Elaine Viets & Victoria Laurie, Nancy Martin, Denise Swanson - Drop-Dead Blonde (v5.0) (pdf) by Unknown (howl and other poems .TXT) 📕

``Well, for the most part she just stood there mutely with her eyes lowered and her cheeks flushed, and then when Celeste talked about the lawsuit, she started to cry a little. And then I guess she got so angry that she jumped up onstage and threw herself on top of Celeste!''

``You're kidding!'' I said, slapping my knee, chagrined that I'd missed it. Although I'd never admit it to anyone, at heart I'm a true-blue WWF fan.

``No, really! The two of them were rolling around ons- tage, punching and pulling hair and hitting each other! It was wild!''

``You're talking about the catfight?'' a feathery voice off to our right asked. BLIND SIGHTED 283

Cat and I turned at the sound of the voice and saw Milli- cent Satchel standing close by, looking at us with interest.

I beamed a smile at Millicent and moved over on the couch, patting the cushion next to me and offering her a spot. After Millicent shuffled over and sat down she turned to us and asked, ``You were talking about Deirdre and Celeste?''

``Yeah, I can't believe I missed it!'' I said.

``Well, it's a shame that two grown women have to settle their differences that way, but if you ask me it's just too bad that Deirdre didn't get her ass kicked after all the harm she's caused!''

Cat and I both gasped at Millicent's outburst. It seemed Millicent wasn't quite as sweet as we had assumed.

``Excuse my French,'' Millicent said sheepishly, noting our expressions, which made both Cat and I burst into a fit of giggles.

``Millicent, you are too funny!'' I said companionably, giggling some more.

``Well, it burns my toast that I've been so gullible all these years, buying her books and telling all my friends what a wonderful person she is, when all this time she's been pulling the wool over my eyes. I feel like such a fool.''

Cat and I quickly stopped smirking, concerned by the sudden change in Millicent. ``Don't be so hard on yourself,'' Cat offered. ``We were all taken in. I mean, the woman does a great job of marketing herself. And I think we all really want to believe in things that give us comfort, like angels and spirit guides. In fact, if it weren't for Abby, here, I doubt I'd be as spiritual as I am, and that would mean that something very important would be missing from my life.''

I beamed at my sister. Sometimes Cat said absolutely the right thing. ``Yes,'' Millicent agreed, ``I suppose you're right. That's a good perspective, Catherine.''

``Thank you,'' Cat said, and squeezed Millicent lightly on the shoulder. ``You know what, ladies?'' she asked us, jumping up from the couch. ``All this excitement has made me hungry. That dinner they served was pathetic. Why don't we all go up to my suite and order room service?''

``Music to my ears,'' I said, jumping up too and helping Millicent to her feet.

``Oh, but before we go I need to report my missing pock- etbook to the hotel's lost and found,'' Millicent said. 284 Victoria Laurie

``You lost your pocketbook?'' I asked, something tickling the hairs on the back of my neck.

``Yes,'' Millicent said, bobbing her head. ``I had a small antique pocketbook in the shape of a seashell that I use on special occasions like tonight. There wasn't really anything in it, but when I stood up to leave I noticed it wasn't where I thought I'd left it on the table next to me. It was my mother's from a very long time ago, and I'd be crushed if I never got it back,'' Millicent said sadly.

``That's weird,'' I said. ``Cat lost her bracelet tonight too.''

``Oh? It must be something in the air then,'' Millicent said gravely. ``Come on, Catherine; we can report our miss- ing things together.''

After Cat and Millicent had reported their lost items, we made our way over to the elevators, and Cat depressed the ``up'' button. While we were waiting, someone came up behind us, and we all turned to look. My eyes became slits when I realized it was Tweed Jacket, Deirdre's manager, looking rather disheveled himself, as if he'd been caught in the middle of a windstorm.

As we stared pointedly at him, he avoided eye contact for a moment, then sneaked a quick glance in our direction. He must have recognized me, because in the next moment he turned with a scowl and stomped off.

The way he stormed away made the three of us laugh in spite of ourselves, which caused Tweed Jacket to quicken his step as he paused only slightly before ducking into the hotel bar.

A few minutes later we were in Cat's suite with the room service menu out and the blender whirring another round of my sister's famous margaritas. As I wrote down every- one's food orders, preparing to call room service, it dawned on me that the weekend wasn't going to be a total wash after all--now that there were no more seminars to attend, I could look forward to two days of sun, surf, and relax- ation. When my left side felt thick and heavy, my sign for ``no,'' I barely noticed, mostly because I wouldn't know how wrong that assumption would be for several more hours yet. Chapter 3

By two in the morning I was exhausted. Cat had thrown in the towel around one A.M., but Millicent showed no signs of slowing down, and out of sheer politeness I stayed up with her, listening to her unfold her seventy-three years from start to finish. The three rounds of margaritas had gone right to my head, but seemed only to make Millicent more lucid. Through her colorful stories, Cat and I had learned all about Millicent and found her to be an extraor- dinary woman with an interesting past and an intelligence that belied her rather old-fashioned appearance.

When