Sequence of Events (part sixteen)

Sequence of Events

Chapter Two

Mud in Your Eye

“Listen, Van Nest.”

Boardman fished in a trouser pocket, made a business of unfolding a clipping from his wallet, leaning to smooth it once, twice—

“This latest effort is something of a diamond in the rough, trading on allegory to whip tepid verbal traffickings into a species of meringue.”

He raised an eyebrow at Van Nest, who commented, “That’s Mr. Planter’s review.”

“When we speak of meringue.” Extending a finger, Boardman found his place. “Here in act one, we find ourselves shanghaied, as it were; here we endure characters and dialogue, but Mr. Boardman will not disclose to us his reasons for making them.”

“Well, Louis.” Harvey’s voice drifted across. “I suppose you’ll stick now to your strong suit. And you know, it’s been ages since I’ve really liked a musical…”

Rica Bullard wrote a locally famous, caustic column, found on the Herald’s Sunday variety page.

Contrary to the opinions of certain pedants, the movies have plots, as do rows of cabbage. Why, I once asked Mr. Seymour (as we two scenarioized together…a true H’wood coinage, that…), does the heroine not pull a faint, when the villain drags her to the cliff’s edge, and then catch him by the legs? Why is the movie heroine wily in matters of seduction, yet stupid when her life is at stake?

Freda could presume Louis Guion as well, and on the same evidence of eavesdropping, Harvey Planter. She thought the man eliciting the peevish frown, now frozen on Boardman’s brow, either a reporter or society gadfly.

“Think,” said this guest, “of something that makes you happy.”

“Nothing makes me happy. Well, I’ll amend that. But I’ve been warned you never shut up.”

Boardman squinted across at Freda, making her heart thump. She had just accepted a drink from a waiter’s tray, her resolve screwed shy of the sticking place. Her quarry was making eye contact, and with a split second to choose, she didn’t know whether to stare back boldly, or let her gaze drift in an absent way…

Either challenge might make her too memorable. And Boardman, after all, had wanted only the waiter’s attention.

“Drinking makes you happy, liar,” Miss Bullard said. “I believe you’re helping Van Nest prove his point.”

16

Mud in Your Eye

Sequence of Events (part one)

(Stephanie Foster, 2017, 2021, 2026)