Balancing act

im slipping Please help

Flash to standing behind the stage curtain. There is an auditorium full of watchful onlookers eager to see my performance. I am doing a balancing act tonight, no dress rehearsals and no script. The interlude starts and the audience claps and cheers awaiting the curtains to open. The piano's tone descends into a mournful but panicked melody as the curtains whisk open and let in a flood of hot stage lighting. I'm standing in center stage and for a fleeting moment I considered running back behind the safety of the curtain. Too late, I'm already here. The pianos tune lifts.I take a sharp breath and begin my act, first sure footed for the opening song. The piano then drops into a minor melody and I slip. There's nothing I can do but finish the act. I'm wobbling all over the balance beam and the audience gasps in alarm as I pull myself right again and again. The pianos tune is dropping once again and I'm not sure if I'm going to make it. I can't run to the safety of backstage, it's full of my peers watching my performance. I look back to them one last time before I take another breath and finish my act.