Ameera, Unveiled (41 page)

The waitress slipped a Diet Coke on the table. I stripped paper from the straw, inserted the straw in the soda, and took a long sip before I replied. “When your boss came back to work on Thursday, he realized he had a thirty-minute slot available at Grand Lido,” I said. “After Sybil met with him, they felt it would be a good place to work out bugs for the benefit of a possible Hedo show.”

Jennifer swirled her scrambled eggs in ketchup with lovely henna hands, giving me a sign of approval by raising her eyebrow ever so slowly.

Rich shifted focus between us. He fiddled with the straw paper wadded up by my sweating Diet Coke, stalling, calculating.

“I can move some stuff around and give you twenty minutes tonight.” Rich slid the invisible offer across the rippled glass-top table.

Jennifer was eager to dance and I worried she’d agree too soon.

I jumped in. “Seriously?” I asked, looking puzzled. “With that time slot, and as anxious as we are to perform, your guests will only get about four dances. As you know, there’re pounds of glittery costumes, and the changes will require some shuffling. An hour would be much better. The Hedo students have been begging for a show.”

I paused to let Rich figure out the rest.

“Okay, I can give you forty-five minutes,” he conceded. But I knew the 7:00 p.m. slot was always an hour and was confident our mingling with the class attendees, nightly theme guests, and disco guests warranted more than just thirty- to forty-five minutes. I slid the sixty-minute card back at Rich again—informing him how much it would mean to his return guests who’d been enjoying our class.

“It better be good. I’ve gotta cut my staff’s show for you,” Rich challenged, pointing a finger at Jennifer and me.

Shifting my focus from Rich to Jennifer, then from Jennifer to Rich, I represented Palmetto troupe’s best interest with an extended hand and said, “You won’t be disappointed. This’ll be one of the best additions you’ve given the guests. They’ll sing your praises.”

It sounded like a purr, but I think my velvet-covered paw actually snagged him by the tail.

“I think you’ll be given credit for a very fresh and pretty performance,” Jennifer added.

A softer, but skeptical Rich excused himself from the negotiations. Jennifer and I giggled over our cold eggs, then rushed to Prude beach for the daily gathering before our 1:30 p.m. class. We couldn’t wait to tell the tribe.

“Let’s tell them in the round-robin,” Jennifer proposed. “We’ve got so much to nail down. I’m gonna suggest we throw in a skit with the students.”

I smiled. I’d just graduated from participating as a student to pulling my own weight. My professionally honed skill had just merged with my surreal dance world. I felt empowered by the successful negotiation but suddenly realized it meant facing another performance.

What’ve I done?

“My lips are sealed,” I said. “I’ll meet you down there.”

The walk to the beach seemed to take forever. I threw my stuff on a chair near Lara and pulled out sunscreen. I saw several girls already floating with Sybil. They waved me in to join them. Waving back, I knew I had to take my time with the sunscreen so Jennifer could catch up. The idea of dancing tonight didn’t excite me. What excited me was the thrill of the hunt for the show.

“Where’s Jenn?” Lara asked, shading her eyes from the morning sun.

I suppressed the gleam wanting to peek through my eyes. “She sat with me till I finished breakfast,” I said—which was true.

I looked at the girls chatting and laughing with Sybil. Denise caught me looking and waved harder to encourage me to join them. “Hey, Jennifer,” I said as she walked up. “I was telling Lara that I appreciated you waiting on me to finish breakfast.”

“No, problem,” she said. It was normal for her to be wearing a big crescent grin, but she was glowing. We needed to release the news before she burst.

“I’m gonna see what’s going on out there,” I said. “Anyone else?” Lara shrugged and stood to grab a float. We grabbed ours as well and headed into the water. I overheard Polly telling them about her souvenir shopping.

“Hello, ladies,” Sybil greeted us. Her cheerful voice and never-ending optimism in the midst of problem resolution relaxed me.

“Hey, Sybil,” Jennifer and Lara said in unison. Sybil looked at Jennifer and cocked her head. She briefly looked at Lara and stared at me, raising an eyebrow.

“Why’re you glowing, girl?” Sybil asked Jennifer. “Hear from Massi? You and Kat know something you need to share?”

I really thought I had suppressed the glee in my eyes. Sybil knew I didn’t have this look when it was about performing. “Don’t be holding out on some good gossip!” Sybil urged.

The circle stared at us. I looked at Jennifer and she stared at me.

“You tell ’em,” I said. It was as if I’d opened the starting gate for a racehorse.

“We’ve got a show!” Jennifer shouted. I could picture Jennifer announcing on the plane that everyone would die.

“Get out!” Kelly said, her big blue eyes wide and flitting between Jennifer and me. “Are you serious? Don’t pull our legs like that, Jenn.”

“When?” Sybil asked. “Tonight? After dinner?” Suddenly, the whole group threw questions at us and demanded details. Everyone grew quiet as Sybil shushed them.

“Kat and I were discussing last night as we finished breakfast,” Jennifer began. “Out of the blue, Rich appears and plops down at our table. He immediately questions our motives for dancing at Grand Lido and wants to know why we didn’t run it by him.”

“We’ve been available to him all week,” Ruth protested.

“That’s what we said,” Jennifer said. “FYI . . . if you ever want to debate something with Kat, don’t! She played that man like a cat with a mouse. He started out like the enemy and, by the end, Kat had him eating out of her hand.”

“Slight exaggeration,” I said. “He was curious to see what his guests and staff were buzzing about. He’s canceled the normal Friday night show and we’ve got the seven to eight time slot.”

The circle erupted in cheers and zaghareets.

“We just need to work out the changing area, stage entrance, and other details,” Jennifer said. “I think it’d be fun to add a small skit involving our students.”

“We could use the veil lesson that made a Maypole-type formation,” Melody suggested. “We could do it to ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ and get a guy to be the genie in the center.”

The circle chattered about all the possibilities.

“I think we should make one more run through the Nude side before lunch and announce it as well,” Sybil said. “In fact, I’ll go with the group this time.”

Somehow, that was a funny visual. I pictured her big, dimpled smile directing her attention to their eyes and maintaining a well-honed deportment with a queenly wave.

“I’ll go again,” Polly volunteered. Jennifer and Kelly also volunteered. I’d no problem waiting by the pool for the scouting party to return.

“Okay, ladies,” Sybil said. “We’re gonna show Hedo what a class act we are. I’ll get with the manager on the details. We’ll get the ladies ready during class. Make sure you’ve had a snack before show time. I don’t want anyone passing out or being cranky!”

“Man, we’re gonna miss lobster night!” Denise moaned.

“I’ll give up lobster for a one-hour show,” Lara said.

I was calculating the possibility of approaching Rich with a special request to hold a few lobster tails in the kitchen for us to consume after the show. Maybe his guard was down since our business meeting.

“Sybil, I just wanted to let you know something,” I said. Everyone stared at me. “If Jennifer and I hadn’t known about the things you’d done behind the scenes or conversations you’d had with the general manager, we couldn’t have negotiated with Rich. Thank you for keeping us in the loop.” Everyone clapped for Sybil.

“Thanks, but we’re a team,” Sybil said. “Not to the change subjects . . . but I’ve got to tell you something that happened to me this morning.” Ruth’s giggle suggested she was in the know. “I’ve noticed, as we’re getting nearer to the end of the trip, it’s been harder and harder to get towels for our room.”

“I was just saying that to Kat,” Polly said.

“When I went back to the room this morning to change, I scurried up our path and kept trying to swipe my key. I couldn’t get in. Fortunately, the maid was at the room beside ours and I told her my key wouldn’t work, so she was kind enough to open the door for me. I shut it before I realized . . . I wasn’t in my room.

“There were adult toys and gadgets everywhere,” she continued. “I could hear the maid outside and knew I didn’t want to embarrass myself or her that I was in the wrong room. But I was getting nervous about someone coming back. I hid in the bathroom. It seemed like forever until I heard her cart leave the path. While I was standing there by the bathroom door, trying to plan my exit, I noticed the maid had left a bunch of clean towels. So I grabbed some for us and snuck out to find my room!” Sybil’s own amusement at her secret stealth mission sent her into uncontrollable laughter.

As our amusement subsided, Sybil made a move to leave the circle and Ruth followed. “Ladies, I’m gonna tie up some loose ends.”

“I’m ready to get a little sun,” I said. Lara gave me a thumbs-up. The group gradually broke apart and settled into chairs.

As I nestled into my chair, Polly sat beside me. “Okay about tonight?”

I nodded. “I was so comfortable in the role of my old career,” I said. “Now, I just hope the audience doesn’t walk out.”

“At least we got two shows,” Polly said, still upbeat. “We can return and say we represented the troupe the best Jamaica would let us.”

I leaned back and closed my eyes. The sun felt good on my wet suit.

“Y’know, I think last night’s taken a lot of the edge off performing here,” I said. “Maybe I’ll even try false eyelashes.”

“If you need help with them, I should be able to fit you in,” Polly said.

“Thanks,” I said, drifting off to think about where I was five years ago at this time.

It was November 9, 2002, and my daughter was helping me prepare for a bridal luncheon. I was getting married at 5:00 p.m. Little did my husband realize that part of his vows would include supporting a wife running off to a clothing optional resort in Jamaica to dance.

33

Denise, Lara, and I sat in the main dining room at our regular table waiting for the Nude patrol to return from their live commercial project. Since the morning negotiation, I felt a little more valued as a troupe member. I felt a confidence I hadn’t felt before. I poked at my tuna salad and tomato wedges while we waited for the rest of the troupe.

“If the fitness center’s over there, the only way we can get on stage is from behind the tiled wall on the left,” Denise observed.

We looked to the right and saw the soundman’s workstation. It wasn’t an aesthetic entry point.

“So there’re two steps to negotiate to get to stage level,” I said. “I wonder how slippery the wooden floor is. I think they were using candle wax on one of the lunch spins the other day.”

“I don’t think there’s a bad view from any side of the dining room,” Denise said. “We might not know if it’s gonna be slippery till tonight. We’ll have to decide to dance barefoot or in shoes at the last minute.”

Within fifteen minutes, the Nude Bod Squad migrated in with lunches in hand.

“How’d it go?”

“Good,” Kelly said. “They knew who we were this time and got really excited about our show tonight.”

“What do you think?” Denise asked Sybil.

Sybil looked up and connected with Kelly’s gaze. “It’s what it is over there,” she answered. “There’re a lot of nudists just sunning. We were very well received.”

“We looked at their eyes at all costs,” Polly assured us.

“We’ve been checking out the layout of the stage,” Denise said. “There’s only one viable entrance and exit.” She pointed at the steps near the glass-block wall.

Everyone nodded agreement.

Sybil looked at a clock on the wall. “We’ve only got a few minutes before class. It took longer to get off the Nude beach than I thought it would.”

“Where’re we meeting to set up costumes?” Lara asked.

“Rich instructed the staff to put brown paper on the fitness windows,” Sybil said, “so I want everyone in the fitness center by 6:30 p.m. in your cover-ups. Have zills and drums with you. I think we’ll go to the lobby and enter the stage area as a processional.”

“I like that,” Jennifer said. “I’ll be sure to get with the soundman and let him know to announce us while we’re waiting in the lobby.”

Denise grabbed my arm. “Kat, walk with me.” Kelly followed us. As we got to the glass-block wall, we saw the spot was perfect for stage entry. I could barely see through the glass wall. I looked down the sidewalk for a clue on the time needed to make it to the stage.

“Looks like it’s about the same distance to the stage from our hole in Grand Lido,” I said, sounding like a seasoned veteran. Denise and Kelly nodded agreement.

Class was buzzing with news of our show. “As some of you’ve heard, we’re doing a show tonight at seven,” Jennifer said. The room filled with applause and zaghareets. “Palmetto Oasis would like to give our students a chance to participate.”