Actually I lied about it being the end of the “Dreamers” stories– I found a couple that were cut out to keep the word count down.

She tells the stage hand that there’s been some sort of mistake, that she’s not supposed to be performing, but he’s having none of it. He gives her a firm shove and she stumbles out onto the stage, the red curtain rippling behind her. Her throat goes dry, tongue far too heavy like a beached whale behind tombstone teeth as she realises she can’t remember the words. You sit forward with your fingers steepled, brows furrowed, and tell her sternly that “we’ve gone through it a hundred times, if you haven’t got it down by now then you never will.”