Beaches (16 page)

me, I suggest you pack. I’m not going to feed into this insecurity of yours.”

A tropical breeze swept across the outside balcony, rustling the tablecloth, and moved through the door in the living room. Bertie felt it on her back. Even though it was warm, it made her shiver. Almost all of Michael’s clothes were in the suitcase now, and he stopped packing and looked at her, then spoke softly.

“Bert,” he said. “Nothing happened. Nothing.”

Bertie felt unsure and afraid and confused.

“I love you,” Michael said. “So much that I couldn’t wait for you to wake up so I could tell you I called Jeff early this morning, and he told me the firm is signing Maury Wills.”

“Really?” Bertie asked numbly.

“That’s such good news, I was crazed,” Michael said, smiling a smile Bertie knew was put on. “I was sure he was teasing me.”

Teasing.

“That’s great,” Bertie said.

“Ah, c’mon, Minnie Mouse,” he said, coming toward her again. “I love my princess too much to see her upset like this,” and he pulled her close to him and she let him hold her tightly. “Let’s go home to Pittsburgh, honey,” he said into her hair. “What do you say?”

Bertie just stood and felt him holding her. She needed him to hold her. She wanted him to make it better, to make it not hurt. She had to decide what to say to him now. He was her husband. He took care of her, and she loved him, but he was with Cee Cee last night. This morning She was sure of that.

“Won’t it be nice to get back home?” he asked softly, sweetly, lovingly. “To our pretty apartment. Why don’t we have your mother over for dinner when we get back? We can tell her all about our trip and what a good time we had. C’mon, sweetheart. I’ll even help you pack. Okay? Bertie, c’mon.”

Now Michael moved her an arm’s length away from him, his hands still on her shoulders, and he looked at her confused face and waited for her answer.

Bertie looked into his eyes. Then she put her hands over his and removed them from her shoulders. She walked slowly ove’r to the bed, sat on it, and thought for a while about what would be the best thing to do. Michael didn’t say a word while she did. Finally, she spoke.

“Yes,” she said, “let’s go home.” Then she stood, walked to the closet, removed her clothes from their hangers, and began to pack.

Bertie felt as if they’d been away from Pittsburgh for a much longer time than six days. Being back in her little home felt comforting to her. There was her same room, and her same bed, and her same bathroom with her same tub. But when she looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, she saw someone there who seemed different from the Bertie who’d left Hawaii less than a week before.

“Back to the old grind,” Michael said as he took a last sip of coffee, gave her a peck on the cheek, and was out the door to work.

As soon as he was gone Bertie dressed quickly. She knew what she wanted to do today, and she knew that she had to do it right now. She’d thought about nothing else on the long flight home. Within minutes of Michael’s leaving, she was out the door and in her car.

The visitors’ lot was full, so she parked on a nearby side street and made her way slowly around the building. When she opened the door, the familiar feel of the place convinced her that she was doing the right thing. Down the hall past the reception office, through the doors and . . .

“Is Dr. Shaw in?” Bertie asked.

“Well, Roberta. How nice to see you,” the gray-haired receptionist Madeline said.

“It’s nice to see you, too, Madeline.”

“She’s in a staff meeting,” Madeline said. “Want a cup of coffee?”

There was one moment when a heavy feeling in her chest made Bertie unsure that this was smart. Made her want to say something light. Something like, “Well, I just stopped by to say hello-so give everyone my best, but I have to go now,” and then she could leave. But instead, she sat on one of the hard metal folding chairs in the reception area.

“No coffee,” she said. “Thank you, but I’d like to wait for her if I may.”

A half-hour later, when Dr. Shaw emerged from her meeting, she seemed genuinely glad to see Bertie. And yes, she did have a few minutes to talk.

“Come into my office,” she said.

Bertie held tightly to the arm of the chair she sat in across from Dr. Shaw’s desk.

“I’d like to come back here,” she said the way she’d rehearsed it silently to herself so often. “Only I’d like to volunteer for five full days a week instead of two half-days. And I think I can promise you there won’t be another incident. It was unfortunate, and it won’t happen again.”

Dr. Shaw nodded.

“You’re a hard worker, Roberta,” she said. “I suspect you were going through some personal crisis, but if you feel you can keep that separate-”

“I will,” Bertie said. “I mean, I know I can. And . . . I’d like to be here. Very much.”

Dr. Shaw nodded again.

“Let’s try,” she said, standing to let Bertie know that their few minutes’ talk was at an end.

“Thank you,” Bertie said. She wanted to throw her arms around the serious lady shrink and kiss her all over her face.

“I’m so glad.” My God, she thought, if there’s anything I mustn’t do now it’s cry. “So glad.”

“I’m sure,” Dr. Shaw said, moving around the desk, guiding Bertie toward the door, “that Carla will be glad, too.”

Bertie looked surprised.

“She came back last night,” Dr. Shaw said, taking Bertie’s arm.

The two women walked together into the corridor.

Dear Bertie,

This is at least the tenth or eleventh letter I have written you and you aren’t opening them and you are sending them back and I don’t know why. Well-I think I do-but I’m not sure. I think you’ve got some crazy idea about me and your husband-only I swear it isn’t true. That’s what I wrote in the last ten or eleven letters, too, and I’ll keep sending them till you give up and answer me one day.

Did Michael say something happened? Bert, I swear on everything it’s not true.

I am opening in my first Broadway show next week. It’s a small part but I have a solo that’s really good.

I have been fighting a lot with John and wish I could talk to you or write to you about it. I need your advice a lot.

PLEASE
,
BERTIE
,
I’M
BEGGING
YO[7.
DON’T
THROW
THIS
AWAY
.
READ
IT
AND
WRITE
TOME
.

Cee Cee

Dear Roberta,

Well, here I am in Neetie’s beautiful new home in Miami Beach. 1 wish you had come with me, but I understand that Michael likes to have you at home instead of traveling without him.

The weather here is as usual very warm and compared to the temperature it was in Pittsburgh when you took me to the airport, this is paradise.

Neetie and Herb have a friend they want me to go on a date with, but I don’t know. It seems silly when I know I’ll be back in Pittsburgh in a few weeks, for me to date a man in Miami. Neetie says, for God’s sake, Rose, it’s only to go out to dinner, you don’t have to think about marrying the man.

They are happy to have made the move here. Herb’s business is thriving, even though your aunt lives in the fear every day that he’ll get thrown in jail.

Neetie thinks I shouhi move here, too, so at least I can be near her, but then it would mean I couldn’t be near you and Michael and someday, this is not a hint, a grandchild. Neetie says you’ll bring the grandchild to visit.

I guess I’m feeling lonely today, and maybe I’ll try to call you tonight, because you always cheer me up.

Give my best to Michael.

Love, Mother

WHATSERFACE

FIRST
NIGHTERS

ONE
MAN’S
OPINION
BY
DAVID
BALLARD

Whatserface is the story of the rise to stardom and power of a woman who falls into it all by accident. If by some accident you should fall into the Brookhurst Theater while it’s playing, I hope you stay awake longer than I did.

Cami Dunnet, who was the only breath of spring in John Campbell’s Honey Bear off-Broadway last year, has fallen prey to Marc Rothfeld’s stodgy directorial hand, and the result is deadly. Dunnet’s transition to star model from cleaning lady is so devoid of transformation, you wonder why she even bothered to change for her last number into the bugle beads (overdone by designer Celia Fenwick).

Hal Collins’s lyrics and David Gelman’s music are just a shade less childlike than Helen Newsome’s book, which received (not an exaggeration) actual hoots in several places from members of the audience who were brave enough to remain for the second act. Particularly when Bob Foxdale, in a mercifully small role, tells Dunnet how the modeling world will take girls like her and “chew them up and spit them out.”

Can this show be saved? Absolutely not. And yet, magnificently cast in the role of Miss Dunnet’s associate on the night shift is a young actress-singer named Cee Cee Bloom, who has such presence, such a dazzling voice, such extraordinary sparkle that when she performed her song, “This Is Who I Am,” a few people who

were on their way up the aisle were compelled to turn back and stay. (P.S. After she made her exit, so did they.)

Ergo, Virginia, every cloud seems indeed to have a silver lining. So, rest assured that just as the sun rises and sets, you can count on Whatser-face to close real soon. But . . . keep an eye out for Cee Cee Bloom.

My dear daughter Cecilia,

I must admit when you called me on the telephone to ask if I would come and see you in a play on the Broadway stage, I had my worries and my doubts as to if I should do it or if I shouldn’t do it, even though you are my only child.

After all, since your mother died, may she rest in peace, I go out very little. I am not complaining because I like it that way. 1 have a nice person who comes once a week to clean, and she also makes a trip to the supermarket so I wouldn’t have to. Once in a while I go to your cousin Myra, who is a thoughtful girl to include an old man, and she makes a nice brisket and gives me leftovers to take home in an “uncle bag.” (That is a joke between me and Myra that I find funny.)

Anyhow, when I told Myra you invited me to Broadway, she told Herman and they wanted to come also, so that is why I asked you to leave three tickets. Myra said, Uncle Note, how bad could it be? Right? Even though I always used to worry when your mother, may she rest in peace, would try to make you go every week to dancing lessons and singing lessons, and sometimes you would cry bitterly and I would say let her sleep late, Leona, darling, and she would get mad at me and tell me to shut up.

Cecilia, to make a long story short, I didn’t like for you to be in show business, and I can’t lie about it.

So Saturday night when you came on the

stage and you sang a song with a voice like a bird, I am ashamed to admit that my eyes were so full of tears Myra gave me her hankie.

After the play, I came backstage to see you and give you a kiss and see your nice husband, but I couldn’t say too much because everyone was there, and if I bragged too much they would think it’s because I’m your father, and maybe that’s why I thought it was so good, because I’m related. But it’s not. I would think you were the best one even if you were a total stranger. Myra said so also. As did Herman on the way home.

Even though I hope your mother, may she rest in peace, is resting in peace, I wish she, over anybody, would have seen our daughter Cee Cee (why can’t you use Cecilia? It’s much better in my opinion and also in Myra’s opinion) Bloom?

Your loving father, Nathan Bloom

BILLBOARD
HOT
100
FOR
WEEK
ENDING
JAN
. 3, 1970

THIS
WEEK

1 week ago

2 weeks ago

3 weeks ago

TITLE
, Performer, Producer Record Company

weeks on chart

RAINDROPS
KEEP
FALLING
ON MY
HEAD

B.J. Thomas (Burt Bacharach-Hal David) Scepter

LEAVING
ON A
JET
PLANE

Peter, Paul & Mary (Albert B. Grossman & Milt Okun) Warner Bros.-Seven Arts

SOMEDAY
WE’LL
BE
TOGETHER

Diana Ross & The Supremes (Johnny Bristol) Motown

DOWN
ON
THE
CORNER/
FORTUNATE
SON

Creedence Clearwater Revival (John Fogerty) Fantasy

NA NA
HEY
HEY
KISS
HIM
GOODBYE

Steam (Paul Lake) Fontana

THIS
IS
WHO
1 AM

Cee Cee Bloom (Ha! Collins- David Gelman) Athena

1
WANT
YOU
BACK

The Jackson 5 (The Corporation) Motown

VENUS

Shocking Blue (Robert van Leeuwen) Colossus

HOLLY
HOLY

Neil Diamond (Tom Catalone & Tom Cogbill)
UNI

LA LA LA (If 1 Had You)

Bobby Sherman (Jackie Mills) Metromedia

T.V.
GUIDE

ED
SULLIVAN
VARIETY-SUNDAY
,
JANUARY
21ST

ED’S
GUESTS
INCLUDE
IMPRESSIONIST
DAVID
FRYE
,
CONNIE
STEVENS
,
COMIC
JOHN
BYNER
,
AND
SINGER
CEE
GEE
BLOOM
SINGING
HER
HIT
SONG
“
THIS
IS
WHO
I AM.”

Miami Beach, Florida, 1970

Bertie was too numb to look out the window of the taxi, and Miami Beach, at least from what she’d seen as she stood at the airport taxi stand, didn’t look at all the way it had in that James Bond movie.