The Hamlet Trap by Kate Wilhelm Read Free Book Online

coming up, don’t you?”
    She nodded, her mouth full.
    â€œWill you save some time for me? I want to be with you as much as you can stand these next weeks. I feel as if my time is running out. If I can’t get my message over soon…”
    Solemnly she nodded, but she knew there would not be many free hours after the next week or so. As soon as the plays were chosen for the new season, she would have her work—preliminary sketches for the sets, finished drawings, models, detailed drawings for William to work with, overseeing the lighting, meetings, meetings…
    Peter studied her face, then he kissed her lightly and turned on the ignition. “You can finish eating while I drive. I’ll cook the mushrooms when we get back. Do you realize that you hiked about eight miles today? I expect that any second now you’ll start feeling it.”

SIX
    Her real name, Sunshine said, was Elinor Shumaker, but she had changed it in the sixties, seventies, sometime. She was a shapeless woman of thirty-five in a long plaid skirt with a petticoat showing, hiking boots, a padded jacket over a sweater over a man’s plaid shirt. Her eyes were gentle and vague, pale blue, her hair vaguely blond. She carried a large quilted shopping bag with rope handles; it bulged and clunked when she put it down, rattled and clinked when she picked it up.
    Laura glanced at Gray. What were they supposed to do with her? Sunshine had called from the bus station half an hour ago; she had arrived, she said, and hung up.
    â€œDo you want some coffee or something?” Gray asked, taking the shopping bag from her.
    â€œI don’t drink coffee,” she said softly. “Caffeine’s really bad for you, you know?”
    â€œUh, yeah, I guess so. Look, Sunshine, do you have any place to go? Why are you here? I told you we’d mail the check.”
    She smiled gently. “I thought it’d be neat to watch a play going into production, might even try out for a part or something, you know? I’ll find a room or something. And you said we have to rewrite it and I thought I should be here for that, you know?”
    â€œWe’d better call Ro, or Ginnie,” Laura said, her voice grim. “We’re strangers here, too,” she said to the woman. “We don’t have a clue about where to tell you to look for a place to stay.”
    â€œI’ll get by,” Sunshine said, not moving.
    â€œI’ll give Ro a call,” Gray said in desperation. He left Laura with Sunshine and made the call; in a few minutes Juanita appeared.
    â€œSo you’re Sunshine,” she said without surprise. “Well, come along. There’s an apartment building where they take in actors all the time, by the week, month, year, whatever you want. How much can you afford to pay?”
    Sunshine smiled at her. “Hundred a month, I guess. More if I have to. But no smokers or drinkers.” She turned back to Gray and Laura. “Will we be working in your office or something? I don’t have a typewriter, you know?”
    â€œWe’ll work something out,” he said. Sunshine left with Juanita, still smiling, her bag clinking and rattling.
    Silently Laura and Gray returned to her car. She got behind the wheel. When they were both settled she said, “She is not to set one foot in our house! You know?”
    â€œChrist,” he muttered. “Holy Christ! She’s stoned out of her skull.”
    Laura started to drive. Tightly she asked, “Gray, what exactly am I supposed to do here? You’re busy and you’ll be busier, but what is there for me to do?” There were no jobs in Ashland, she had learned already.
    â€œCan’t you just relax for a few months?”
    â€œDoing what? There’s nothing here! Don’t you understand? I’m in someone else’s house with nothing to do and no one to talk to and nowhere to go.”
    â€œWe’ve been here less than a