Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! (16 page)

He laughed. “No, I’m not a psychic. I play poker with Amsley every Friday and he likes to talk.”

As he hailed a cab for her, he said, “By the way, you don’t like to sail, by any chance, do you?”

“Sail? Oh, yes, I love to sail.” She caught herself again. “Well, actually, I’d love to try it.”

“Good, when the weather gets better, we’ll give you a call. We have a little place in Sag Harbor, maybe we can get you out for a weekend.” A cab stopped and he helped her in before he shut the door. “Oh, listen. On that contract thing. They’ve got two hundred thousand a year budgeted. Don’t let your agent settle for less. They won’t tell you but your popularity rating is through the roof. They’ll offer one. Hold out for four and settle for three. Amsley loves it when he thinks he might lose something, and when he hears we had lunch together, that ought to scare him at least a hundred thousand.”

He closed the door and handed the driver a ten-dollar bill. “Take this young lady where she wants to go for me, will you? And be careful, she’s valuable property.”

The driver beamed. “Yes, sir, Mr. Kingsley.”

As he drove off, he said, “Howard Kingsley, well, I’ll be damned.” He looked at her in the rearview mirror. “Last week I had Polly Bergen from
What’s My Line?
back there.”

“Really?”

He glanced at her in the mirror. “Yeah. And you look familiar; aren’t you somebody?”

“No, I’m just a friend of Mr. Kingsley’s.”

The driver shook his head. “Pretty nice friend to have.”

“You’re right.”

Dena sat back and thought about lunch. It was still hard for her to believe she had actually been with him and that he had talked to her and really cared. She was so glad that Howard had approved of
what she had done. But there was a part of her deep down that wondered if she really would have quit if it had meant her job.

She could not be sure. She could never be sure of how she really felt about anything. All she knew was that she had been lucky this time.

A week later Sandy called, excited. “Guess what, you got the contract!”

“Wow, great, Sandy.”

“I knew we could do it. And wait until you hear this—I had to work like the devil—but I finally got them up to two hundred a year and you should have heard what they started out with. Isn’t that great news?”

“Sandy, tell them I won’t do it for less than four hundred thousand.”

There was a long pause. “You
are
trying to kill me, aren’t you?”

Two weeks later, a battle-weary Sandy called. “All I could get them up to was three.”

“Fine,” Dena said. “I’ll take it.”

“Dena, I swear to God that if I die from heart failure, Bea and the kids are moving in with you.”

Dena was in the editing room working on the interview with Bella Abzug when her secretary buzzed and told her that she had a long-distance call from a Mrs. Sarah Jane Poole.

“Who’s that?”

“I don’t know but she says it’s urgent.”

“Well, please find out what she wants. I’m in the middle of something.”

Five seconds later her secretary buzzed again. “She says you know her, that she’s a close, personal friend. Mrs. Sarah Jane Poole?”

“Oh, Christ … I have no idea who that is. Put her through.”

An excited woman’s voice was on the other end. “Dena?”

“Yes, this is Dena Nordstrom.”

“It’s me!”

“Who?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten your old roomie, your college roommate, Sarah Jane Simmons Krackenberry from Selma, Alabama?”

“Sookie?”

“Yes!”

“Oh, for gosh sakes, why didn’t you say it was you? How could I forget you, crazy thing. How are you?”

“Fine!”

“Are you still busy fighting the Civil War?”

Sookie screamed with laughter. “Of course, honey—you know me, never say die!”

“How is Earle?”

“He’s fine. But I am mad at you.”

“Me? Why?”

“Why? My mother-in-law read where you were coming to Atlanta to get some big award and you didn’t even call and tell me you were coming.”

Dena was confused momentarily. “Award? Oh, you mean the AWRT thing.”

“Yes. Why didn’t you let me know? I want to see you while you’re here.”

“I thought you still lived in Alabama.”

“I do, silly, but I’m not going to let you get this close without getting a chance to see you.”

“How far away are you?”

Sookie laughed. “Dena, I know you think I live way out in the boonies, but we do have superhighways down here. I’m only a couple of hours from Atlanta. I could run over there and pick you up and bring you here for a couple of days and we could catch up on old times. Earle and I would love to have you. We haven’t seen each other in ages.”

“Oh, Sookie, that would be great. But unfortunately I’m only going to be there for one night, just for the dinner.”

“You can’t stay even for one day?”

“No, I really can’t. I’ve got to get back.”

“Can’t I see you at all? Maybe before the dinner or after?”

“I’m coming in and going straight to the dinner, and those things go on for hours. It could be one o’clock in the morning before I’d be free.”

“Well, what about the next day, then?”

“The next day I get right back on a plane.”

“What time?”

“Oh, I don’t remember, nine or ten, something like that.”

“Well, I’m coming anyway. I don’t care if I see you just for five minutes. I know you, Dena Nordstrom; if I don’t hog-tie you while you’re down here, who knows when I’ll ever see you. So, you’re not going to escape. We can at least have breakfast or a cup of coffee together, if nothing else.”

Dena was caught. “Well … I’ll probably be exhausted and—”

Sookie interrupted. “Listen, you, it’s not going to kill you to lose an hour’s sleep for an old friend. You can sleep on the plane. We’re both getting too long in the tooth not to see each other when we can.”

Dena had to laugh.

“You know, all you rich and famous people have to put up with people who knew them when, so you’re going to have to put up with me for life. That’s your cross to bear, honey. That’s what you get for being a star. Besides, can’t you get a later plane?”

“I would love to but I can’t. I have to tape some spots back here at five.”

“Well, all right, but I’m still coming. I need to lay my eyeballs on you in person. Anyhow, don’t you want to see me? I would think you would be pining away to see what I look like now that I’m old and feeble.”

She had to give in. “Oh, all right. I can see you’re not going to take no for an answer.”

“That’s right. Now, tell me where you are staying and I’ll come to wherever you are and we can meet there, OK?”

“OK, but I’m not in my office and I don’t know where they put me. I’ll have to call you and let you know where and what time.”

“Now, you better call me back because you’re not getting off the hook. I’m going to keep up with you whether you like it or not, Dena Gene Nordstrom!”

“All right. And Sookie …”

“Yes?”

“You are still the silliest girl I ever met.”

Sookie laughed. “Well, at least that’s something.”

When Dena hung up she had to smile. Of all the girls she had been in school with, Sookie had been her closest friend, so maybe it might not be so bad. It could even be fun.

A week later, after Dena had given her speech, she did not get to sleep until 3:00
A.M
. When her wake-up call came the next morning, she had to drag herself out of bed. What had sounded like fun a week ago now felt like sheer drudgery. What had possessed her to set up a breakfast date with Sookie? As she showered she thought the only consolation was that at least she would not have to do much of anything but listen because Sookie would do all the talking. She packed, threw her raincoat on over a pair of slacks and a sweater, and went downstairs.

Walking into the coffee shop, she immediately saw Sookie over in the corner, waving madly. Dena would have known her anywhere. She had on a neat cotton shirtwaist dress and still wore her short red hair in bangs, exactly as she had in college. She looked like she had dressed in a time warp. Sookie stood up and ran over and hugged her and jumped up and down, and squealed like a teenager. “Oh, Dena … I am
so
excited! I’m so glad to see you, oh, sit down and let me look at you. I’m so nervous, I’m about to have an epileptic fit. Here you are in person, and I hate to say it, but you still look the same, same gorgeous pale skin, absolutely glamorous!” They sat down.

“Take those dark glasses off,” Sookie said, “and let me scrutinize you good.”

As tired as she was, Dena found that she was glad to see Sookie, who still had the personality of a game show contestant and her enthusiasm was hard not to get caught up in. Dena removed her sunglasses. Sookie squinted at her and then sat back in mock disgust.

“Well, I just knew it! Not a stitch of makeup … and here I have to slap on enough makeup to paint a battleship just to look decent and there you sit, gorgeous and as young-looking as ever. I was hoping to see at least one or two crow’s-feet, but no.” She leaned in. “Look at me, honey, I’m getting new crow’s-feet right in front of your eyes. Earle says they’re laugh lines—of course he’s blind as a bat. Marry a nearsighted man and you’ll never look old.”

“Sookie, you look great.”

“I do? Well, I’m just an old married woman, with children now. My youth is a thing of the past, gone with the wind.”

Dena laughed. “Oh, stop it. You don’t look a day older than the last time I saw you. Now, tell me what’s going on with you.”

“Nothing, same old stuff, raising my kids, you know, nothing. But forget about me, you’re the one with the exciting life. I still can’t believe you’re here. Do you know how long it’s been?”

“No.”

“Well, I’m not even going to tell you. But I want to hear about everything; tell me about the dinner last night. Weren’t you just thrilled with your award? What an honor. Was dinner wonderful?”

Dena dismissed it. “It was all right as those things go.”

“Didn’t they give you some big award?”

“No, it was just a plaque.”

“Oh,” Sookie said, taken aback. “Well, I’d be thrilled if someone gave me an award and wanted me to speak.”

“No, you wouldn’t. Not after a while.”

“Yes, I would, honey, I’d take any award they handed me and run like a thief!”

“I tell you what,” Dena said, smiling, “next one I get I’m going to put a blond wig on you and send you. Come on, let’s don’t talk about me, you know what I’ve been up to; tell me about yourself.”

“Me? Like I said, everything’s the same. We moved out of Earle’s mother’s old house downtown and moved out to this cute
little house in the suburbs and we love it, and I do some work in the community, you know, all that stuff.”

The waitress came up to the table. Dena ordered coffee but Sookie told the waitress, “I don’t want anything with caffeine, I’m so nervous now I’m about to faint. Dena, what time is it?”

Dena assured her that they still had some time before she had to leave. “OK,” Sookie said, “bring me some Sanka, iced!”

“How many children do you have?”

“Honey, I’ve had two more since the last time I saw you. I’m like the old woman in the shoe—so many children I don’t know what to do. I have three now, can you believe it, three little girls, Ce Ce, Dee Dee, and Le Le.” Sookie whipped out a photograph of herself and three little miniature Sookies, bangs and all. “I wanted to bring all the albums to show you but Earle wouldn’t let me.”

“They are very pretty.”

Sookie beamed. “I think so but I’m their mother. But Earle is beside himself; he thinks all three are going to grow up and become Miss Alabama. Of course, we’re going to have to get their ears fixed before they start dating.”

“What?”

“You can’t see there, but unfortunately all three have the Poole ears. You remember how Earle’s ears stick out. Daddy said at first that he looked like a taxicab with both back doors open. Anyway, thank heavens they’re girls so I can just puff their little hair over them.”

Dena looked at the photo again. “Sookie, are those mother-and-daughter dresses?”

“Yes, and don’t you make fun. I know it’s corny, but Earle’s running for city council and he thought it was cute—for the poster and all.”

“Oh, no, don’t tell me Earle is going into politics.”

“Oh, yes. He says it’s good for business. Besides, he’s very civic-minded. You can keep that picture, we have hundreds of them.”

“Thanks. What about
you
, Sookie? Are you still busy trying to be Miss Popularity? You ran for every office on campus, I remember that.”

“Now, you’re not going to remind me of how silly I used to be. Honey, what did I know? When I hit SMU, I was straight out of Selma. Besides, that’s not my fault. You remember Mother.”

“Oh, yes, Lenore the Magnificent. How is she?”

Sookie rolled her eyes. “Unfortunately, fine, still terrorizing everybody within a hundred miles. Anyway, it was all her fault. She said I had to make all
A
’s or else be popular. She said if you can’t be smart, be bubbly … and Lord knows I bubbled.”