I arrived at the park a few minutes late, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t even supposed to be at work, but I had to find out what was happening with the park. There was an unfamiliar car parked in Eddie’s usual spot. I wondered who had the gall to use his space. I glanced at the license plate which said PHILLIP. There weren’t any employees named Phillip as far as I knew, and besides, none of the employees could afford a vintage Jag. Black. Very well taken care of. Whoever had bought it obviously had money and time. I admired it for a few minutes before reluctantly deciding that I better get inside.
“Bea! Thank God you got the message,” Antoinette said to me, gushing as I entered the green room. “You’re ten minutes late, but that’s ok. Oh, isn’t it terrible about Eddie? I’m just all broken up about it.” She didn’t look broken up to me, but what did I know?
“What message?” I asked, scanning the room. All the characters were there, as well as one man who I didn’t recognize. I gave him the once-over, liking what I saw. He was almost six-feet tall with dark, wavy brown hair and ice-blue eyes. The cleft in his chin and the smile on his face warmed his whole visage. There was a ruggedness about him which I associated with the outdoors. He appeared to be in his late thirties or early forties, which put him at the outer edge of my age-range. He was dressed sharply in a nice suit, however, and I couldn’t help but notice the Rolex on his wrist. Whoever he was, he came from money. I gave myself a mental shake. What was I doing drooling over a guy I didn’t know when I had a great boyfriend at home? Besides, he had a wedding band which made him firmly off-limits.
“I left a message on your cell!” Antoinette squeaked, looking at me disapprovingly. “Don’t you ever check your messages?” Actually, I didn’t. I hated being a slave to my cell phone. Antoinette didn’t wait for me to answer, but waved in the direction of the stranger. “That’s Phillip, Eddie’s brother. He’s taking over the business.” I gulped, sneaking another look at Phillip. This gorgeous creature was related to the repellant Eddie? I found it exceedingly difficult to believe. Wait a minute. Phillip? Of the Jag Phillip? Phillip with a Rolex? If Eddie was so hard-up for money, why hadn’t Phillip loaned him any?
“Um, what’s the meeting about?” I finally asked, once I wrenched my mind away from the fascinating Phillip.
“You have a girlfriend, Henry?” My mother said, her eyes lighting up. I could see the vision of plump grandbabies dancing in her thoughts. Never mind that Hank was only twenty—if he had a girlfriend, then hope sprang eternal.
“Wake up, sunshine,” Rafe said, kissing me in a very convincing matter. “What do you say to spending a day at the lake? It’s beautiful out.” One of the perks to living in Minnesota was absolutely glorious summer days.
“Beezus, you have got to listen to me.” My mother was on me the minute I walked in the door. She was on her second martini which meant it was a rough day for her. “Frieda told Zelda that that boy you got fired, what was his name? Your boss’s nephew—he’s pretty angry at you. When they talked to him about it, he couldn’t stop cussing you out. Called you the ‘b’ word and the ‘c’ word.” It took me a minute to translate. I knew what the ‘b’ word was—what woman didn’t?—but the ‘c’ word? When I figured it out, I cringed. That was one of my least favorite words.
“If I were hiding something, where would it be?” I muttered, prowling the green room early in the morning. Eddie was around somewhere, but not in the green room. I was glad he had been at the park because otherwise I would have been forced to scale the outside gate and to open the door with the number which I wasn’t supposed to have, but which I had seen Eddie enter once. The last thing I wanted was to call attention to myself while I tossed the joint. I was the only one in the green room, which made it easier to snoop. It was Friday, but it didn’t feel much like the weekend. I was glad I had Saturday and Sunday off to recover from the events of the last few days.
“How was your day, dear?” My mother greeted me as I knocked on the back door again. Even though there were fewer reporters out front, I still didn’t want to deal with them. I never understood people who talked to the media in the midst of a horrible tragedy. The only thing I’d say to those vultures was, ‘Get the hell out of my face before I kill you’—otherwise known as, ‘no comment’.
“Trixie, get your ass in here!” Eddie bellowed at me from inside his office the minute I showed up for work the next morning. He was looking particularly repulsive as he had bits of egg clinging to his once-white t-shirt. I stepped into his office, and he slammed the door behind me, causing my hackles to raise several inches. I didn’t like being enclosed in a small space with a man I didn’t trust, but he was the one paying my checks. As long as he kept his greasy paws to himself, I would put up with his odious self.
I leaned against the wall, thinking about Shannon and Aaron. They had been a couple ever since they met at the U ten years ago. He had been a philosophy major; she, a fine arts major. They were one of those couples who simply belonged together. You could tell it when you looked at them and you envied them for it, but you didn’t get in their way. I met them a year ago at a cabaret. I had been performing—it was an Asian event, and I did a piece on the role of Asian women in American cinema. I was in my element, mimicking all the stereotypes foisted upon Asian women by aging white males with geisha-girl fetishes.