Chapters (55)
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- Cast of Characters
- Part One
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Part Two
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Thirty-nine
- Forty
- Forty-one
- Forty-two
- Forty-three
- Forty-four
- Forty-five
- Forty-six
- A note on the Author
Edie read pretty well, I’ll give her that. Her set piece was well chosen, too: a monologue from Annie Hall. Her timing was great and I just managed to stop myself from clapping when she finished.
Ruby went on next. Under the bright lights, her makeup started to melt and leak onto her black turtleneck. She tried her best to read without looking at the page, but she still hadn’t managed to memorize the lines and so she continued her performance with her eyes cast downward. Her timing was off, since she thought she was reading tragedy, and her rendition of Medea was hysterical; she was having hysterics, shrieking, rolling around on the floor. If she had been Björk, everyone would have called her an avant-garde genius. Instead, there was deathly silence. Ruby came down from the stage exhilarated but, seeing the director’s face, her shoulders slumped. She started to say something like, “Well, thanks for the …” but he cut her short: “We’ll call you.” She had been fucked. And he never would ring her.
Edie started laughing before we were even out the door. Ruby didn’t break stride. She said she wanted a sandwich and walked into a nail salon. “I mean a manicure.”
“Okay, sweetheart. I’m going to buy some cigarettes. I’ll be back in a minute.” Then I walked back up the block to the theater and slipped in the back to find the director focused, rapt, on the fluffy waif taking the stage. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Edie going into the toilet. I followed her in, click-clacking deliciously in my patent boots. I knew then why they had been so expensive. It was just the right tone of menace they gave off each time a heel hit the floor. I caught Edie as she came out of the stall. Before she knew what hit her, I had her shoved against the wall. I couldn’t help it. I held my arm under her throat.
“I know you’re just jealous because Ruby’s prettier than you and a bigger star. And because she’s a woman and men have to fuck you from behind so they don’t have to look at your bony chest.”
I heard my words reverberate off the bathroom wall and I dropped her. Dropped her! Flat on the floor! I felt like a lioness gone insane for its cub.