with the punches

language can be capricious.
this sign, in latei, with the words "meerdere rollen beschikbaar" translates into english as "several rolls available". but in dutch it also means "several rôles available".
and, reading it, i saw - did you ever doubt the power of my imagination? - a stage, vast, velvet draped sumptuous and scarlet. i saw wardrobe girls, nipping, tucking. i smelled greasepaint and roses. i imagined release, the step into another's skin, if only for a glorious moment: playing the diva today, soprano and sultry, and perhaps, bending to mood, the suffering heroine tomorrow.
and so you see.
this could have become a dramatic tale of great thespian accomplishment, of masks and maquillage, of tossed bouquets and curtain calls.
but it has become - because that single circumflexed "o" took sides - a simple story of wallpaper.