“They changed my costume, Mama,” she said. “You remember the name of my song? It was ‘I'll Always Be the Girl Next Door.’ The idea was, I was a dowdy girl who had a dream that she was a glamour-puss and all men adored her. It was really just an excuse to get a whole bunch of chorus boys onstage to toss me around like a whiffleball, and I'd mug and get laughs. So, like you saw, I started singing wearing a big fluffy bathrobe, and halfway through the number I took it off. The way we originally staged it, underneath I had on this fantastic gold sequined gown. But when we did the dress rehearsal on Friday night, the guys kept dropping me because the dress was cutting their hands and it weighed a ton. It was too late to build a new costume for me, so the next day, they decided I'd do the dance like a strip and they went out to Malley's and bought a silk teddy for me. I didn't know the number was going to be so racy until we started working yesterday morning, and I was rehearsing all afternoon, so I couldn't call and warn you.”

Lu had paused in her explanation, and Rose thought she probably would have gotten off with nothing more than a lecture from Nonna if she'd just kept quiet and looked really remorseful. Instead Lu did what she always did when she got into a fight with Nonna. She said exactly what she was thinking. “And I'm not sure I would have warned you anyway. It wasn't like a real striptease, and this morning all the reviews said I walked away with the show. I'm glad you saw me.”

That did it. “You're glad your mother and your daughter saw you wearing your underwear while you danced with men in front of everyone?” Nonna's voice was dangerously high. Rose could have told her mother that now was the time to shut up.

But Lu went on. “It was funny, Mama,” she said. “It was a joke!”

“You acted cheap on that stage! Like a tramp!”

Her mother looked at Nonna for a long time. She stood up very straight and tall. “Just remember, when I act like a tramp on the stage every night, that's how I pay your bills,” she said. She started to walk out the door when Nonna stopped her.

“You know what your daughter told me last night? She wants to be just like you when she grows up. Never, Lu! Never! I can't do anything about you, but I can make sure she never sees you on the stage again!”

And since Rose hadn't wanted to watch her mother onstage getting all the attention anyway, she felt things had worked out rather well.