Wizard of Oz saying, ‘I’ll get you, dearie, and your little dog, too,” only instead she was saying, “I’ll let you know.”
“Maybe I won’t send her to school,” Cee Cee said to Hal that night. “Maybe I’ll just keep her home and teach her everything I know.”
“That sounds great,” he said, “but what’s she going to do the next day?”
“Funny,” she said, poking him in the side as she sat down next to him on the piano bench.
“Why don’t you just put her into the neighborhood public school?” he asked.
“Now you sound like her,” Cee Cee said. “Because her life situation is special and she needs a special place. And I picked a co-op so I could be around her a lot and we could bond.”
“Yeah, right. I know that’s the big word in child-raising these days. Bond. When I was growing up it’s what everyone gave you as a gift for your bar mitzvah. When did your mother ever come to school?”
That was a funny thought. Cee Cee knew Leona only cared about her show business career, and didn’t ever give a damn about what was going on with her in school. Once when she was a teenager, she and some other kids had cut school and gone into town to see a Vincent Price movie, and when she got home at dinnertime to eat with Leona because as usual Nathan was working late, Leona asked her, “So what did you learn today?” Cee Cee, who knew her mother wasn’t listening anyway, had answered, “I learned that if you’re gonna have your molecules teleported, you better make sure there’s not a fly in the other
I’LL BE TttERE
67
booth, ‘cause if there is, you’re gonna come out looking very weird and so is the fly.” And without skipping a beat, Leona had said back, “Well, isn’t that interesting?” Then pushed a bowl filled with a mountain of buttered mashed potatoes in front of Cee Cee, spooned half the mountain on Cee Cee’s plate, and it wasn’t the first time she got the message that her mother never listened to a word she said. No, she would never be that kind of parent. The co-op would be the perfect place for Nina and for her.
But days went by and Barbara Gilbert didn’t return any of Cee Cee’s many calls to her, and neither for that matter did Larry Gold, and every time Cee Cee called his office the secretary told her he was in a meeting or on the other line or in New York or still at lunch, and he wasn’t rushing to call her back either. One day she got past his secretary and as far as his agent-in-training, Mel.
“Oh yeah. Hiya, Cee Cee. Listen, it’s a zoo here, and Larry’s been really snowed under, so is there something I can handle for you?”
You’ve got to be kidding, she thought. I’m not only getting the cold shoulder from this asshole, but now he’s passing me down to the kindergarten? “Yeah, there’s something you can do. Tell my agent I want to know what’s going on in my career.” I should hang up. I’m talking to a twelve-year-old here, she thought.
“Oh, hey. Not to worry. Because I know he’s got a whole long list on you right here. And you’re up for tons of stuff.”
“Like what?” The lying little cuff-snapping sack of shit.
“Let’s see, let me look. Ummm…”
She felt belittled and stupid. Here she was, waiting like a hungry
dog for some kid, fresh from the mail room, to throw her a bone. “There’s an offer out for you to do ‘Zone.’”
Zone. A movie. An offer to do a movie. Real interesting. The title
sounded as if it was science fiction.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“A feminine hygiene product,” Mel said, and Cee Cee laughed out loud, but while she was laughing she realized he wasn’t kidding. “But I think Larry told them you don’t do commercials. And then there’s a possible Love Boat, and they want you to be a presenter at the Daytime Emmys, and there’s a possible running part on Dallas… but I think they may be going a little younger.”
68
IRIS RAINER DART
Without
“Maybe I won’t send her to school,” Cee Cee said to Hal that night. “Maybe I’ll just keep her home and teach her everything I know.”
“That sounds great,” he said, “but what’s she going to do the next day?”
“Funny,” she said, poking him in the side as she sat down next to him on the piano bench.
“Why don’t you just put her into the neighborhood public school?” he asked.
“Now you sound like her,” Cee Cee said. “Because her life situation is special and she needs a special place. And I picked a co-op so I could be around her a lot and we could bond.”
“Yeah, right. I know that’s the big word in child-raising these days. Bond. When I was growing up it’s what everyone gave you as a gift for your bar mitzvah. When did your mother ever come to school?”
That was a funny thought. Cee Cee knew Leona only cared about her show business career, and didn’t ever give a damn about what was going on with her in school. Once when she was a teenager, she and some other kids had cut school and gone into town to see a Vincent Price movie, and when she got home at dinnertime to eat with Leona because as usual Nathan was working late, Leona asked her, “So what did you learn today?” Cee Cee, who knew her mother wasn’t listening anyway, had answered, “I learned that if you’re gonna have your molecules teleported, you better make sure there’s not a fly in the other
I’LL BE TttERE
67
booth, ‘cause if there is, you’re gonna come out looking very weird and so is the fly.” And without skipping a beat, Leona had said back, “Well, isn’t that interesting?” Then pushed a bowl filled with a mountain of buttered mashed potatoes in front of Cee Cee, spooned half the mountain on Cee Cee’s plate, and it wasn’t the first time she got the message that her mother never listened to a word she said. No, she would never be that kind of parent. The co-op would be the perfect place for Nina and for her.
But days went by and Barbara Gilbert didn’t return any of Cee Cee’s many calls to her, and neither for that matter did Larry Gold, and every time Cee Cee called his office the secretary told her he was in a meeting or on the other line or in New York or still at lunch, and he wasn’t rushing to call her back either. One day she got past his secretary and as far as his agent-in-training, Mel.
“Oh yeah. Hiya, Cee Cee. Listen, it’s a zoo here, and Larry’s been really snowed under, so is there something I can handle for you?”
You’ve got to be kidding, she thought. I’m not only getting the cold shoulder from this asshole, but now he’s passing me down to the kindergarten? “Yeah, there’s something you can do. Tell my agent I want to know what’s going on in my career.” I should hang up. I’m talking to a twelve-year-old here, she thought.
“Oh, hey. Not to worry. Because I know he’s got a whole long list on you right here. And you’re up for tons of stuff.”
“Like what?” The lying little cuff-snapping sack of shit.
“Let’s see, let me look. Ummm…”
She felt belittled and stupid. Here she was, waiting like a hungry
dog for some kid, fresh from the mail room, to throw her a bone. “There’s an offer out for you to do ‘Zone.’”
Zone. A movie. An offer to do a movie. Real interesting. The title
sounded as if it was science fiction.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“A feminine hygiene product,” Mel said, and Cee Cee laughed out loud, but while she was laughing she realized he wasn’t kidding. “But I think Larry told them you don’t do commercials. And then there’s a possible Love Boat, and they want you to be a presenter at the Daytime Emmys, and there’s a possible running part on Dallas… but I think they may be going a little younger.”
68
IRIS RAINER DART
Without
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