The Alhambra, by Leonard Haig

An original short story extract set in the twentieth century.

From the wings of the Alhambra on the South Promenade, Benny Shaw could see a slice of the audience: a row of faces the colour of uncooked pastry under the footlights, and a man in the third row unwrapping something from greaseproof paper. Beyond them was darkness, and in the darkness, Benny knew, were nine hundred more people, all of whom had paid one and threepence and expected to be amazed.

He was on after the Dancing Delmonts. The Delmonts had been dancing for six minutes and he had six minutes left to live.

He checked his clubs again. Five painted clubs, red and white, laid on the black cloth in the order he would need them. He had checked them twice already. He touched each one, as if counting children after a day at the sea, and his fingers left damp prints on the paint.

In the back yard of his aunt’s house in Preston he had kept five clubs in the air for twenty minutes without a drop. He had done it in the rain. He had done it with the dog running between his legs. But the back yard had not had a band, or a spotlight like a white-hot coin, or a man in the third row with a pork pie.

His stomach turned over slowly, like a pancake in a pan. He thought about being sick, and then about where he might be sick, and then about the stage manager, Mr Quayle, who had said only one thing to him all evening: ‘Drop one, son, and keep smiling. Drop two, and you’re back on the trams.’

The music changed. The Delmonts were finishing, their feet going faster and faster, a clatter like hail on a tin roof, and the applause rose up and broke over the stage. Benny’s heart was going faster than their feet. He wiped his palms on his trousers. He picked up the clubs.

And then, as Mr Quayle lifted his hand, something odd happened. The fear did not go away, but it seemed to turn round and face the same way he did, like a dog that has decided to come for a walk after all. His hands stopped shaking. The clubs felt light and familiar and his.

‘The Amazing Benjamin!’ called the announcer, a name Benny had never heard before in his life, and he walked out into the light.

How does the writer show Benny Shaw’s thoughts and feelings before his first performance?

You should consider:

• what the writer says about Benny
• the writer’s use of language to show his thoughts and feelings

You must refer to the text to support your answer, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.