The Proud and the Prejudiced Read Free

in Georgetown with his father.
    After Tad and Anthony were born, Mommy and
Daddy had drawn up a will stating that Marlene and Molly would become the legal
guardians of Tad and any subsequent children should anything happen to them,
and Marlene and Molly had done the same for their children. That’s why after
the fire, Tad and I went to go live with Marlene.
    I really liked Marlene; she was like a movie
star. She let us call her by her first name. She always wore her blond hair in
a tower on top of her head. She wore tons of eye make-up and bright red
lipstick and nail polish. She puffed at a cigarette she held in a long holder.
She had fancy clothes and mink coats and one that she said was beaver. I liked
it best. Her black poodle Jake had a fluffy hairdo and painted nails and always
stayed by her side, and she would feed him the olives from her martinis.
Sometimes she would pour some of her morning coffee into the saucer and put it
on the floor, and he would drink it. She said he might have a hangover from
eating too many olives. I think Jake liked it best on the mornings when
Lillian, the maid, brought donuts and Marlene would tear a piece off and put it
in his coffee.
    The house had a huge party room with plush
white carpeting and twin blue-silver sofas and a low, round glass coffee table.
Trees and plants filled the room, and the bar was always in full supply of
liquor. When Marlene would sit on one bar stool, her poodle would climb onto
the other and sit on his hind legs while she fed him. Behind the bar, an
enormous mirror covered the wall, and the other walls were papered with a blue,
Victorian print. This was my favorite room in the house, though I rarely was
allowed in. It was the first time I had ever seen a crystal chandelier.
    Annette and I had a marvelous time together at
first. We had tea parties for her dolls and looked through Marlene’s fashion
magazines. A stone wall about four feet high surrounded the enormous house, and
we would walk on it pretending to be trapeze artists. This had been my idea.
Since they had carpeting, we couldn’t balance ourselves on floorboards, so the
wall was an adequate substitute, except I was always afraid I would fall and
break my neck. Annette’s brother Anthony would visit occasionally but not
enough for him and Tad to become good friends.
    I started going to school with Annette after
Thanksgiving. With the exception of the fire, I had never been so scared in all
my life. For one thing, in school Annette completely ignored me and only played
with her friends. For another, Tad and I were separated since our schools were
not co-ed. I didn’t know if I would like going to an all-girls school, and I
wanted to be with Tad. Ever since the fire, Tad and I had spent more time
together, just the two of us. Sometimes we would talk about Mommy and Daddy
since everyone else acted like they never existed. I had my own room, but at
night I would climb into Tad’s bed just in case there was a fire. None of the
luxuries in my new life could compete with the comfort he gave me.
     
    *****
     
    Alice sat just offstage perusing the new script
when Peter Walsingham arrived with his entourage, and she was relieved most of
the cast and crew were at lunch. Even the few crewmembers there gawked and
whispered to one another. Alice glanced up at the newcomers then fixed her
attention to the script on her lap, although she couldn’t help it if they were
in her peripheral vision. Damnit, he’s just as good-looking in person . And
Winnie Johnson just as gorgeous. And thin. Naturally, he would bring his paramour with him to the set. She willed her heart to stop racing, reminding herself
that by all accounts this guy was a misogynistic dick. A dick named Peter –
ha!
    Winnie walked around the set touching the
furniture and mantle. “I have never seen anything so cheap in my life. And this
is supposed to be your home?”
    “Not if I can help it,” Peter said in that voice.
    “They must have spent