A Stranger in the Mirror by Sidney Sheldon Read Free Book Online Page B

department-store window, and Josephine .^i.use-.i by the window even' day to stare at it. She wanted it rnr.i-e than she had ever wanted anything in her life. Josephine's mother would not let her enter the contest -- "Vanity is the devil's mirror,'' she said -- but one of the Oil
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    Women who liked Josephine paid for her picture. From that moment on, Josephine knew that the gold cup was hers. She could visualize it sitting on her dresser. She would polish it carefully every day. When Josephine found out that she was in the finals, she was too excited to go to school. She stayed in bed all day with an upset stomach, her happiness too much for her to bear. This would be the first time that she had owned anything beautiful. The following day Josephine learned that the contest had been won by Tina Hudson, one of the Oil Children. Tina was not nearly as beautiful as Josephine, but Tina's father happened to be on the board of directors of the chain that owned Brubaker's Department Store. When Josephine heard the news, she developed a headache that made her want to scream with pain. She was afraid for God to know how much that beautiful gold cup meant to her, but He must have known because her headaches continued. At night she would cry into her pillow, so that her mother could not hear her. A few days after the contest ended, Josephine was invited to Tina's home for a weekend. The gold cup was sitting in Tina's room on a mantel. Josephine stared at it for a long time. When Josephine returned home, the cup was hidden in her overnight case. It was still there when Tina's mother came by for it and took it back. Josephine's mother gave her a hard whipping with a switch made from a long, green twig. But Josephine was not angry with her mother. The few minutes Josephine had held the beautiful gold cup in her hands had been worth all the pain. Hollywood, California, in 1946, was the film capital of the world, a magnet for the talented, the greedy, the beautiful, the hopeful and the weird. It was the land of palm trees and Rita Hayworth and the Holy Temple of the Universal Spirit and Santa Anita. It was the agent who was going to make you an overnight star; it' was a con game, a whorehouse, an orange grove, a shrine. It was a magical kaleidoscope, and each person who looked into it saw his own vision. To Toby Temple, Hollywood was where he was meant to come. He arrived in town with an army duffel bag and three hundred dollars in cash, moving into a cheap boardinghouse on Cahuenga Boulevard. He had to get into action fast, before he went broke. Toby knew all about Hollywood. It was a town where you had to put up a front. Toby went into a haberdasher7 on Vine Strtet, ordered a new wardrobe, and with twenty dollars remaining in his pocket, strolled into the Hollywood Brown Derby, where all the stars dined. The walls were covered with caricatures of the most famous actors in Hollywood. Toby could feel the pulse of show business here, sense the power in die room. He saw The hostess walking toward him. She was a pretty redhead in her twenties and she had a sensational figure. She smiled at Toby and said, "Can I help you?" Toby could not resist it. He reached out 'with his two hands and grabbed her ripe melon breasts. A look of shpck came over her face. As she opened her mouth to cry out, Toby fixed his eyes in a glazed stare and said apologetically, "Excuse me, miss -- I'm not a sighted person." "Oh! I'm sorry!" She was contrite for what she had been thinking, and sympathetic. She conducted Toby to a table, holding his arm and helping him sit down, and arranged for his order. When she came back to his table a few minutes later and caught him studying the pictures on the wall, Toby beamed up at her and said, "It's a miracle! I can see again!" He was so innocent and so funny that she could not help laughing. She laughed all through dinner with Toby, and at his jokes in bed that night.
    Toby took odd jobs around Hollywood because they brought him