Part 4 (1/2)
I started typing out some dialogue, cackling merrily to myself. I didn't know if the dialogue was actually any good but I was having a ball writing it.
Everything was great until the telephone rang. It was Allison. She called to tell me that Amy was going to keep her there rehearsing until late that night so she wouldn't be able to see me. Maybe tomorrow.
Suddenly I didn't feel like writing any more. Nothing seemed very funny. I tried to read and couldn't keep my mind on the book so I went out for a walk.
There's a little park bordering the East River near where I lived. I sat down on a bench and gazed at the water. Light shone on the water from the hospital on City Island. The absurd little ferryboat chugged back and forth carrying hospital workers from and to the island.
Boy, did I feel rotten. Lower than a snake's garterbelt. I had been plenty depressed before but this was different. This was an alive pain where the other had been like a dead thing that dragged me down.
I didn't want to face it but I had to. I had thought that no one would ever mean anything to me again. And there I was sitting by myself looking at the river and being jealous. No use denying it to myselfa”I was in love with Allison Millay.
This time it was going to work out. It had to! I couldn't stand being hurt that way again. I'd fight with everything in me for Allison's love.
CHAPTER 5.
I don't know if Amy Ferguson was being clever or if the whole thing was the result of coincidence. All I know was that for the next week and a half, while I was supposed to be at the studio mornings, she kept me hopping. I had to walk her dog, do her shopping, bring her breakfast, pick up her costumes, etc. I couldn't say anything. It was all part of my job. I was Amy Ferguson's patsy as long as her own secretary wasn't there. Of course, Chris Salem never came to the studio. Amy had too much for her to do at home.
Allison and I waved to each other across the studio and talked on the telephone at night. That was all the contact we had. She couldn't stay out late nights because of early calls in the morning. Besides, many nights (too many) Amy called for special rehearsals.
In spite of everything, I didn't lose my awe of Amy Ferguson. She was still an extraordinarily charming and dynamic woman. And there was nothing I could pin on her. She hadn't done anything on the surface that was incriminating. I didn't know if she was being discreet or if my suspicions were right.
Marv Banner was back in town. He had completed an engagement in Chicago and was between jobs. By his own choice. Marv could have played lots of dates but he insisted on a two-week vacation. Happy was furious but he couldn't do anything. You can lead a comedian into a contract but you can't make him be funny when he doesn't want to work.
Marv hung around the office all the time. In the morning he would go around from Jack to Steve to Judy to Happy to me, getting in our way and interfering with our work but making us laugh so much we couldn't shoo him away. Afternoons he would go to a bar and return about five with a couple of females he had picked up in the bar. Between Marv's women and Happy's the office looked like a ladies' room in Port Said between five and six.
The shooting on the pilot was finished Friday. We had to wait two weeks for the film editor to release it for viewing.
Happy invited everybody on the production crew and the starring actors up to his house in the country for the weekend. Somehow Allison got invited too. She was the only bit player who was asked. Wonder who's idea that was?
Because Marv would have spent the weekend getting himself into trouble without Happy chaperoning him everywhere, he was invited too.
We got to Happy's place in time for c.o.c.ktails Friday night. I needed that drink. Allison was so near and yet so far. I couldn't even talk to her beyond making casual remarks that everyone else would hear. Besides, dear Amy made sure that Allison was with her every minute.
I did my best to drink myself into oblivion but I was an amateur at it. There were professionals in the crowd. By the time we went into dinner Marv and Happy were feeling no pain whatsoever.
Dinner was mostly liquid. The women drank wine with their meal but the men stuck to Scotch.
Dinner lasted three drunken hours. Marv kept everybody glued to the table with a long obscene monologue which even I in my misery had to admit was riotously funny.
After dinner I went to bed. I didn't want to hang around with that crowd any longer. It was agony to watch what was going on. Amy was turning on all her charm for Allison's benefit and Chris Salem was following the two of them around like a dyspeptic spaniel.
I was to share a room with Chris and Allison was sharing one with Judy. Wonder who arranged that? I undressed and got in bed. The noise from downstairs should have kept me awake but I had been drinking so much that I don't know whether I fell asleep or pa.s.sed out.
I couldn't have been asleep long when I was awakened by a knocking on the door.
”Chris?” I called.
The door opened. It was Marv Banner and Perry Matthews. They were so drunk they had to hang on to the door frame to keep upright.
”What do you want?” I asked with as much authority as I could summon up in my panic.
”We missed you at the party,” Marv said as he came into the room. He stood by the side of my bed and leered down at me. ”We came up to say h.e.l.lo.”
”h.e.l.lo. Now get out,” I said.
”She told us to get out,” Marv said to Perry. ”I don't think that's very friendly, do you, Perry?”
”Not very friendly at all,” Perry said. ”Girl should be friendly.”
”If you two don't get out of here this minute, I'll show you how unfriendly I can be,” I said.
”Marv, I don't like her att.i.tude. To h.e.l.l with her. Let's go get a drink,” Perry said. He dragged Marv out of the room.
As soon as they left Allison came in to say good night. She was a couple of sheets to the wind too.
”Lady, you're stoned,” I said.
”I know,” Allison said. ”That's why I came upstairs. The rest are still downstairs drinking. I'm played out. I'm going to sleep.”
”Wish we were sharing a room.”
”Me too. I've missed you, darling. Now that the pilot's finished we'll be able to see more of each other,” Allison said.
”Kiss me good night?”
Allison bent down and put her arms around me. Just as our lips were about to meet, Chris came into the room.
”Hi,” she said. ”I think you two had the right idea. I'm bushed. You know, the rest of those fools are still down there drinking like there's no tomorrow.”
She acted as if she hadn't thought there was anything peculiar about our position. Maybe she hadn't noticed. She looked pretty blind.
Allison left for her own room.
”Judy asked me to tell you to leave the door unlocked,” Chris called to her as she was leaving. ”She said to tell you she'll be extra quiet when she comes in so she won't wake you. She won't be up for a couple of hours at least, I'd guess. Judy's carrying on a mad flirtation with some guy down there.”
We went to sleep. I had a horrible dream in which I was being beaten up by some old woman who was amazingly strong. People were fighting all around us. I could hear them groaning in pain and thudding as they hit the floor.
Then I woke up. The noises weren't in my dream. They were coming from the room next door. Allison and Judy's room.
I jumped out of bed. Chris was sleeping the sleep of the besotted. I ran to Allison's room and knocked on the door. There was no answer. I tried the k.n.o.b. It was unlocked. I opened the door.
Marv Banner, Perry Matthews and the crew manager, Herb Talman, were in there. So was Allison. The men were even drunker than they had been before.
Perry was holding Allison by the arms from behind. Marv was in front of her. Herb was sitting on the bed watching and egging Marv on. They had her pajama top off and Marv was trying to remove the bottoms. Allison was kicking wildly but Marv was so drunk he didn't seem to feel the blows. Perry's hand over her mouth reduced her screams to faint moanings.
I rushed at Marv and tried to pull him off. With one sweep of his ma.s.sive arm he sent me careening into the bed and Herb's arms.