The Cuckoo In The Nest Chapter 37

©GeraldineBanksFebruary2025

The tension in the Green Room was palpable. Sandy’s thoughts were however focused on coming face to face with Allenby again. Sandy didn’t care who received the Awards. Martin would be by her side and he had no intention of letting Allenby near her. However, Sandy knew that would be impossible and that Allenby would approach her. She had to stay calm and appear as normal as possible. It would be difficult.

There were a lot of people gathered in the Green Room. There was enough food and drink to feed them all five times over. Fortunately , as time passed and the various Prizes were announced and the Awards distributed the crowd thinned and Martin and Sandy were able to make their way to the delicious buffet. Martin was ravenous, so he helped himself to a plate and made his choice. Sandy held her plate in her hand and tentatively chose a couple of hors de oeuvres which she began to nibble.

She laughed as Martin began to shovel food into his mouth. “Stop it Martin, slow down.” she chided.

However, Martin stopped eating altogether and put his plate down.

“What’s up?” Sandy whispered in his ear.

“It’s him, he’s here.”

“Pick that plate up now, we ‘ve got to pretend there’s nothing wrong.” Sandy picked up Martin’s plate and handed it back to him.

Martin held the plate of food in his hand as he watched Gerry and Allenby enter the Green Room , they were followed by Allenby’s entourage . The room was full to the brim again.

“Help yourself to our meagre fayre”. Gerry announced. Plenty for everyone. I’m just going to check on a few details at the front, so relax and enjoy, we’ve got a tight programme and I don’t expect we’ll hear anything for about half an hour and we may over run depending on the speeches.

Gerry left the room and Martin watched as Allenby moved towards one of the drinks table accompanied by a tall young man in a blue suit. Martin placed a vol-au-vent to his lips, it felt dry and crumbly in his mouth, he had suddenly lost his appetite, but he popped it in his mouth nevertheless and with his free hand he touched Sandy’s shoulder to reassure her. She was beginning to tense up and she put her plate down on the table. She couldn’t eat anything.

Martin watched as Allenby poured himself some water and spoke firmly to the man in the blue suit who rapidly left the green room, nodding and gesturing that whatever Allenby wanted would be done.

Martin looked at Sandy and caught her attention momentarily, she looked away when she heard Allenby’s voice and she froze. Martin took her hand in his.

“It’s alright Martin, I’m fine.” Sandy said.

A sound of raucous, loud applause coming from the main stage area reverberated through the room. It was the announcement of one of the Acting Awards, it garnered quite a few people’s attention in the Green Room, so much so that with the milling and cooing of the crowd Martin didn’t notice Allenby making his way behind Sandy and suddenly touching her shoulder.

” Hello Sandy, such a long time since we’ve seen each other, have you been out of circulation? I’ve tried calling you, but all your numbers have changed.”

Sandy didn’t flinch , but she twisted gently and moved so that the Professor’s hand was left mid air and she turned to face him.

“Oh we do that quite regularly, it’s Industry Standard, otherwise I’d get pestered night and day, particularly as it looks like our Documentary is going to win the top spot. ” Sandy said matter-of-factly.

” Yes, Gerry seems very confident. I saw some exerts in the editing suite, I would have like to have seen a preview, unfortunately we ran out of time and Gerry said it was bad luck anyway. How have you been keeping?”

Sandy wanted to scream at Allenby, but she kept her cool.

” Oh I’m fine , took a while to get over the virus. Funny, Gerry comes out with all sorts of things, bad luck nonsense, it’s really because our Industry has so much loose talk, it’s hard to keep anything secret. It looks like we’re on to a winner with your facility and it’s work. You will join us on stage won’t you. I’ve just got to make a quick phone call to my baby sitter, so we’ll catch up later.

She took Martin by the arm.

” Come on, just want to remind the twins to watch us on T.V. , I promised them they could stay up and watch.” She looked at Martin and both of them moved quickly away from Allenby. Martin smiled as he left Allenby standing. Allenby was briefly distracted by the sound on an overhead screen, he watched and listened as a young actor made an earnest thank you speech. Allenby turned and looked at the food on the table, he brusquely turned his back and took out his mobile phone and begun to make a call. He ended the call abruptly and turned again to look up at the screen. He kept watching the Award proceedings for a few moments, until his Mobile phone bleeped, he looked at it .

” I thought as much!” He muttered to himself.