Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself Read online

  “My little gal,” Daddy said. “How I’ve missed my little gal …” He hugged her hard and returned her kisses.

  “Hi, Dad,” Douglas said.

  Her father put Sally down, then hugged Douglas. “How are you, son?”

  “Pretty good. I invented a coconut retriever … you want to see it?”

  “Sure … just as soon as I get settled.” He rumpled Douglas’s hair. “Growing taller and taller …”

  “Yeah … my pants are getting too short again.”

  “Arnold!” Ma Fanny called, rushing out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron.

  “Ma Fanny!” Daddy said, holding her at arm’s length for a minute. “Just look at that tan! You look about twenty-five.” He pulled her to him.

  “Always with the compliments,” Ma Fanny said, laughing.

  “For you … why not?” Daddy said.

  On the radio, comedians like Bob Hope and Jack Benny were always telling mother-in-law jokes but Sally knew that her father and Ma Fanny really liked each other. They’re much more alike than Ma Fanny and Mom, Sally thought. How strange, since they aren’t even blood relatives.

  Mom stood in the doorway, watching and smiling. She has such a pretty smile, Sally thought. If only she’d show it more often.

  Daddy had presents for all of them—a handbag for Ma Fanny, a gold necklace for Mom, a special tool kit for Douglas and for Sally, the Jolly Roger game. She wasn’t as surprised as she pretended to be. There were so many things to tell her father, so many things to show him. She’d never catch up in a week and then he’d be gone again.

  They sat down to Thanksgiving dinner at four o’clock. After she’d tasted the turkey, Ma Fanny said, “It’s too dry.”

  “No, it’s fine,” Mom told her and Daddy added, “It’s delicious!”

  “I overcooked it … half an hour earlier it would have been perfect.” Tears came to her eyes.

  “It’s good this way,” Mom said, but Ma Fanny had already pushed back her chair and was heading for the kitchen.

  Daddy and Mom exchanged looks, then he got up and went after Ma Fanny.

  “Just keep eating,” Mom told Sally and Douglas, but Sally didn’t feel hungry anymore. She could hear her father talking softly and Ma Fanny blowing her nose.

  In a little while Daddy and Ma Fanny came back to the table. He had his arm around her. “I’m sorry,” Ma Fanny said, taking her seat. “I was being silly … who cares about the turkey as long as we’re all well …” She sniffled. “I just wish Bette and Jack could be with us.”

  “Next year,” Mom said, patting Ma Fanny’s hand. “Next year we’ll all be together.”

  “Knock wood,” Ma Fanny said.

  “Anyway,” Sally said, “… who likes juicy turkey?”

  They all laughed but this time Sally was hoping they would. Suddenly she felt hungry again.

  The next night her parents were going to a nightclub with somebody named Wiskoff that Daddy had met on the plane. Mom wore a dark blue dress that rustled as she walked and high heeled shoes. New rhinestone combs held her upsweep hairdo in place. Sally sat on the Murphy bed and watched as Mom put some more rouge on her cheeks, went over her lips a second time and dabbed a drop of perfume behind each ear. “You smell good,” Sally said. “Like Lillies of the Valley.”

  “It’s called White Shoulders,” Mom said. “It’s my favorite … here, I’ll put some behind your ears too.”

  “Ummm … I like that,” Sally said, wondering if Latin lovers would be attracted to it. Maybe she’d try it out on Peter Hornstein.

  Sally went into the livingroom. “Smell me,” she said to Douglas, putting her face close to his nose.

  “Uck! Get out of here … you stink!”

  “I do not.”

  “That is a matter of opinion!” Douglas said.

  “Do I get my treatment now?” Daddy asked, putting down the Miami Herald, “or should I wait until I get home?”

  “I’ll probably be asleep by then,” Sally told him, arranging herself on his lap. “I better give it to you now.” She put her face next to his. “Do you like the way I smell?”

  “Like White Shoulders,” Daddy said.

  “How’d you know?”

  “I’ve been enjoying it for a long time.”

  “Oh …” Sally gave him a sliding kiss, up one cheek, across his forehead, down the other cheek, three quick hugs, and a butterfly on the nose.

  “That was very nice,” Daddy said. “I’ve really missed my treatments.”

  “Me too,” Sally said. “Doey-bird …”

  “Yes …”

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Very, very nice.” He closed his eyes for a minute.

  Sally traced his eyelids with her fingertip. “I mean, how are you feeling, in general?”

  “In general I’m feeling just fine.” He opened his eyes and looked concerned. “Why do you ask?”

  “I was just wondering …”

  “How about you?” Daddy said. “Are you feeling all right?”

  “Me?” Sally said. “I’m fine. You know that. Douglas is the one you should be asking.”

  “I thought maybe you were trying to tell me something.”

  “No … nothing like that.” But inside Sally was saying, I am trying to tell you something, Doey … please make it through your bad year … please don’t die!

  “Have a wonderful time,” Ma Fanny said, when Mom and Daddy were ready to leave. “And don’t worry about a thing. Sally’s going to teach me and Dougie to play Jolly Roger. Who knows … maybe I’ll like it better than rummy.”

  At ten, Sally, Douglas and Ma Fanny got ready for bed.

  Sally fell asleep quickly and had a strange dream.

  She is sitting in a movie theater on Lincoln Road. The lights dim, the curtain rises, the music begins and the title of the motion picture everyone has been waiting for flashes onto the silver screen in glorious technicolor. The White Shoulders, starring Sally Jane Freedman as Lila and Mr. Zavodsky as Adolf Hitler. You know right away it’s going to be a war story because of the soldiers on the street. Lila is one of them. She is petting a turkey. All the soldiers are talking and laughing because it is rest hour. But then the whistle blows and it is time to get back to the battle.

  Good luck, they say to Lila. Remember, you’re the only one who can do it … we’re counting on you.

  One soldier lingers after the others are gone. Oh, Peter … Peter … Lila sighs. I’m frightened … not for myself, but you for. If I fail … if I …

  No ifs or buts, my darling, Peter whispers, holding Lila close. Soon it will be all over … soon we will be together again.

  And will there be a parade? Lila asks.

  Yes, my darling … a parade for you.

  I’ll try my best, Peter … I only hope that’s enough.

  It’s all anyone can ask, Peter says, with tears in his eyes. Goodbye, Lila … for just a little while.

  Goodbye, Peter … we’ll meet again in Latin. They kiss.

  The turkey flies away.

  And now Lila is alone on the street. She waits, her hand in her pocket, ready for action. At last he approaches. Adolf Hitler, monster of monsters.

  What is that delicious smell? he asks, his nostrils twitching like a rabbit’s.

  It is me, Lila says in a husky voice.

  He runs toward her. Such a smell … I can’t stand it … it is too good.

  It is called White Shoulders, Lila says, an old family perfume, handed down from my mother and before her, my grandmother …

  Hitler’s face is almost touching Lila’s. She feels sick to her stomach but she has a job to do. She whips her pistol out of her pocket, points it at Hitler’s gut and says, From all of us on the other side … and she pulls the trigger …

  Sally awakened hours later to voices in the hall. It was Mom and Daddy. Mom was laughing and saying something silly. Something that sounded like willya … willya … willya. Daddy was laughing too, but more qui
etly. She heard the key in the door and then they were inside the apartment. Daddy said, “Shush, Louise … you’ll wake the kids …”

  “Willya … willya … willya …”

  Ma Fanny snored and Douglas rolled over in bed and hit the wall.

  Sally lay very still but she opened her eyes. Daddy was holding Mom up, with his arm around her waist. Mom was carrying one of her shoes and wearing the other. “Willya … willya … willya …” she said, laughing harder.

  “Shush … come on, Lou …”

  “What’s wrong with Mom?” Sally whispered to her father.

  “Too much champagne … go back to sleep now.”

  “Willya … willya … willya …”

  Sally pulled the bedsheet up around her ears and closed her eyes.

  In the morning Mom couldn’t get out of bed. Daddy made an icepack for her head and brought her a glass of tomato juice. She wasn’t laughing any more.

  Daddy took Sally and Douglas to the beach. He helped Sally collect shells, built a beautiful sand castle, then fooled around with them in the ocean. Later, he sat on their blanket and played gin rummy with Andrea’s father, while Sally and Andrea ran off to practice cartwheels.

  Sally was soaking in the tub. Her shoulders were sunburned again and Ma Fanny had put some vinegar in her bath water, to take the sting away. Her parents were in the sleeping alcove, arguing, because Mr. Wiskoff had invited them all out to dinner and Mom didn’t want to go.

  Sally could hear everything. That was the good thing about this apartment. At home, in New Jersey, her parents could talk privately and Sally couldn’t make out a word. She had to imagine it all.

  “Seven hours on a plane and they’re your best friends?”

  “I didn’t say best friends … I said friends … why can’t you get that straight? The other night …”

  “The other night I got drunk,” Mom said. “For the first time in my life … I still don’t see how you could have let me …”

  “Oh, come on, Lou … you enjoyed it … and they enjoyed you … you should try letting go more often …”

  “I’m telling you … I just can’t face them tonight.”

  “Because you’re embarrassed?”

  “Partly … and I certainly don’t think it’s wise to expose the children to them.”

  “Nobody has to know they’re not married,” Daddy said.

  “It’s not just that … they aren’t our kind of people, Arnold.”

  “Do we always have to associate with the same kinds of people?”

  “I’d rather go out with the Rubins … they asked us to join them.”

  “We’ve already accepted Ted’s invitation.”

  “You could call and say I’m sick.”

  “You’re being unreasonable, Louise.”

  “I have a feeling about him …”

  “Look . . he gambles a little and he plays the market in a big way … but so what?”

  “I don’t know,” Mom said. “I’m just not comfortable with them.”

  “You could try … for me …”

  “All right … I’ll try … it’s just that we have so little time together … I hate sharing you with them.”

  “Lou … Lou …”

  Sally listened hard but she couldn’t hear anything after that.

  Daddy wanted Ma Fanny to join them too, but she said she had her card game and he should please understand that she couldn’t disappoint her friends. So Sally and Douglas and Mom and Daddy took a taxi to The Park Avenue Restaurant near Lincoln Road.

  The Wiskoffs were waiting at the table. Daddy introduced them, saying, “Ted … Vicki … these are my children, Douglas and Sally.”

  Mr. Wiskoff stood up and shook hands with Douglas. He was tall, with slick black hair, turning gray around the ears. He wore a dark, striped suit and in the middle of his tie was a diamond stick pin. A red silk handkerchief showed out of the top of his jacket pocket and Sally wondered if he actually used it to blow his nose. “Hooloo, sweetheart,” he said to Sally. “You’re as adorable as your Daddy promised.” He leaned across Sally then, and kissed Mom’s cheek. “How’re you doing, doll?” he asked her.

  All this time Douglas was staring at Vicki. Sally didn’t blame him. Because Vicki looked just like Rita Hayworth, the movie star, with long red hair and a wide, beautiful smile. She was wearing a green silk dress, the same color as her eyes, and more jewelry than Sally had ever seen, all of it sparkling.

  Sally got to sit next to her and could see that Douglas would have given anything to trade places, including his orange marble, because Sally could look right down the front of Vicki’s dress and Vicki wasn’t wearing anything under it!

  When the waiter took their order, Mr. Wiskoff said, “And a bottle of your best champagne for the doll over there.” He nodded in Mom’s direction. “She really enjoys her bubbly.”

  Mom held up her hand. “Not tonight, Ted … really.”

  Mr. Wiskoff winked at the waiter. “Bring it anyway …”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Sally ordered fruit cup supreme, roast beef, mashed potatoes, carrots, and chocolate ice cream. When he served dessert, the waiter brought a big silver bowl of whipped cream to their table and they each got to spoon as much as they wanted onto their plates. Sally loved whipped cream, especially over chocolate ice cream, but she wouldn’t have minded it plain either. Just a plate of whipped cream would do any day. Nothing tasted as good. This was definitely her favorite restaurant. In the whole world there couldn’t be another restaurant this good. She felt just a little bit guilty, thinking of all the starving children in Europe.

  After the coffee had been served Vicki said, “I’ve got to go to the little girls’ room … anyone need to join me?”

  “No, thanks,” Mom said, but Sally quickly answered, “I will … I mean, I do,” and she stood up and followed Vicki.

  A lot of people turned to look at them as they crossed the diningroom and Sally knew it was because of Vicki, not her. As Vicki walked, her backside wiggled from side to side and her breasts bounced up and down. It was exciting just to be near her.

  In the Ladies’ Room, Vicki sat down at a small dressing table and pulled a make-up kit out of her purse. Sally stood next to her, watching. Vicki put green eye shadow on her lids. “You want to try some, honey?” she asked Sally.

  “Okay,” Sally said.

  “Very nice,” Vicki told her as she rubbed it onto Sally’s lids. “It brings out the color of your eyes.”

  “But my eyes are brown, not green.”

  “Brown and green are a good combination.” Vicki zipped up her make-up bag and shook out her hair.

  Sally shook hers, too.

  “Do you like my ring?” Vicki asked. She held it to her mouth and breathed hard on it. “It’s twelve carats …”

  “I like carrots,” Sally said.

  “Me too.” Vicki laughed. “My necklace is emerald and diamond. Isn’t it pretty?”

  “Yes, very …”

  “Would you undo the clasp for me, honey … I need to wash it.”

  Sally stood behind Vicki and undid the clasp of her necklace. Vicki caught it as it dropped, and spread it out on the dressing table. Then she took another bag out of her purse and unzipped it. She pulled out a small bottle and a soft, white cloth.

  “My mother has combs for her hair that sparkle like that,” Sally said, admiring Vicki’s necklace.

  “That’s nice, honey … but these are the real things … now, I’m going to show you how to wash diamonds … every girl should know how to do it the right way … watch carefully …” Vicki poured some liquid onto the white cloth and began to polish the stones in her necklace. “You see how nice they look now? You see how they sparkle?”

  “Yes. Did Mr. Wiskoff give them to you?”

  “Of course! Teddy and I have been together almost six years.”

  Sally noticed that she didn’t say married.

  “I do for him and he does for me,” Vicki said
. “That’s the way it should be … don’t you think?”

  “Oh, yes!” Sally said. “That’s the way it is with my parents too.”

  “Really?” Vicki sounded surprised.

  “Yes … like tonight, my mother didn’t want to come but my father …” Sally put her hand to her mouth and blushed. “I mean …”

  “I know just what you mean,” Vicki said.

  “But, I …”

  “It’s all right. I’ll pretend I never heard a word. You know something, Sally?”

  “No … what?”

  “I like you!”

  “I like you too.”

  “How would you like to wear one of my bracelets for a little while?”

  “Well, I don’t know … I have my own … you see …” She held out her wrist so Vicki could see her shell bracelet. “I bought it in Woolworth’s … they’re real shells too … from the beach.”

  “Very pretty,” Vicki said. “I guess you don’t need mine after all, then.”

  “I guess not,” Sally said, “But thank you anyway.”

  Vicki was going through her make-up bag again, deciding which lipstick to use. She chose a bright pink one, applied it, then blotted her lips with a tissue.

  “Is Mr. Wiskoff, by any chance, Latin?” Sally asked.

  “Latin?” Vicki said.

  “Yes … from Cuba or Mexico or someplace south of the border?”

  Vicki laughed. “Teddy is New York all the way, honey. He’s a very important man back east … and don’t you forget it … you’ve had dinner with Big Ted Wiskoff and that means a lot!”

  “Wash that goo off your eyes before you go to sleep,” Mom said, in the taxi, on the way back to their apartment.

  “Do I have to?” Sally asked.

  “Yes!”

  “But it looks so pretty.”

  “Pretty awful!” Douglas said.

  Sally gave him an elbow in the ribs. “Do you know they call Mr. Wiskoff, Big Ted?” Sally asked her father.

  Mom answered, “And not because he’s tall, I’ll bet.”

  “I really liked him,” Douglas said. “And that Mrs. Wiskoff … what a dish!”

  “She showed me how to wash diamonds,” Sally told them.

  “That’s wonderful!” Mom said. “Every girl should know how to wash diamonds.”

  “That’s exactly what Vicki said!”