The Woman Who Fell From Grace by David Handler Read Free Book Online Page A

you?” I asked.
    “No, I’m sitting up with Elliot.”
    “Something serious?”
    “I don’t know, darling. He simply wouldn’t touch his food all day.”
    “Maybe he just wasn’t hungry, Merilee.”
    “Hoagy, pigs are always hungry. No, I’m afraid Elliot’s not himself, the poor dear.”
    She had named him after her first agent. And people say there’s no sentiment in show business.
    “Call me old-fashioned, Merilee, but I still don’t believe in giving a name to someone you intend to eat.”
    “Mr. Hoagy! How could you be such a-a barbarian !”
    “Merilee … ”
    “Elliot happens to be a member of this household, sir! And he’s certainly more of a gentleman than you’ll ever be.”
    “Merilee … ”
    “What!”
    “Hello.”
    “Hello yourself. Did you find out yet?”
    “Find out what?”
    “Who Vangie marries at the end of Oh , Shenandoah , silly.”
    “Not yet. Do you really care?”
    “Are you serious? I’ve only read that book eight times and wept uncontrollably every single time. And the movie, merciful heavens … Now listen, Hoagy, when you do find out, don’t tell me who it is. I’m serious. I’m such a blabbermouth I’ll spread it all over town and get you in deep doo-doo.”
    “Okay,” I said.
    Stunned silence. “What did you say?” she demanded.
    “I said okay.”
    “ Mister Hoagy!”
    “Just agreeing with you, Merilee.”
    “I’m not so sure we can be friends anymore.”
    “Is that what we are?”
    “How’s sweetness?” she asked, neatly slipping my jab.
    Lulu whimpered from next to me on the bed. She always knows when her mommy is on the phone. Don’t ask me how.
    “Her usual obnoxious self. Have you called the vet about Elliot?”
    “Not yet. I don’t want to be one of those overprotective city slickers who they all hoot at. I will if he isn’t better in a day or two.”
    “Well, look on the bright side.”
    “Which is … ?”
    “He could stand to take off a few hundred pounds.”
    “Very funny.”
    “What do you remember hearing about the filming of Oh , Shenandoah ?”
    Merilee is a big fan of show-biz gossip, as long as it isn’t to do with her, of course. She often befriends elderly fellow cast members and eagerly soaks up their reminiscences of Hollywood’s golden age.
    “Way over budget,” she replied. “Tons of pissy fits, bad weather, last-minute rewrites. First two directors got fired by Goldwyn in preproduction before Wyler finally took it over … Or are you more interested in who was doing the big, bad naughty with who?”
    “I’ve missed your quaint little expressions.”
    “It seems to me,” she recalled, “it was one of those shoots where everyone was hopping into the feathers with everyone else. Of course, that always happens on location, particularly with a love story.”
    “Why is that?”
    “We can’t tell the difference between real and make-believe, darling. That’s what makes us actors.”
    “Which am I?”
    “I like to think of you as a bit of both.”
    “Why, Merilee, that’s the second-nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
    “What was the nicest?”
    “ ‘You’re not the sort of man who I can see wearing anything polyester.’ ”
    “As I recall,” she said, “neither of us was wearing anything, period, at the time.”
    “Merilee Nash! You’ve been getting seriously ribald since you started hanging around with farm animals.”
    “So that explains it.”
    “Anything about Sterling Sloan?”
    “Well, he died.”
    “I know that. I was wondering if there was any chance it didn’t happen the way they say it did.”
    She was silent a moment. “Oh, no, Hoagy … You’re not getting into something weird again, are you?”
    “No chance. Housekeeper here just has some crazy idea.”
    “I certainly don’t remember hearing anything.” She mulled it over. “I’m skeptical, frankly. Oh , Shenandoah has commanded so much attention through the years. If there’d been even a hint of scandal about