husband P couldn’t believe it and had to take a picture.

I noticed when we stopped at a light a man did a double-take looking at both of us in the car. As we were pulling up to the party L said that I had to have a name and named me “Sunbeam”. Again, I think another attempt at turning my frown upside down. I sat there trying to figure out what the exact opposite of a sunbeam might be, because a sunbeam I was not. As we got the balloons and L’s magic tricks out of the car, I looked at the picture window of the house and about 6 four year olds were all huddled up on the couch looking out the window, squealing with anticipation. I said to L, “you’re a rock star”.

So I acted as assistant, doing the singalongs with the kids, helping with the magic tricks. I can report that the hokey pokey is slightly different here than in the States. The father of the birthday boy enthusiastically joined in with the ten children as well. When we first walked in as L set up, she put on some music and asked me if I would keep the kids dancing. While most of the kids danced, there was a little boy standing still in the middle. When I asked him why he wasn’t dancing, he looked at me very seriously and said, “I would dance but I’m rather itchy right now”. Mental note, Sunbeam to stay away from the itchy character in the Superman t-shirt.

There was one little boy, who definitely looked smaller than the rest, probably three who when L called them a “little boy” stood up and yelled that he was not a little boy but a big boy and he used to be a baby. He was one of those children that even though he had child characteristics, you could already see what he would look like as an adult, and in my mind at forty he is bitter!

L is amazing with the children, and I told her when we got in the car that I didn’t know how she did it. That 45 minutes seemed like an awfully long time and I was in the mood for a nap when it was all over.