MY LIFE AS AN ACTOR

Jon and I decided to become actors for a short while. 

 I was performing the part of Francisco in Shakespeare's The Tempest.

 I forget now who Jon was.

 The Peace Corps Director, Mr. Baldino, was in it too. 

 We practiced on the grounds of the British Embassy with some very good actors from England and France, and we rehearsed only for a short time.

 But it was fun.

 I felt like a real actor.

 I remember one night we had dinner, followed by desert, coffee, and cocktails. 

 This was the life!

The evening of our play performance we were asked to lay off the liquor, but I was so nervous that I kept tippling the bottle, and before I knew it I had imbibed one bottle of wine and half a bottle of Sherry.

I was very tipsy.

It was, after all, a drowning scene. 

My fifteen seconds of fame had arrived, and I elocuted (or executed!) my lines on the outdoor concrete stage, then quickly exited. 

But on my way through the archway my right hand clipped a standing and burning torch, and the burning torch was now falling to the ground. 

I caught it just in time!

I could have ruined the whole production and my entire career as an aspiring actor.