The Understudy

I sprained my ankle on the last step of the gym bleachers two days before opening night, which is exactly the kind of joke Oscar Wilde would have enjoyed. I had wanted to play Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest since freshman year, and I had the part, the costume and a doctor's note ordering six weeks on crutches. So on opening night I sat in the back row of the auditorium, crutches tucked under my seat, while Josie Albright, my understudy, a sophomore who had spent every rehearsal in the wings silently mouthing my lines, went on in my costume, pinned tightly at the waist because she is half my size.