I know what the grasp of fear can do to a young child's innocent, little mind, and I understand how brain-numbing horror can turn a kid's entire body into a quivering pile of sweating mush. I know, because I was literally forced into being the main character in a school play at my elementary school. I can honestly say that moment was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life.

I believe I must have been in the fifth grade at the time, a student at a Catholic elementary school. I was just a shy, little guy with glasses and a bowl cut that my mother thought was just adorable. I was probably about ten years old.

Someone on the school's faculty came up with the idea that it would be really cute if the fifth graders could put on a play for all the parents. The story of David and Goliath was chosen. All the drama and action of the Bible story would be beautifully re-enacted by a few, hand-chosen, slobbering, little, nervous students from the class. Thankfully, I was not among the chosen ones. Believe me, I gave out a mighty sigh of relief when I found out that I had been passed by for a part. Even the thought of being up there on stage made my hair squirm.

The kids that had been picked for the play had practiced for about a whole month. They even has their little dress rehearsal and everything. All this work led up to this day. In about nine hours, the play would be held in the auditorium in front of the entire school's parents, faculty, and friends. It was actually a very big occasion.

I was sitting in music class that we had in the early morning and started to slowly nod off when my teacher walked in. She said that she must speak to me NOW. That woke me up in a hurry. "Oh God. What did I do?", I thought to myself. I immediately started getting nervous, thinking about what trouble I might be in.

She took me out into the hall and looked down at me. She spoke very slowly as if I was attempting to read her lips. "The boy who was supposed to play David, umm, seems to be very sick and can't be in the play. We need you to take his place." Butterflies instantly leapt alive in my stomach, and all I could manage to blurt out was something that sounded like "Bu...I..What...Huh!?!" I guess the teacher translated this somehow into a confirmation of my willingness to join the cast.

Before I could even do anything, I was being dragged off into the giant auditorium. It looked like a huge, white cavern with a sea of folding chairs everywhere I looked. Against the back wall, there was a homemade, wooden stage that I found myself pushed towards. It took only a few seconds for my teacher to shove a copy of the script into my small, trembling hands.

Immediately, my teacher was drilling me with line after line, step after step. I must have raced around that stage a thousand times while trying to figure out where the heck I was supposed to stand. "Now say this line. Stand over here. Say this. Throw the rock at his head. Now say this. Do it again." Finally, after spending all day on stage, I was allowed to go home and come back in about two hours for the real thing.

I remember it finally being time for the play. All of the other kids were already there with their parents. I kept thinking about my own parents, who were out there in the crowd somewhere beyond the curtain. All of the little actors had their tiny costumes on while I stood backstage with some kind of bear rug wrapped around me like a caveman's toga. I felt naked as my skinny arms and legs hung awkwardly out of this mass of fuzz. I was suddenly poked from behind and must have jumped about two feet in the air. It was time for me to go out.

I started to walk slowly onto the stage. All I could hear was the murmuring voices of hundreds of people .The whispering echoed throughout the auditorium, which made it sound like some kind of evil chant to my horrified mind. The lights that were put on the stage stared right into my face and I found myself blinded by them. The only thing I could make out was bright light everywhere. I stumbled to the middle of the stage and blinked a few times until I could see once more. That is when I saw THEM. Out there, beyond the lights were seemingly thousands of pairs of eyes watching my every single move, seeing my every little breath, awaiting patiently for any word from me. I thought that they could see right into my soul and could tell how incredibly, totally, and absolutely frightened I really was.

Sweat rolled down my face and I damn near passed out right on the spot. I quickly got hold of my spinning mind and began the prepared speech that I was made to soak up like a sponge. Wait! The words!! What were all my lines!?! All of those paragraphs and sentences that were etched into my brain were suddenly gone and nowhere to be found.

I froze solid. My face must have looked like a deer caught in the headlights of oncoming traffic. Everything started to waiver in front of me as I prayed for a quick and painless death as opposed to this eternal torture. The seconds felt like years, and every shuffle and cough from the crowd amplified into deafening booms in the silence of the air. My mouth hung open, and my throat went dry. Not a single word came out.

The teacher backstage started to quickly read the script to me. I slowly awoke from my brain-dead coma. My mouth began moving, and words came out in a mechanical monotone. The teacher was pointing to the middle of the stage. I had to move. Limply, I strolled over to where I was supposed to be and continued my mindless rambling. I must have gone through the whole play in this sort of half-conscious state of shock and fear, but I cannot remember much about it. The last word was finally uttered, and I was suppose to simply walk off the set: instead, I put my hands in the air and danced right off the stage to the awaiting people behind the curtains. My grand exit.

I had done it. Somehow I had made it through the entire play and did not die even once. I heard laughter from the audience and then the clapping. The teacher pushed me off onto the stage once again. I joined the other cast members and we bowed deeply. The clapping grew louder. The others stood back and let me bow up front by myself. Even more clapping was heard. I felt like a thousand pounds had fallen off of my chest.

The lights were turned back on, and everybody moved off stage. The teacher gave me a giant bear hug and almost smothered me. She thanked me for saving the play. I just smiled and acted like it was nothing. Then I quickly ran to the bathroom to put my face in the toilet and lost my lunch, dinner, and every meal in between quite a few times. So ended my brief career as an actor.