The Truth about My Success Read Free

don’t know who. And I don’t know where. But she is going. And Mrs Minnick sa—”
    “Maria—” Most of Jack’s patience has been exhausted by sitting on the road instead of moving over it. “Maria, I’m very sorry, but I’m on my way to a meeting. An important meeting. And even if I weren’t, I’ve been stuck in traffic for the last twenty minutes. Hear the horns?” He turns the mouthpiece of his headset so she can hear the horns. “I don’t know what you expect me to do.”
    “Maybe if you talk to her…”
    “Talk to her? Maria, I’m Paloma’s agent, not her mother.”
    “But that is why you should talk to her,” says Maria. “She won’t listen to her mother. If Mrs Minnick says go left, Miss Paloma will go right. Miss Paloma listens to you.”
    “Well what about Mr Minnick?” In theory, if nothing else, as well as being Paloma’s father and business manager, Arthur Minnick is supposed to be a responsible adult. “Where’s he at? Why can’t he stop Paloma?”
    “He went for dinner,” says Maria.
    She means last night, of course. Arthur Minnick is pretty much an absentee husband and parent even though he lives with his wife and child.
    “Well what about Vassily? Isn’t he supposed to keep tabs on her?” Protect Paloma; protect the rest of humanity from Paloma.
    “Mr Vassilovitch quit after Mrs Minnick yelled at him for losing Miss Paloma again,” Maria informs him. “He said he’s a soldier, not a babysitter.”
    And I am?
But that isn’t what Jack says. What Jack says is, “Look, Maria, I think maybe you’re overreacting here.” It’s the Latin temperament; more emotion than logic. “Paloma’s car doesn’t work, right? The Minnicks’ cars are with the Minnicks. The limo’s programmed so it won’t let Paloma drive. And she sure as hell isn’t going to walk to town. Which means she has to take a cab. So all you have to do is wait by the front door and send the cab away when it comes.”
    “He’s here.” Maria’s voice is sharp with urgency. “He’s here.”
    “Who’s here? The cab?”
    “No, not the cab. A man.”
    “A man? What man? Maria, what man?”
    “A young man. I don’t know. I never see him before. He has a beard.”
    “A beard?” At least it’s not Drachman. But it could be someone else from the show. He thinks there may have been beards in the cast at some time.
    “And a ponytail.”
    Ponytails are the kind of thing that appears among the crew. Ponytails. Earrings. Tattoos. Good God, now she’s dating workmen.
    “And a ring in his nose like a bull.”
    “A what?”
    But Maria is no longer talking to him.
    “Miss Paloma!” yells Maria. “Miss Paloma, you must stay here. Your mother—”
    Paloma bellows back, telling Maria what she can do with Leone Minnick in words clear enough to crash through any language barrier.
    “But Mr Silk he is on the phone. Mr Silk he wants to talk to you,” calls Maria.
    Paloma comes close enough to Maria to tell Jack what he can do with his talk herself.
    “So long suckers,” shouts Paloma. “See ya later!”
    Too late, perhaps, Jack realizes that, just maybe, he should have taken the housekeeper’s concern more seriously. Should have paid more attention. He suspects that there are things he hasn’t been told. Possibly a lot of things. He knows how rude and unlikeable Paloma Rose can be – it’s not a secret, it’s a legend – but he’s never known her to throw things before. He knows about the car – he should, its distributor cap is in his office – but he was told Paloma wasn’t allowed to drive because of the speeding and the time she smashed through a fence and ended up on somebody’s lawn. And of course there were the pictures and a couple of other unfortunate incidents and, most unfortunate of all, Seth Drachman. But he thought all that was behind them. Paloma had seen the error of her ways and had straightened out. Isn’t that what Leone said? Now he wonders why he believed her. Leone