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LAS VEGAS

1954

Janet held the sleeveless, full-skirted dress up, and did a twirl in front of the wall of mirrors "What do you think?" she asked Cilla "The pink’s irl should be able to hite on her wedding day"

"You’ll look beautiful You’ll look beautiful and young, and so incredibly happy"

"I as I’m nineteen I’m a major movie star My record is nuain, and again, spun-gold hair flying in glea waves

Even in dreams, her sheer joy danced in the air, fluttered over Cilla’s skin

"I’m madly in love with the most wonderful, the most handsome man in the world I’ht thisti enough

"I should wear my hair up"

Janet tossed the dress onto the bed where the pink brocade suit already lay discarded "I look more mature with my hair up The studio never wants me to wear it up They don’t want irl next door, always the virgin"

Laughing, she began to fashion her sleek fall of hair into a French twist "I haven’t been a virgin since I was fifteen" Janet met Cilla’s eyes in the mirror And with the joy layered amusement, and a thin coat of disdain "Do you think the public cares if I have sex?"

"Soht And et the to help e s"

"Yes," Cilla " Standing in her white silk slip, Janet continued to place pins in her hair "Within the year I’ll be filing for divorce Then a brief reconciliation gets nant now, but I don’t know it Johnnie’s already started inside es today"

"You eloped to Vegas, married Frankie Bennett, as nearly ten years older than you"

"Vegas was my idea" Janet picked up a can of hair spray fro clouds of it "I wanted to stuff it down their throats, I guess Janet Hardy, and all the parts she plays, wouldn’t even know Vegas exists But here I a And no one knows but me and Frankie"

Cilla walked to the , looked out

A pool sparkled below, lush gardens flowing back fros were small and on the tacky side Colors faded, shapes blurred, like the old photographs Cilla supposed she’d pieced together to for like it will be, really Vegas, I mean"

"What is?"

"You’ll marry Bennett, and the studio will spin and spin to counteract the dae But there won’t be any, not really You look so spectacular together, and that’s aleous people in love And you’ll take on your first true adult role with Sarah Constantine in Heartsong You’ll be nominated for an Oscar"

"After Johnnie I have Johnnie before Heartsong Even Mrs Eisenhoill send a baby gift I cut back on the pills" She tapped the bottle on her dressing table before turning to lift the dress "I’m still able to do that, to cut down on the pills, the booze It’s easier when I’m happy, the way I am now"

"If you kneould happen? If you knew Frankie Bennett will cheat on you oamble away so much of your money, squander more If you knew he’d break your heart and that you’d attempt suicide for the first tih with it?"

Janet stepped into the dress "If I didn’t, where would you be?" She turned her back "Zip me up, will you?"

"You said, later, you’ll say that your in to the studio, and the studio tore the innocence out of you, piece by piece And that Frankie Bennett took those pieces and shredded them like confetti"

"The studio made me a star" She fastened pearls at her ears "I didn’t walk away I craved what they gave ave as left to hi, Cilla took the work in the next ten years My very best work And I’ll do soood work in the ten after that Well, nearly ten," she said with a laugh "But who’s counting? Maybe I needed to be in turmoil to reach my potential Who knows? Who cares?"

"I do"

With a soft smile, Janet turned to kiss Cilla’s cheek "I looked for love all of ave it too often, and too intensely Maybe if I hadn’t looked so hard, soiven it back to me The red belt!" She danced away to snatch a thick scarlet belt froht touch, and red’s Frankie’s favorite color He loves me in red"

She buckled it on, like a belt of blood, and stepped intoshoes "How do I look?"

"Perfect"

"I wish you could co to be me and Frankie, and the funny old justice of the peace and the woman who plays the spinet Frankie will leak it to the press without tellingout of the tacky little chapel gets into Photoplay Then the shit hits the fan" She laughed "What a ride"

And laughed, and laughed, so that Cilla heard the echoes of the laughter as she woke

BECAUSE SHE WANTED to let her thoughts simmer away from the noise and distractions, Cilla spent theout the dozens of boxes and trunks she’d hauled into the barn

Cilla had determined on her first pass that her ed whatever she deemed hile But Dilly had missed a few treasures She often did, to Cilla’s rab the shiniest object, she h

Like the old photo tucked in a book A very pregnant Janet plopped on a chaise by the pond, lossily handsome Rock Hudson Or the script for With Violets-Janet’s second Oscar nomination-buried in a trunk full of old blankets She found a little rand piano that played "Fur Elise" Inside, a little handwritten note read: Fro scrawl

By the end of a rainy afternoon, she had a pile designated for the Dumpster, and a small stack of boxes to keep

When she hauled out a load in a wheelbarrow, she found the rain had turned to fragile sunlight and her front yard full of people Ford and her landscaper stood on the wet grass laughing at each other, along with a ht windbreaker Crossing to the co trailed after hi out fros could tiptoe-up to the white dog, sniffed, then plopped down and exposed his belly in sub and Gutters gave her a nod of greeting "Had a job to check on down the road, and thought I’d stop on the way ho toreat"

"These are randsons, Jake and Lester" He winked at Cilla "They don’t bite"

"Good to know"

"Grandpa" The boy rolled his eyes "Lester’s , Spock buh them to claim Cilla’s hand It was a clear: Uh-uh, you owetoward therandson, smirked "Gun Don’t think you can fast-talk this lady into selling I’ve got the roof"

"How you doing, Hank? I’ up on my boy here"

"Cilla, this is ripped his father’s shoulder "Tom Morrow"

"He’s a slick one, Miz McGowan," Hank warned her with another wink "You watch out for hi this place, then put up a dozen houses"

"This acreage? No more than six" Toinia"

"Thanks You’re a builder?"

"I develop land, residential and commercial You’ve taken on quite a project here I’ve heard you hired soood people to work on it Present corin to Hank

"Before these two get going," Brian interrupted, "I’ve got so I wanted to drop off for you to look at Do you want a hand with that haul?"

Cilla shook her head "I’ve got it I’ht down frouess"

Brian lifted a dented toaster out of the wheelbarrow "People keep the das"

"I can attest"

"We cleaned out the attic whenbut broken dishes, and another dozen or roceries back thirty years, and God knows But you want to be careful sorting through, Miz McGowan Mixed all in there we found letters my daddy wrote her when he was in Korea She had every one of our report cards-there’s six of us kids- right through high school She never threw a blessed thing out, but there’re i to takeht, this used to be the McGowan farrandht it from old man McGowan, back around 1960 My father had his eye on this land, hoping to develop it He brooded for a ht it-then he decided she wouldn’t keep it above six months, and he’d snap it up cheap fro

"It’s a pretty spot," Toave his son a poke "See that youGood luck, Miss McGowan If you need any recoive et on, too" Hank pulled at the brirandsons home for supper"

"Grandpa"

"They’ll talk another twenty minutes," Brian commented when his father and Hank strolled toward the red pickup "But I really do have to get going" He handed Cilla a large manila envelope "Let ht want"

"I will, thanks"

After Brian tossed the toaster into the Duer at Ford "Later, Reh, Ford waved "Around and about, Picasso"

"Rembrandt?"

"Short story Wait Jesus" After she’d handed him the envelope and started to push the wheelbarrow up the Dued her aside "Flex yourhere holding paper and guys are around"

He shoved the envelope back at her, then rolled the wheelbarrow up to duot into a sex-parts-and-positions drawing contest We got busted passing sketches back and forth in study hall Earned us both a three-day pass"

"Pass to what?"

He looked down as he duular school"

"Tutors How old were you?"

"About fourteen I got my ears burned all the way horounded for teeks Teeks, and it was my first and last black mark in school Talk about harsh Hmm"

"I bet they still have theain "And future generations will find them in the attic"

"You think? Well, they did show considerable proo for a ride?"