Entering Normal
Page 32
The handicap to my goal was my looks. To tell you the truth, I resemble my daddy a lot more than my mama. For sure, I would never be confused for any famous actress. Except maybe Jodie Foster if she were a little plainer and her jaw a little bigger. Talent will take you so far, but Hollywood wants more. To be taken seriously, you must be beautiful. You might argue that there are plenty of actresses out there who aren’t Miss America material, or Miss Amherst County for that matter, but—even if they do win an acting award—you’ll notice they don’t get their picture in People . Character actors, they call them, which is about the worst thing you can say. Like they are a cartoon or something. I had no intention of ending up like that.
This is where my mama would have come in handy. I know if she could have taken me in hand, a transformation would be easy. Without Mama, Glamour Day was my best shot. It was my ticket out of Eden. My pass to L.A.
I already had my name picked out. (Most actresses change their name, a fact you may not know. According to Mama, Carole Lombard— the actress who married Clark Gable who played Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind—well, she was born Jane Alice Peters. You can see how Carole Lombard was a big improvement.) My movie name was going to be Taylor Skye. Taylor for Mama’s daddy. Skye for Mama. On account of her always saying that the sky’s the limit, a philosophy she passed on to me. For pure fact, my personal limit was not going to be Eden. Or the Klip-N-Kurl.
Twenty bucks was a dog-cheap price to pay for a dream, and I had two weeks to come up with the cash. The problem was every penny Raylene paid me went to help with groceries. Or my daddy’s bar bill at CC’s. I was determined to find a way. Goody always said I inherited my stubbornness from Mama.
Word about Glamour Day spread quickly, and by mid-afternoon the sign-up sheet was nearly filled. Most of the women who added their names were middle-aged and looked like they could use some glamour. Mary Lou Duval was going through her fourth divorce. Ellie Sue Rucker was six months along with her third. Trashy Bitty Weatherspoon, who drove around town in her new boyfriend’s gold Camaro like she was still reigning prom queen, worked nights at the chicken factory. Aubrey Boles, complete with her dyed black hair twirled up in a beehive, added her name to the sheet. My mama believed it was a mistake for a woman to go jet-black. She was fond of pointing out how much improved Priscilla Presley looked after she lightened up her hair. Elizabeth Taylor could get away with it, Mama maintained, because of her pure coloring and those violet eyes.
Willa Jenkins, another regular, signed up too. She said Raylene was the only white woman she knew who understood black people’s hair. She’d talked two of her friends into joining her. Of course, it was a surprise to no one when Ashley Wheeler heard about it and came in. Ashley had an inflated opinion of herself, a view consistently reinforced by her mama and a good share of the male enrollment at UVA. Day or night, Ashley had a smile plastered on her face, looking all sweetness, pure proof that looks do lie.
By five o’clock there was only one opening left. I’d spent the entire day thinking on how I could earn the twenty dollars and keep it secret from my daddy. I had two weeks to find a way. I just had to keep faith, like Mama was always reminding me. Before we closed up, I added my name to the list. Raylene gave me a little hug when she saw me filling the last slot. Like most people in town, she felt sorry I didn’t have a mama. We stood there and stared at the perfect Hollywood blonde with the pink boa, all framed in gold.
“Your mama,” Raylene said. “Your mama would have loved this.”
And she would have. Mama most surely would have.
Tallie’s Book
Don’t make DIvInIty Fudge on raIny days.
Plant sprIng bulbs In the fall; drop a tablespoon of bonemeal In the hole.
Scald the mIlk before addIng to sponge cake batter.
Take care not to let other people push theIr dreams on you.
The sky’s the lImIt.
You just have to keep faIth.
OTHER BOOKS BY ANNE D. L E CLAIRE
Sideshow
Grace Point
Every Mother’s Son
Land’s End
A Ballantine Book
Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group
Copyright © 2001 by Anne D. LeClaire
Reader’s Guide copyright © 2002 by Anne D. LeClaire and
The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
Excerpt from Leaving Eden copyright © 2002 by Anne D. LeClaire
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American
Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by
The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random
House, Inc., New York.
Ballantine and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Ballantine Reader’s Circle and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
www.ballantinebooks.com/BRC
Library of Congress Control Number: 2002091995
www.randomhouse.com
eISBN: 978-0-307-41512-7
v3.0