Gilding the Maple -- A Gene Fan Fiction Short Story
© 1999 by Kathryn E. Darden The old man shuffled down the street, face downcast, trying to ignore the bitter wind that tore at his overcoat, trying to ignore his bitter disappointment over the latest ... and last ... meeting with his bank. The once dapper coat which he knew how to throw around his shoulders with a theatrical flair was now carefully mended. There was no money for frivolous things like coats. Frederick Gurling had given everything he had to keep his Maple Street Community Theater open. Once one of the leading community theaters in the country, the Maple Street or "The Maple" as it had been called in the Good Days, had fallen upon hard times. But Frederick remembered it as it had once been in the Good Days. Frederick Gurling had been considered one of the best acting coaches of his day, a peer of the rich and famous, a mentor to the young. "Herr Frederick" they had respectfully (and fondly) called him. Ah, the young men -- how dash