Stars and Hearts

  Chapter Three

  The next morning, I arrived up in the telephone room just before nine o’clock, ready for my second day of work.

  There were eight staff up there, including Suki and Rose. Suki had saved me a seat as she’d been instructed to work with me all morning to continue my training. It was pretty busy, but we still managed to have little chats here and there.

  An autographed photo of a hunky black actor was pinned up on the wall between us. I smiled at the photo and found myself turning to Suki and asking if she had a boyfriend.

  Suki’s face fell and she looked at the floor. “Don’t ask,” she said. “He went away to uni and met someone else. I don’t really want to talk about it.”

  “That’s horrid. Perhaps we should have a competition to see which one of us can find an actor boyfriend first.”

  “Oh wow!” she exclaimed, her face lighting up again. “I could do with a challenge like that. Life hasn’t been too much fun lately. I’m up for it!”

  “I was kind of joking,” I said, immediately regretting my words.

  “Are you single too?” Suki asked.

  “Well, yes …”

  “You only live once. Let’s go for it!”

  “But I haven’t got your confidence with men. You’d be bound to win.”

  “I may have confidence, but I don’t have much luck with them,” Suki said sadly.

  The idea did feel tempting. Like Suki, my life hadn’t been too bright recently, perhaps this challenge was just the fun we both needed.

  “Well?” Suki said, looking at me with big puppy eyes.

  I sighed. “Ok, why not?”

  “Yay!” Suki cheered, clapping her hands and grinning brightly. “Let’s shake on it!”

  We shook hands excitedly, then Suki got up from her seat and called out, “Who wants a drink?”

  Everyone put their hand up. She led me over to the coffee corner, filled the kettle, and told me what each staff member liked to drink.

  “This company leave next week and the next lot arrive in about three weeks,” she informed me. “The new company list must be here by now. If I can get a copy, can you come to my house on Sunday? We can check out all the actors on the internet and see who looks likely!”

  This actor boyfriend challenge thing was beginning to sound like real fun. But would I stand a chance against such a bubbly girl?

  “We mustn’t tell anyone,” Suki said, spooning coffee into mugs. “If we do, they’ll most likely laugh at us.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “And if the actors find out they’ll laugh too, and some might take advantage.”

  “Exactly!”

  The kettle boiled and Suki made the drinks. Then I stood in the corner watching her confidently smile and crack jokes with our colleagues as she handed out the mugs. She looked so cool and pretty. I wondered if I’d made a mistake entering this challenge with her. Still, it was only a bit of fun. It wasn’t as though anything awful was going to happen if I didn’t win, and there’s never a guarantee any relationship will last anyway, so I decided to stop being a wimp and enter the thing with confidence. After all, we’d shook on it now.

  She returned to the corner and put some more water in the kettle to make our drinks – two black coffees. Then we sat back down together and I began work again. It all went smoothly, until I answered a call from an irate woman who complained she’d been waiting to get through for five minutes.

  “I’ll deal with that one!” Suki said. She looked angry as I gave her my headset. “Hello,” Suki said. “What’s the problem?” She listened as the angry woman repeated her complaint. “I see. Well, as you must be aware, the Two Masks Theatre is world famous. People are phoning us from all over the globe, so you were actually very lucky to get through in five minutes.” Then she rolled her eyes and banged her fist on the desk. “Stupid bitch hung up on me. Her loss - slapper! People just have no idea how busy we can be. They reckon we sit there filing our nails and chatting while the phones are ringing. They ought to try working here – then they’d understand. Idiots!”

  The rest of the morning was pretty busy. It was hard work, but I really enjoyed myself. Suki checked the rota, noticing we were both down for one o’clock lunch break.

  “That’s good,” Suki whispered. “If the theatre manager isn’t in his office, we can sneak in and steal the list which gives the names of all the actors in the new company.”

  My stomach lurched. “Sounds a bit risky,” I said. “Can’t we just ask for one?”

  “Where’s the fun in that?” Suki said. She gave me a cheeky grin. “He has one pinned to his noticeboard. I saw it when I delivered tickets to him a couple of days ago. Then, when you come round to mine on Sunday, we can find out who’s hot and who’s not!”

  “Sounds like fun!” I said, welling up with excitement. I finally felt like I was entering a bright patch in my life again. It was like warm sunshine emerging from behind a gloomy grey cloud.

  At one o’clock, we bounced out of our chairs, grabbed our bags, and headed straight for the theatre manager’s office. Suki led the way down the dark, narrow corridor and glanced into the office as we passed.

  “Damn!” she whispered.

  I took a look. Sat at the desk was an elegant looking sixty-something gentleman holding a phone to his ear.

  “Hi Larry, darling!” he said in a loud, musical voice. “So, so sorry about the delay. Meet me at the restaurant in five? Super – see you there!”

  Suki and I rushed through a door at the far end of the corridor and listened as his shiny shoes clip clopped away. But, as we crept towards the office, he suddenly appeared again and noticed us.

  “Ooo! Forgot my purse!” he said, smiling broadly and running a hand vainly through his hair as he tottered back into the office. We smiled back, then pretended to admire an old theatrical poster as he rushed away again.

  “Wait by the door and keep an eye out,” Suki said. “If anyone appears, just ask me how my gran is – that’s the code to tell me things aren’t safe. Then scarper!”

  “Ok,” I answered, my eyes darting around nervously.

  Suki snuck into the office and unpinned a sheet of paper from the noticeboard next to the manager’s desk and anxiously dashed towards me. We rushed back upstairs to the phone room to eat our packed lunches.

  “Let’s see the list then,” I said, opening a bag of black grapes.

  “No!” Suki replied. “It’s something to look forward to on Sunday, and we don’t want anyone to see us looking at it – Peter might find out!”

  “Peter?”

  “The theatre manager.”

  “Oh, of course. Fair enough,” I answered, pulling a grape off its stalk.

  Suki grabbed a brown envelope, sealed the list safely inside it, shoved it into her handbag and then asked, “Are you going to the fair tomorrow?”

  “I didn’t know there was one.”

  “Yup – in the town centre. It’s there for two days starting tomorrow.”

  “I’m not sure. I don’t really like fair rides.”

  “Neither do I. We could go for a stroll around just to take in the atmosphere, then have a coffee somewhere. We both finish here at six - so we can go then.”

  “Ok. Sweet!”

  The next day at work was ok until an actress with the stupidly false name of Felicity Foxtrot appeared. Her name wasn’t the only fake thing about her. She had peroxide blonde hair, a tan that looked like it had been squeezed from an orange, an over the top actressy voice and a ridiculous trout pout. She even had glassy turquoise eyes with weird sparkly bits in them – no one has sparkly turquoise eyes unless they’ve come from another sodding planet – it was obviously lenses.

  Anyway, the bitch marched aggressively to Suki’s window and said, “I want three tickets for Saturday night - near the front.”

  Suki checked the availability and frowned. “Sorry – the performance is sold out.”

  “But I only want three, for heaven’s sake!
” Felicity snapped.

  “I know,” said Suki. “But there aren’t any. We can put you on the returns list, but there’ll be quite a few names in front of you.”

  “Returns list? How dare you talk about returns lists to me. I’m an actress and you’re just a little box office clerk!”

  I gritted my teeth and growled, narrowing my eyes at the rude bitch.

  Kalisha rushed over like a hurricane. “Don’t you talk to Suki like that! We’re not wizards, you know. We can’t just conjure tickets out of thin air. That performance has been sold out for months!”

  Felicity let out a scream of frustration and stormed off, her red high heels banging against the floor as she stomped away in a tantrum.

  About half an hour later, Peter – the theatre manager – came into the office to speak to Kalisha. “I’ve had a complaint,” he said. “One of the actresses has said your staff refused to sell her tickets and that you all hurled expletives at her.”

  Suki and I let out loud squeaks of disbelief. What a nerve - false hair, false tan, false eyes and now false accusations!

  “The cheek of the woman!” screamed Kalisha. “I did no such thing. If you’re talking about that monster with the orange face, Suki politely told her the performance was sold out, and the vicious woman was extremely rude. Suki will tell you!”

  Peter turned to Suki.

  “She said she was an actress and I was just a little box office clerk!” Suki said furiously.

  “I’m not surprised,” said Peter softly. “She’s a horrid woman. And I’d hardly call her an actress – her so called acting is terrible. It’s a good job she’s leaving next week. Good riddance to her!”

  “Hear, hear,” Kalisha agreed.

  “Well, thanks girls,” Peter said. “I just had to get your side of the story. It’s a shame the company employed her when there are thousands of perfectly good actresses out there looking for a job. I think I can imagine how people like her land jobs!” Then he slapped himself on the hand. “Oops! Very naughty of me – better watch my tongue or I’ll be getting myself into a spot of trouble. You didn’t hear me say that girls, did you?”

  “Didn’t hear you say what?” Kalisha laughed.

  Peter giggled. “Anyway, beauties, don’t you worry. I’ll be having words with Miss. Foxtrot and a few others, believe me.” He grinned brightly at us all before leaving the office.

  After work, Suki and I glammed ourselves up with a bit extra make-up and headed uptown to the fair. My heart leapt in excitement as I saw the bright lights and spinning machines up ahead. It was a real novelty to see bumper cars and waltzers in the street – in my old town, the fair was on grass in the local park for a few days every summer. We pushed our way through crowds, watching the rides but not going on them. Then, Suki pointed at a small red tent on the corner of a street, next to a big candy stall.

  “A fortune teller!” she said.

  “Cool!” I said. “Perhaps she’ll give us some idea about who’ll win our boyfriend challenge!”

  Suki’s eyes widened in horror and she shook her head so vigorously I was worried she might give herself a brain haemorrhage. “I’m not going in there,” she said. “She might tell us we’re going to die or something.”

  “Nah – she wouldn’t be that mean. Let’s do it!”

  “You go and see her,” Suki said. She pointed at a nearby café. “I’ll go in there and meet you when you’re finished.”

  “Ok,” I replied. “See you in a bit.”

  “Are you sure you want to have your fortune told?”

  “Yeah – I’m really excited!”

  “Ok,” Suki said, her eyes full of apprehension.

  I smiled as I read the A board outside the tent - JILLIANA – FORTUNE TELLER EXTRAORDINARE. READINGS £20. I strode towards it. An elderly woman stood at the entrance wearing full gypsy fortune teller gear – headscarf, big hoop earrings, beautiful dress – the lot.

  “Hello my dear,” she said. “I sense you could do with my help, sweetheart. Oh yes – you could definitely do with a reading. Please step inside.”

  Her pushiness put me off a bit, but I didn’t like to turn away, so I entered the tent and sat down opposite her. Then I began to feel rather frightened and wished I was sat in the café with Suki sipping a nice black coffee and enjoying a snack. I opened my purse and handed her twenty pounds, thinking it was a good job I’d be receiving my first pay packet soon.

  “Place your hands around the crystal my darling,” she instructed.

  I placed my shaking hands around the crystal ball.

  “Nothing to fear, my dear,” she said, her scary dark eyes staring into mine. “You’re quite a sensitive soul – fond of animals and you’d do anything to help anyone. I see you’ve recently moved to a bigger home.”

  “You’re right about the move,” I said. “But the home is a bit smaller than my last. It’s in a big block of flats though.”

  “That’s what I’m seeing then. I see you’re looking for a job.”

  “I was until last week – I’ve just started a new one.”

  “Ah, yes. I was looking just a little into the past – it sometimes happens, you know. You’ll be very happy in that job. Is it in an office?”

  “That’s right.”

  Then my shoulders stiffened when I heard a tapping sound which appeared to be coming from the crystal ball!

  “It’s those naughty little child spirits again,” Jilliana laughed. “At least that’s proof of spirit for you!”

  Now I was feeling even more scared. I swallowed hard, my throat had gone all dry. Again, I wished I was sitting in that café with Suki.

  Jilliana’s dark eyes began to sparkle. “I see a rich man!” she said.

  Now she was talking! My heart began beating wildly, and I could hear myself breathing loudly, which was a bit embarrassing.

  “This man’s in spirit – I feel you knew him when he was alive.”

  My heart sank. She must have seen my face fall. I cleared my throat. “I’m not sure who he is,” I said in a small voice.

  “His name was Lawrence and he says he’s very proud of you.”

  “I don’t remember him.”

  “Never mind – he could have been your uncle three lifetimes ago or something.”

  “Oh,” I said, thinking that statement sounded like a bit of a copout.

  “I see a new man coming into your life within the year. I feel he’s connected to your work.” My adrenaline started pumping again – this sounded promising! “I see numbers around him – perhaps he works with figures – accounts?”

  “Maybe,” I said. I felt a little disappointed, but then I consoled myself by thinking perhaps the number were showing because he was going to be rich and successful – maybe it was a vast fortune she was seeing.

  “I see your Mum washing up. She’s looking at her wedding ring and crying. Why?”

  “My parents recently split up. They weren’t married though.”

  “Ah, yes,” replied Jilliana. “The ring is symbolic of the relationship then. Your father isn’t dead, is he?”

  My heart skipped a beat. “No,” I gasped. “Not unless there’s some bad news waiting for me at home.”

  “There’s a man here in spirit. Don’t worry dear – he’s actually a grandfather figure. His name begins with A. Albert?”

  “My great grandad was Albert.”

  “That’s him. He says look after your mother. Oh, and he says you’ll live in Scotland at some stage.”

  “Really?” I said thinking how far away and cold Scotland was. I couldn’t imagine ever moving there.

  “I see you at some function where you will be in the public eye – I see many cameras on you. I see a male spirit who visits you at night – he was your husband in another life and he used to play snooker – he still loves you. You will have a son who will cause you a bit of trouble when he’s older. Not too much to worry about though. I see you going to the theatre a lot.”

  “I work a
t the theatre.”

  “Lucky girl! Must be a great place to work.”

  Jilliana looked up from the ball and smiled. “That’s about all I can see for now, my dear. I do feel life is brightening for you. Such a sweet, gentle soul. Oh – and look out for the name Carl – you’ll meet him soon.”

  The reading didn’t seem that long for twenty quid, but it wasn’t bad. I thanked her and made my way to the coffee shop. Suki had got us the prime table in the window. She sat there sipping a large cup of coffee, looking anxious. I waved, and she almost spilled it on her knee.

  There was no queue, so I bought myself a coffee and a sandwich and swiftly joined Suki in the window seat.

  “Well?” she said, leaning towards me, her dark eyes sparkling with curiosity. “Did she say anything exciting?”

  “Yup!” I answered, all smiles. “She said I’m going to meet a boyfriend connected to my place of work and she mentioned accounts – I believe he’s going to be rich!”

  “Oh,” Suki said, trying to hide what looked like a flush of jealousy.

  “She saw me in the public eye and flashing cameras and stuff. My great grandad Albert was there telling me to look after Mum and she knew I’d recently moved and been looking for a job and stuff.”

  “Do you really believe in psychics?” Suki asked, obviously hoping it wasn’t true, because it sounded as though I was going to win the challenge she’d been so looking forward to.

  “Well, I think so,” I said. “She did seem quite amazing and she did mention the theatre.”

  “What else did she say?”

  “I can’t remember at the mo – but it was all amazeballs! Sure you don’t want to go and see her yourself?”

  Suki looked frightened. “I don’t think so – I’m worried about what she might say.”

  “Fair enough,” I answered. I sipped my coffee and tucked into my sandwich. “Oh, and she told me I was going to meet a Carl soon!”

  Suki was obviously very disappointed with my good news and we said no more to each other until we left the café and stepped out into the cool, crisp evening air about fifteen minutes later.

  “Where do you live?” she asked.

  “Alpine Court on the Nestlington Road,” I replied.

  “That’s on the way to mine!” Suki said, her face finally brightening a little. “We can walk.”

  “Ok,” I agreed.

  We took a short detour to avoid a drunken fight as a police car arrived at the scene.

  “There were spirit children tapping on the crystal ball!” I told her, as we walked briskly to keep warm. “You might change your mind and see her tomorrow!”

  “Er … I don’t think so,” Suki said firmly. “Especially now you’ve told me that!”

  “That’s ok,” I replied. “Just thought it might be fun.”

  When we reached the flats, I invited her in to meet Mum.

  We climbed three flights of stairs and let ourselves in.

  Mum was sat laughing wildly at some mad comedy show on TV. As soon as she saw us, she rose to her feet, beaming.

  “This is Suki from work,” I said.

  “Hiya!” Mum said. “How are you?”

  “I’m great thanks!” replied Suki confidently. “Yourself?”

  “Oh, I’m ok. Bit bored of my job. Anything going at the theatre?”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “I don’t know – you’ll have to look on the website,” said Suki.

  “I looked earlier,” Mum sighed. “There were no jobs on there. I hate working in the café. I can’t stand the moaning customers everyday asking for their coffee extra hot and stuff. What kind of weirdo wants extra hot coffee? The damned stuff burns your mouth as it is. Masochistic bunch of bastards!”

  “That job’s really getting you down Mum, isn’t it,” I said sadly.

  “You can say that again!”

  “Keep checking the paper and stuff. There must be plenty of jobs going.”

  “I want one at the theatre.”

  “I know.”

  “Anyway,” Mum said. “Talking of bloody cafés, would either of you like a coffee?”

  “We’ve just had one thanks,” Suki politely replied.

  “I was wondering if we could walk Suki home,” I said.

  “Where do you live?” Mum asked.

  “Azalea Road,” said Suki. “It’s about a ten-minute walk.”

  “It’s pretty cold,” Mum said. “I’ll get the car.”

  I gave Suki a lightning tour of the flat while Mum slipped on her shoes and jacket, then we made our way back downstairs and strolled out into the carpark. It only took a couple of minutes to drive to Suki’s house – a nice little semi-detached with a small front garden. We dropped her off and waited until she was safely in the house before zooming home.

  I kept dwelling on what Jilliana had said about the spirit who visited me at night. A husband in another life? Perhaps that’s why I was so nervous with men then. Perhaps this man didn’t want me to have anyone else, and was there to sabotage any chance I had of ever finding anyone by sending terrible feelings to me when possible future husbands were around. I wondered if I might need to call an exorcist in order to banish this bloke and become confident enough with men to find myself a boyfriend. I went to bed and lay there, believing this husband ghost was in the room grinning at me. I switched the light on and lay back down again, feeling terrified.