Unfortunately there were some things about auditioning that Ricky hadn't warned her about. He hadn't mentioned that there would be at least thirty young women—presumably all sopranos—standing in the wings, cluthing their sheet music, in various stages of panic. He hadn't said that the accompanist would be on the stage with the auditioning singers so the tinny old upright piano could drown them out if they stood too close to it. Ricky hadn't warned Lu that there would be enough light on the stage so the singers could see the faces—dimly—of the three men in the audience who were going to judge them, and he hadn't told her that those three men would be too busy talking about their lunch that had just been delivered to pay any attention to the frightened performers. Lu watched as a girl who had been brought out on stage waited to sing. She stood there smiling desperately.

“Go on, dearie,” one of the threesome in the house commanded.

Rattled, the girl nodded, smiled even more desperately, and said loudly, “Good afternoon, gentlemen …”

“I told you I didn't order the tongue,” said the man to one of his colleagues. “Why would I order tongue? I hate it.”

Those guys are nothing but a bunch of cafones, Lu thought. I don't care how important they are. And her brain started to defrost. It seemed that getting angry was a good weapon against stage fright.

“I'm going to sing the song ‘Spanish Nights’ from The Maiden Ship,” the singer barreled on bravely. As the bored accompanist began playing the intro to a song with a vaguely Latin beat, Lu's brain continued defrosting. She looked around her and registered something that had been bothering her since she'd walked through the stage door. Most of her fellow auditioners were wearing ensembles that suggested if not Spain, someplace south of the border. Skirts were draped with brightly colored scarves, and shawls and blouses with puffy sleeves prevailed. There were a lot of flowers tucked behind ears. Clearly, the trio in the audience was looking for a Spanish type. Lu looked down at her dark blue suit and her ruffled white blouse with the high neck. She looked at her alligator pumps. It had never occurred to her to try to dress for the part she was trying to get—or to find out what the part was. She hadn't thought to learn a song from The Maiden Ship as the singer on stage had done. Lu was going to look like a total amateur when it was her turn.

Why didn't Ricky tell me about all of this? she thought furiously. But then she realized he probably didn't know. After all, he was an amateur too.