Beaches by Iris Rainer Dart Read Free Book Online

about going to the beach at Ship Bottom, one town away from Beach Haven, probably to cry her eyes out, and maybe she would bring Bertie along!!!!
    Christ, it would be weird to see Bertie, after all those years of just looking at those dumb school pictures she sent in her letters, with her hair in that God-awful ponytail.
    A voice downstairs yelled, “Car leaving for the theater.”
    Cee Cee tried to relax. She wouldn’t be afraid. She’d act real strong. John Perry would like that. He’d probably tell the others how great her audition had been and give her a starring part right away. She folded her yellow
    leotard, placed it neatly into the drawer, and headed for the stairs.
    The cars pulled up outside the theater at noon and John Perry smiled to himself. It was like watching children on their first day of school. Everyone nervously looking everyone else over, checking out the group to see how he or she fit in. The doors opened and the new company piled out and filed past him.
    “Hiya, Mr. Perry.”
    “Wow, look at this place.”
    As each one walked into the theater, Perry remembered their respective auditions. The wrong notes, the trembling, the falls in the middle of difficult combinations, the ecstasy when he had told them they’d been chosen. His eyes followed the two little dancers, Annie and Kaye, as they walked together, already friends, and both avoided his look. Richie Day, the boy dancer, had been befriended by Moro Rollins, that old queen singer. Rollins had a good voice and had worked for Perry in two industrials. He could easily handle the Ezio Pinza role if they did South Pacific. Perry would overlook the way Rollins seduced the boys unless Rollins tried touching the boys at the company parties. The locals were always at those parties, and they would never understand.
    “Hiya, Mr. Perry.”
    It was Cee Cee Bloom.
    “Place looks like a goddamned airplane hangar,” she said.
    Perry had to laugh. The theater actually had been a warehouse before he bought it, the curved metal roof that held the heat and drove the dancers rehearsing in the afternoon to take salt pills made it look exactly like an airplane hangar.
    “Welcome, Cee Cee,” he said. “Did you get all settled at the house?” Why hadn’t he noticed her body at the audition? Maybe because when she sang she was all face
    and hands, with those long red fingernails. But now, in that burgundy leotard with the wrap skirt and mesh stockings . . .
    “Yeah. What a dive!” she said, grinning. “You got some nerve packin’ ten of us in those two attic cells. Boy, if I didn’t need to sing so bad, I’d tell you to shove it, pal.”
    The audacity! He loved her. The others would never have had the balls.
    “Let’s go inside.”
    The theater was cool, and the house lights were on. Cee Gee sat in the last row away from the others and lit a cigarette despite the four rather large NO SMOKING signs, one of which was hanging right next to where she sat. Perry took a folding chair and sat in the center of the small three-quarter thrust stage. He had given this speech so often that it bored him, but . . .
    “Welcome to the Sunshine. I hope you’re all settled in your accommodations at the house. For those of you who haven’t forgotten, I’m John Perry. For those of you who have forgotten, you’re fired.” Beat. Laugh. “I own and operate this place. I produce and direct the shows. I make the policy here and I decide on the casting. If you have any problems, come to me. Don’t bitch and moan among yourselves.
    “This is a repertory company. That means one week you may have a lead in a show and the next week you may have a lowly chorus part, but I expect the same enthusiasm, punctuality, and professionalism from you no matter what your standing in the cast is.
    “Marilyn Loughlin is my choreographer. She is also the assistant manager here and she runs the cast house. The rules are-beds made daily, personal areas kept clean. Every Saturday morning