Questioning my Existence

I'm playing in the pit for a local show of "Children of Eden."  I play cello, I have since I was nine.  Down there with me there are two percussionists, a guitar player, electric bass, two keyboards, French horn, oboe, some assorted winds and an extremely ornery conductor.  Unless you count guitar and bass (which I don't), I'm the only string player.  It's a lonely existence.

During break tonight I said to the keyboard players, "Why am I here?"

They stared blankly at me.

"I mean, " I said.  "You guys play the rest of the string section, why do you have me?"

"I don't know," Jamie, one of the pianists, said.

"I'm just questioning my existence." 

"I've played cello a bunch of times."  She pointed to one of the settings on the keyboard.

"I have 'play if no cello' written in," Michael, the other one, said.  

"That's a hard instrument," Michael the flute player said.  "If no cello."

"Yeah," Piano Michael agreed.  "But it's okay, it's all programed in."

I felt really necessary.  

Jamie ate one of her M&Ms and made a face, "These taste weird," she informed us.  "Here," she passed me a yellow one.  "Try this and see if it tastes weird."

"So I'm your guinea pig?" I ate it.

She grinned coyly at me.  "It tastes like poison," she said to Flute Michael.

I swallowed,  "Great."  And my mouth tasted like plastic the rest of the evening.