"Dart, Iris Rainer - Beaches 01 - Beaches" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dart Iris Rainer)

"Ah. Cute," said Cee Cee. "Well, whaddya waitin' for?" she asked, and moved her head in a way that meant come with us.
Bertie had no idea where they were going, but she
knew that she didn't ever want Cee Cee to be out of her sight again, so she went.
Jerry Grey's office was at the back of the Steel Pier. To get there, they walked by the Auto Show where Bertie had passed before with her mom and Aunt Neetie in the straw carriage pushed by the colored man. Then through the building and up a long staircase. Bertie must have gotten a sunburn while she was looking for shells, because now in the cool of the building her bathing suit straps were hurting. Leona trailed behind the two girls, panting as she walked up the steps.
"Be polite," she yelled ahead to Cee Cee, who was already at the top; Bertie was between them. "No swearin'."
Cee Cee waited at the top for Bertie and Leona, and the three of them walked to an open door at the end of the hallway.
Jerry Grey was a little fat man. Not as fat as Leona, but his belt buckled under his large stomach.
"Kid," he shouted, coming around from the back of the desk, arms open to give Cee Cee a hug.
"Whaddya say, Jerry," said Cee Cee, extending her hand to avoid the hug.
"Kid, I got great news. Sit down."
There were two wooden chairs next to the desk. Bertie sat in one and Cee Cee in the other. Leona stood, fanning herself with the big yellow straw hat.
"Last night, kid," said Jerry directly to Cee Cee, "unbeknownst to even me, there was a guy from Hollywood in the audience."
"Hollywood," Leona screamed out, so loud it made Bertie jump. "Oh, my God!"
"Seems the guy couldn't sleep, so he was walking on the boardwalk and stopped in for our twelve o'clock show. See? And all the mothers thought I was a slave driver making you kids do three shows last night. Well, God moves in mysterious ways."
Cee Cee sat silently.
"Well, he liked Lewandowski a lot. A whole lot. Thought her handwalk on the lighted staircase was great."
"Yeah, yeah," said Leona impatiently, starting to pant again.
Jerry didn't look at her. "But he loved you, kid! He called me this morning and that's all he could talk about. Besides mentioning Lewandowski, that is. The kid that did the Mama number. The son of a gun couldn't believe that was really you singing. Said you must have been pantomiming a record."
Bertie looked at Cee Cee for a hint at the excitement she must be feeling.
Cee Cee's face was a blank. "So?" she asked.
"So?" Grey said excitedly. "So? So he wants you to have a screen test."
Leona let out a wail and waddled over to Bertie's chair.
"Oh, my God. I gotta sit down," she said, tapping Bertie hard on the arm. Bertie jumped up, and Leona's big body fell into the chair.
"Oh, my God. A screen test."
"When?" Cee Cee asked.
"Well, he wants to see you again. Today. I'll call him now. I'll have him here right away. At three o'clock. Hollywood," said Jerry Grey.
Bertie wasn't sure, but she thought his eyes filled with tears.
"Some of my kids have been on Broadway . . . but Hollywood." He put his head in his hands and just sat there.
Bertie, Cee Cee, and Leona walked down the stairs and through the building.
"You start getting ready," Leona said. "I'll go get some sandwiches."
"C'mon, kid," Cee Cee said, taking Bertie's hand. Leona walked out of the building, and Cee Cee walked
with Bertie to a big brown door marked 'Backstage.' She pushed the door open, and cool darkness surrounded them as they walked inside.
Bertie looked up at the enormous fly gallery and the massive area beyond it that she figured must be the stage. She couldn't move. She had never seen anything like it before.
"Move it, kid," Cee Cee said, pulling Bertie's arm. "I gotta be in full dress, fa chrissake." They walked past the various colored flats and behind the vast black curtains to the dressing room. A small room with six mirrors, each surrounded by six bare light bulbs.
Cee Cee plopped herself down in a chair. There was a telegram stuck in the corner of her mirror. YOU MAY SING ABOUT YOUR MAMA BUT YOU'RE STILL MY GIRL-LOVE DADDY. Cee Cee opened what looked like a blue metal toolbox. It was filled with makeup. Bertie peeked inside. She gazed at the little round metal containers. Some had names on them. Clown white. Lip rouge. Some of them had only numbers.
Cee Cee pulled out a parrot green tube with a black cap and removed the cap. She turned on the mirror light and squeezed some of the contents of the tube onto her finger. A little blob on her forehead, one on each cheek, and one on her chin. Quickly she smoothed them out across her face until it was a creamy suntan color.
Bertie watched the way Cee Cee's tiny red-tipped hands dug into the blue metal chest, taking out first one little container and then another. Blue for her eyelids, red for her cheeks, a little white under the eyebrows, a different red for her lips, some black stuff in a tiny red box marked Maybelline that she applied to her eyelashes with an itty-bitty brush.
Bertie couldn't believe it. Cee Cee looked like a movie star.
The door opened and Leona came in carrying a paper bag.
"Anybody hungry? I'm starving," Leona said, rummaging through the bag, peeking in the waxed paper for her own sandwich.
Cee Cee didn't answer. Bertie wasn't hungry. Leona started eating.
"What time is it?" Cee Cee asked, getting up.
"Ten to three," Leona told her.
"Is Harry gonna be here?" Cee Cee asked. "Is he playin' for me?"
"I guess so," Leona said, getting up. "I'm sure Jerry'11 get him over here." She wiped her hands off on a napkin and started going through the rack of clothes that hung near the wall.
"Which one?" she asked.
"The red," Cee Cee said positively.
"Why the red?"
"It's what I wore last night. Sit down and eat, Leona. Bertie will help me."
"No, it's okay. I'll eat later!"