“Do we really have to go to the theater?” I asked. “Couldn't we just look over the play?” I was really hoping to have some actual fun this evening, but Kelly and I were in Shakespeare 101, and our professor wanted us to see a performance.
	“Come on Jacob!”, replied Kelly, “It will be fun. I adore The Tempest. My brother played the part of Prospero in high school, I always watched him while he practiced at home. Did you know that William Shakespeare changed-“
	“Kelly. Please not now. Lets just go and get it over with.” I said. 
	We arrived at the theater just as it was about to start, which didn’t make Kelly very happy at all, and quickly found seats. Suddenly I heard the sound of the thunder, and the lights flickered. The world started to spin, and I blacked out.
      I awoke, my eyes blurred with drowsiness as I tried to decipher where I was. Stiffly I stood up slowly. My eyes focused and I looked at my surroundings. The  building we were in was circular, sort of like an egg, but with no roof and next to me was Kelly sleeping. I quickly shook her.
      “Kelly! Where are we? How did we get here?” I shouted.
	“Huh? What do you want?” came the bleary reply.
	“KELLY! Wake up!” I yelled.
	“What?” screamed Kelly, “Oh Jake. It’s you. Wait, what’s going on?”
	“ I don’t know. I was hoping you did.” I replied. Then a man shouted.
	“Hey, what are ye doing here? The play is over.”
	“Um, sorry sir, but we're lost. Where are we?” Kelly asked.
	“The Globe Theater of course!” The man replied.
	“ The Globe Theater? What day is it?” Kelly asked.
	“ The date? It’s March 13, 1587.  The man said. “Come walk with me to my home and stay for dinner then ye can be on your way.” We walked to his house on the dusty rotten smelling streets and I prayed that this was all just some crazy dream.
	“Anne?” said the man “ I’m home!”
	“Welcome home!” said Anne “Dinner’s on the table.”
	“Great. This is my wife Anne. Anne this is, what are your names?” asked the man.
	“I’m Kelly and this is Jacob we're school friends.” said Kelly
	“Lets eat!” said the man. We sat at the table and Anne brought out some type of meat she said later, after we ate, was veal stomach. After dinner I said to the man,
	“You never told us your name.” 
	“ Oh sorry, I must have forgotten my manners. My name is William. William Shakespeare,” said the man.
	“You're William Shakespeare?” screamed Kelly.
	“So ye have heard of me? That’s great! Have ye seen any of my plays?” asked Shakespeare.
	“Yes, I have, they are great! I always want to watch another!” Kelly replied.
	“Ye are welcome to come see my newest idea I am working on. Even though I am still deciding the name.” said Shakespeare. “ Ye can come tomorrow. For the night ye may sleep here. Anne can'st thou fetch some blankets? ”
	Kelly and I settled down on an open spot on the floor. “Do you have any idea how, if we did somehow go back in time, to get back?” I asked.
	“Jake, I don’t understand any of this. Time travel isn’t even possible! This must all be a weird dream. For now let's just play along until we figure out what’s going on.” She said. She blew out the candle, and we both had a short sleep filled with shivering.
	“Up, up, up! Time to leave! We have to get to the Globe early today.” said Shakespeare.
Kelly jumped right up and got ready to go. I got up, rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, and took a biscuit Anne gave to me.
	When we got to the Globe I was surprised to see that many people were already there. Shakespeare led us backstage where he introduced us to the original Prospero and the other characters. All day long we watched the actors rehearse. Kelly knew every word and ended up asking questions for an hour until Shakespeare said he had important duties that needed to be done. This was much better than looking at a textbook, this was like living history, and the day flew quickly by.
	As the last rays of sun fell over the hills, Shakespeare introduced us to his assistant  Rudieth who went with us to the closest tavern called the Brown Bucket. We walked across the street to the one place that was still bubbling with activity. You could hear all the way from outside the Globe. We walked into the tavern and immediately the sound went from loud to deafening. There were so many noises all happening at once, dishes breaking, people shouting in merriment, drunken men singing songs of joy. There were so many people you couldn’t go anywhere without bumping into someone. The tavern was dimly lit by candles and a fireplace, and the ceiling was low which made Kelly very claustrophobic. The whole place smelled of pipe smoke and stale ale.
	After we pushed through the crowd we entered into the much quieter back room. Rudieth quickly ushered us to a table in a dark corner of the empty room. “My lord, I have heard news of Queen Elizabeth I's Steward Adolphus, who is plotting woe against you. He is conjuring lies that thy new play is treasonous to the queen,” she whispered.
	“The Steward Adolphus? I know him. He's the man who tried to write plays but couldn't, and now he is trying to have revenge against me.” mumbled Shakespeare “What am I to do? If the queen thinks this outrageous idea of treason is true, I’ll be sentenced to death.”
	The next morning, Shakespeare and I started on our way to the Globe. He looked like he didn't sleep much during the night. Kelly had gotten there early to prepare costumes with Rudieth. They ran up to us once we were inside and said “The Queen has sent her Steward with a message: He will return tomorrow to see the play when it is shown. If it is deemed treasonous or if it is not shown out of fear, you will...be sent to the gallows to be hanged until dead.”
	“I was expecting this to happen. Her Majesty's Steward is a devious one.” Shakespeare said calmly, “I must quickly tell Anne this horrific news.” 
	The day went on and Kelly and I helped out with all the things we could. Kelly gave little ideas to all the players on how the play should be read (seeing as how she knew the entire play- more than the players themselves), and I helped to build the contraptions that were made to create the special effects for the new play.
	The sky grew dark and Shakespeare still hadn't come back. Kelly was very worried because with all the treason rumors that were going around she didn't want something to happen to him.
	We walked to Shakespeare's home through the crooked streets of the city. When we arrived the house was dark. Kelly and I slowly crept up to the house and opened the door. I motioned to Kelly to stay quiet.  We heard footsteps coming from the hall. We quickly jumped into the closet and closed the door except for a crack. Then three men stepped out from the darkness. “That's the Steward,” Kelly quickly whispered, and the others we didn't recognize. They each were struggling to carry someone.
	“Sire, we have gotten the man, Shakespeare, and his lady also. We-” said the first man.
	“Quiet!” hissed the steward “I thought I heard a noise.” The Steward did a quick look around the room, and stopped and stared right at the closet we were in. The room was completely silent. He started towards our hiding spot, then something broke the silence.
	“Mmmmm!” Anne shouted through her gag, “MmET ME mmUT OF HEREmm!”
	“Keep her quiet!” yelled the Steward “We can't have anyone finding out about this. It would mean straight to the block for all of us!”
	“Not even the Queen, Sire?” asked the second man.
	“No! You frog-headed flies!” Shouted the Steward “We'd be killed! Now let's hurry and bring these maggots to the dungeon to rot forever.” As they walked out the door I saw Shakespeare's eyes look straight at me, and I could tell he saw me, and that was when I knew that I needed to get him back, or the world of plays and playwrights would be lost forever.
	When they left, Kelly went nuts.”What are we going to do? We can't just leave them!  And if we both go get him we won't have enough time for the play to be shown! And if the play isn't shown he'll be sentenced to death anyway!”
	“I know. We are going to have to split up. You have to go make sure the play is ready, and direct it. I know you can do this. While you do that I will follow them and do whatever I can to free Anne and Shakespeare,” I said as the sun started to peek over the horizon. “Quickly! Go!”
	“Okay. Goodbye Jake,” she said and sprinted out the door.  I quickly went in pursuit of the Steward and his men because I knew I had no time to lose. The men were nowhere in sight so I ran over to an old beggar and asked him where the men went. He said they went North on the main road so I ran off to try to find them. 
	Meanwhile Kelly was at the Globe frantically working on anything and everything that needed to be done or worked on. “Everyone! We have to work as fast as possible! The play must be done by tomorrow!” Kelly yelled.
	I caught sight of the group as I got to the top of the hill. I ran quicker than I ever had in my entire life. I stayed by the walls so they couldn’t see me as I got closer. I followed the men close to the dungeon. They opened the door and went inside. I ran clumsily to the door tripping over a pig that was randomly walking the streets. With only luck I somehow managed to get to the door just before it closed and shoved my hand threw the crack to stop it. I wasn’t paying attention to how the door was made of solid iron, and when the door shut I smashed my fingers and I heard a sickening crack and barely kept in a scream of pain. I opened the door, cradling my hand and jumped to find the others. I followed them into the heart of the dungeon, and the whole place smelled of rottenness and mildew. They stopped at the farthest cell, and shoved in Anne and Shakespeare. “Enjoy your stay! The dinners here are incredibly good. Oh wait, there are none! Ha ha ha!” screamed the Steward.
	They started to walk towards me and I jumped into a open cell next to me. Okay, I said to myself, all I have to do is wait for them to pass, and get them out. Oh! The keys! Their footsteps came closer and soon they passed the door. I sneaked out, and jumped the two men from behind. “It’s him! The boy! Get him you fools!” Shouted the Steward. Both of the men turned on me, but the corridors were small and only one could be in front at a time. I ran and shoved the first man into the second. Then as the man was falling down I grabbed him and threw him into a open cell, and shut the door so it locked. “Oumf!” I yelled as the second man smashed me into the wall. I kicked off the wall and rammed my shoulder into the man's chest. He hit the wall and  lost consciousness. 
	“No!” shrieked the Steward as he started running. The Steward must not be much of a runner because I quickly caught up with him and ripped the keys off his belt. “Don’t hurt me!” he screamed, fear filling his expression. I didn’t look at him again, but sped off towards the cell. I unlocked the door and untied the bonds and gags on Anne and Shakespeare, then helped them up. “Thank thee, dear boy.” sighed Anne. “We would have been done for if it weren't for thee.”
	“I knew that thou wouldst come for us.” said Shakespeare “Thou art a good lad.”
	“It needed to be done.” I said. “Now quickly, we have to go and make sure the play is being shown!” Even though Shakespeare and Anne were both weak, we raced to the Globe, just in time to see the play starting. We walked backstage to watch the play, only to bump into Kelly, who was grinning with satisfaction. “Oh, you are all okay!” she exclaimed. “I was so worried that something terrible had happened to you.”
	“No. We are quite fine. And  we thank thee much. We are forever indebted to thee.”
Shakespeare said.
	“It was nothing.” Kelly said. “Now that we are all here, and not in life-threatening situations. Let's all watch the play.” The audience cheered then became quiet as thunder roared  and the sky grew dark and sinister. Then just like before, my vision clouded and my legs buckled and I blacked out.
	“Sir! Ma'am!” sounded a muffled voice. “Are you both okay? The play is over, everyone else has left.”
	“Huh?” I said. The blurriness went away and I saw who the man was- he was the exact image of Shakespeare! “Shakespeare? Is that you?”
	“Shakespeare? I'm not Shakespeare! I'm the theater janitor! You two have to go, the theater is closing.” said the janitor.
	“Okay, sorry sir, we'll leave,” I said. “Kelly! Wake up! We have to go!”
	“Jake? What happened?” slurred Kelly in her sleepy state.
	“I'll explain it all on the way home.” I said. We got in the car and on the way back I reminded her about the time travel (if that's what it even was), and explained that I don't know if what happened was real or a dream, but I do know that what happened to us was no ordinary dream. I dropped her off at her house and thought as I drove to my home, that life will never be the same. 
Fin



1
The Tempest of the Steward, 6-8