Sequence of Events (part thirteen)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sequence of Events

Chapter Two

Mud in Your Eye

 

 

 

 

Her second day’s education; her second day’s acquaintance with meatloaf for lunch.

“I make two at a time, I buy two pounds of ground beef. Marty likes a little pepper and tomato. Or you can leave that out. Old bread, two cups, tear it into chunks. Some people use crumbs, I don’t use crumbs. And onions.”

“Lovely,” Freda began.

Madolyn, from her corner of the Bruners’ dinette table, added: “You can make that for your husband.”

 

Freda thanked Martin for the advance on her wages of a Badgley’s Detective’s Field Notes…four by six inches this time, cover blank and clothbound, pages blank, two pencils tucked at the spine.

“Only a buck.”

Or six, by now. She had given back a day’s pay, plus. He had briefed her already on their theater date. She felt he did not want it mentioned in his mother’s hearing.

“How am I going about this?”

“Get the scene down. Boardman, the people around him. Conversation, if you’re where you can hear it. Try to be.”

“Gist,” she said. Unrewarded.

“Don’t write in the book so it’s obvious. Hightail it if someone comes after you. I’ll be right outside.”

“But will you come in? If he catches my arm…”

After a complicated sigh, Martin said, “Well. I will come in. But maybe first try…”

“Talking my way out of it? I’m to say the other girls egged me on.”

“Say you’ve been working over there. Name any show, they won’t send a telegram. You’re in the states now, you want…” A lost gesture.

What an actress wants, she finished for him. “To meet a man who can give me a boost. Especially a man with a prize.”

He looked at her, frowning. “Tell them you’re gaga for Boardman. I think a lot of the women are.”

“Oh?” She caught one of his newspaper clippings under a finger and dragged it free. Gaga was possible…here was a handsome man…

Odd.

“The door was just standing open,” Martin prompted.

“I didn’t happen to introduce you to my uncle, did I? Somehow it’s been so much, lately…”

“No. I only met one guy at your house.”

Silence hit them. The doorbell rang. Madolyn popped from the kitchen. “That’s Mrs. Merriman.”

“Good,” Martin said. “We can work over at her house.”

“You know.” His mother stopped. “She sees things. She sits in her living room and gets on the telephone. I’m opening that door, and you better stand up and be nice, and you better tell Mrs. Merriman who this lady is, and why you keep bringing her here.”

 

 

13

 

 

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Mud in Your Eye

Sequence of Events (part one)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Stephanie Foster, 2017, 2021, 2026)