Stars and Hearts

Chapter Four

  Next day Mum and I both had the day off. We took a quick trip to the supermarket then bought a bag of chips on the way home.

  As we sat stuffing our faces, I asked her, “Have you ever been to a fortune teller?”

  “No,” Mum replied. “But a friend of mine used to own a pack of tarot cards which kept us entertained for hours.”

  “Really? Did they predict loads of stuff which came true?”

  “Little things here and there, but we asked them so many questions that they were bound to appear to get something right.”

  When Sunday finally arrived, I woke up at ten o’clock feeling bright and cheerful, looking forward to my trip to Suki’s house to Google all the actors in the new company. I brewed myself a strong cup of black coffee and enjoyed peanut butter on toast. Mum was still in bed. Saturdays were particularly busy in the café, so she always had to lie in until Sunday lunchtime to recover.

  After a light lunch, I took a brisk walk to Suki’s through drizzling rain. Suki greeted me with a bright smile and led me into the lounge, where a middle-aged Japanese lady sat watching the news. She turned to me. She had the same bright smile as Suki.

  “Hiya!” she said, rising to her feet. “I’m Suki’s mum. You’re Yazmin.”

  “Yes,” I said, shaking her hand.

  She sat down again and continued watching the news. Unlike her daughter, she seemed a little shy.

  We went through to the kitchen. “My dad’s at the pub celebrating his mates’ fiftieth birthday,” Suki said pouring us a small glass of blackcurrant juice each. Then we creaked up the stairs to her room.

  The room was quite small and decorated in pink. There was a map of Japan on one wall. She pointed at Kyoto, which was somewhere towards the middle of the country.

  “That’s where my family come from,” she said.

  “Cool!” I answered. “Were you born in Japan?”

  “No, but I went there once when I was a kid. We went to Kyoto in Autumn – it was really pretty.”

  We sat down on the bed, then Suki opened the drawer of her bedside cabinet and brought out the envelope, which contained the list of actors, together with a white iPad. We both grinned in excitement as she ripped open the envelope and pulled out the list.

  Remembering my clairvoyant reading, I was very keen to see if there was a Carl on the list. There was! Unfortunately, his surname was Zimmerman, so he was right at the end.

  “Can we start with Z and work backwards?” I asked hopefully.

  “Bit confusing!” Suki replied. “Why would you want to do that?”

  “There’s a Carl at the end – the fortune teller mentioned a Carl.”

  “Oh yes. Might be fun to leave him till the end then – the thrill of suspense and all that!”

  “Meanie! Oh well, at least we’re only looking at the men on the list – so it shouldn’t take too long.”

  “Women too,” Suki answered.

  “Oh,” I replied. “Are you bisexual?”

  “No – I want to look at the opposition, and see if we recognise any faces.”

  My heart sank a little - I was dying to see Carl’s face. But then I realised she was right. The first name on the list was Ali Albright. Suki grinned in excitement as she tapped in each letter. Ali turned out to be a crabby old woman.

  “Cool!” Suki grinned. “No sexy young actor would choose her over us.”

  “I hope not,” I laughed.

  After spending an entertaining hour or so tapping in names and having a good giggle, Suki narrowed her list down to seven men, but I only fancied one young man – his name was Tyrone Small and he was on Suki’s list too. He looked so cool with his cropped blonde hair, dazzling blue eyes and mean expression. I knew I’d seen him on TV before too.

  Then we came to Carl Zimmerman. My heart thundered away as Suki punched in his name. Then my heart stopped. Carl looked about eighty years old. He had white hair and a big bushy beard.

  “Santa Claus!” Suki grinned. Then she laughed so hard it obviously hurt and she lay there clutching her stomach as she rolled around. Served her right.

  It was true though – Carl did look like blooming Father Christmas, but with dark, evil eyes. He actually gave me the creeps.

  “I think you might win the challenge – he’s probably desperate,” Suki managed to say, before continuing her painful giggling fit.

  “Desperate?” I screeched, whacking her with a cushion. “Thanks a lot!”

  “Let’s find out more about our chosen men then,” Suki said, when her giggling finally subsided.

  As we both liked the look of Tyrone, we looked him up first. It turned out he’d had a minor part in a recent TV production of Robin Hood, which is where I must have seen him. There wasn’t a lot of information about him, he obviously hadn’t worked much – he’d most likely only left drama school in the last couple of years. He did have a Twitter account, but it was pretty boring – mostly pictures of food he’d cooked. Perhaps he should have been a chef.

  Most of Suki’s other choices were nothing special – not in my eyes, anyway. As we looked them up, we found out one was famously gay, although we’d never even heard of him; and another had a two-month old baby after a very brief fling with a model, but didn’t want to know the kid. Suki crossed them both off her list. There was very little information to be found about her other choices, apart from one – a pop star turned actor called Dudley Mountain. She liked him because her mum had been a big fan in her youth.

  “Eeew!” I said, pulling a face. “He’s too old for you.”

  Suki disagreed. “He’s only fifty-seven.”

  “Only fifty-seven? That’s disgusting, Suki. He’s old enough to be your grandad. I couldn’t wake up next to that old fart every morning – he’d put me off my breakfast.”

  He wasn’t exactly attractive, with his messy black mop of hair, big bulbous red nose and bloodshot eyes. I certainly didn’t fancy him, in fact his face made me feel sick.

  Suki got really excited when she found numerous articles about his recent divorce.

  “Looks like he’s available!” she said. “Imagine me bringing Mum’s favourite popstar home to meet her. She’d be over the moon.”

  “Until she found out you were sleeping with him – then she’d be disgusted.”

  “We’ll see,” Suki said smugly. “His ex-wife was Japanese too – he obviously likes Asian beauties.”

  “It says he repeatedly cheated on her with a string of women,” I pointed out. “What sort of a bimbo would want that aging body?”

  “Me!” exclaimed Suki, stroking his photo.

  “Eeew! And you had the cheek to laugh at Carl Zimmerman’s photo. I think they’re about equal and both far too old for either of us.”

  “Dudley has to be top of my list,” Suki said. “You can have Tyrone.”

  “When did you last have an eye test?” I asked her. “In fact, when did you last have a sanity test? He’s getting on for sixty Suki – S.I.X.T.Y.”

  “He’s gorgeous.”

  “What on Earth is wrong with you? It’s obviously because he’s famous and probably rich, and your Mum likes him.”

  “Not really,” Suki said. “Those things help, but there’s just something about him. He just has that mysterious X-Factor.”

  “Mysterious X-Factor?” I said, grimacing. “More like obvious Vom-Factor!”

  Suki looked puzzled. It seemed she really did find the filthy old fart attractive – seriously disturbing. I hoped she might just be having me on.

  Then her mum called to us from the bottom of the stairs, “Tea’s ready in ten!”

  “Ok Mum!”

  I turned to Suki and smiled. “I’ve really enjoyed this afternoon – even if Carl Zimmerman did turn out to be Santa and you’ve lost your mind over a dirty old rocker. Thanks for having me round.”

  “My pleasure,” she said. “This challenge is going to be great fun. Thanks for coming up with the idea.”

  I slung on my co
at, stepped into my shoes and trotted home, giggling to myself about Suki liking Dudley. I got a lot of funny looks, but I didn’t care. It was just great I finally had something to laugh about.