and I thought, This is the last time I will ever see this kitchen. Part of me felt a little sad about leaving Aunt Grace and the twins, but I was too excited about my new life and my career to think about much else.
I was almost tempted to leave a separate note for Uncle Ted, telling him the real reason why I was leaving, which he probably could guess anyway, but Aunt Grace might find it.
There was another reason I had to leave, but I could never tell that to anybody. Especially not to Uncle Ted.
A car honked twice outside. The taxi had come. I ran to the front door and threw it open. I hoped no one else would come to their front door at the sound of the horn.
I grabbed my pocketbook and my hatbox and pulled my suitcase out the door. I closed the door behind me and hurried down the walk to the cab.
I pushed the suitcase in the back before the driver could even offer to help me with it, and climbed in.
“The train station,” I said.
“Okay.” He shifted and the taxi squealed away from the curb. I looked back at the house, a little, salmon-colored box that was exactly the same as all the other houses on the block, except for the paint. I looked at the pink plastic flamingo on the front lawn. Nobody else on the block had a flamingo like that.
No one seemed to be watching out their windows, so I turned around and stared straight ahead as we turned the comer of Robin Lane. I fixed my eyes on the taxi driver’s collar, and never once turned to look back.
Chapter 4
Dear Mom,
Well, here I am on my way to California! My plan worked out just as well as I expected. I think I was really clever about “covering my tracks.” I ’m not bragging or anything, but I’ve seen enough movies to know how to “lay a false trail ” and that’s what I did. For instance, I left a note saying I was going to visit you in Rochester, which I wish I was, but of course I don’t know where you are, but I made them think I did. Then I had the taxi take me to the train station, but I didn’t take the train to the city, like I told the driver I was going to. Instead I took a bus to the city and the subway to the Greyhound bus terminal and bought a ticket to
“My, I don’t know how you can write on a moving bus like that.”
I covered up my letter with my hand and turned to the woman next to me. She was pretty old, but she had a nice face.
“I can’t even read on a moving vehicle,” she said. “The letters start swimming around in front of my eyes, and first thing you know I’ve got one of my sick headaches.”
We’d been riding for two hours. She must have been pretty bored, not being able to read and all. And with me sitting by the window, she didn’t even have any scenery to look at.
I folded my letter and put it in my pocketbook.
“Oh, don’t stop writing on my account,” she said. “I didn’t mean to bother you.”
“That’s okay. I was finished anyway. Would you like to sit by the window for a while?”
“Well, thank you, dear, that would be nice.”
We switched places. “It’s such a long trip,” she said. “Maybe we could change every two hours.”
“Okay.”
She settled back in the seat and turned toward me. She hadn’t even peeked out the window. I guess she wanted to talk. I didn’t mind. I’d bought a movie magazine at the bus terminal, but I’d read the whole thing already.
I bought it because there was this big headline on the front cover: JAMES DEAN DID NOT DIE! I couldn’t wait to read the article, so I sat right down on a bench in the waiting room and turned to the page where the story was, and of course it turned out that what they meant was James Dean’s memory lives on in the hearts of his fans. I was pretty annoyed, but there were a lot of pictures with the article, so that was something.
Some of these magazines can be really sneaky. Like, for instance, I bought this magazine once because it had a story called “Why Tab Is Taboo to Me,” by Natalie Wood. Well, of course I thought it would be all about why Natalie wouldn’t get serious with Tab Hunter, even though all the magazines were running pictures of them on dates together, but what it turned out to be was that “Taboo” was Natalie’s nickname for Tab. It wasn’t so bad, though, even if it was sneaky, because there was a lot in it about Natalie and the kind of life she lives in Hollywood, and the actors she pals around with, like Nick Adams and Dennis Hopper and a lot of the younger up-and-coming stars.
I got to thinking how maybe, once I started working in movies, we would become friends, Natalie and me, because we were almost the same age and even if she is a little older, everyone in Hollywood would think I was eighteen, because that’s what I was going to tell them. And I’d go around with her and have double dates and go to premieres together and meet all the teenage actors she knows.
Maybe even Tab Hunter. That would be okay with Natalie, because in the article it said she was only good friends with him. They are like brother and sister, so she wouldn’t mind if I dated him, I’m sure.
I’m not all that hot to go with Tab Hunter, though. He’s cute and all, but not one of my absolute top favorites. But I wouldn’t turn him down if he asked me out.
But anyway, like I was saying, being a real expert on movie magazines, I know some of them can be very misleading. I keep buying them anyhow, but for the real truth about the stars you can only depend on Photoplay and Modern Screen. You know if you read it there you’re getting the true facts.
“I’m going to Springfield, Ohio, to visit my son and grandchildren,” the woman next to me said suddenly. “He’s an assistant manager at the Sears, Roebuck store. I go twice a year to visit them.”
“How many grandchildren do you have?” I didn’t really care all that much, but I could see she wanted to talk.
“Well, John has twin boys—”
“Isn’t that funny!” I said without thinking. “I have—” I stopped myself just in time. I’d been going to tell her about Honey and Bunny and that would have been a big goof. What if the police managed to track me down to the Greyhound bus station, even though I’d done such a good job of faking them out? If they started questioning people who had been on Greyhound buses, and this lady told them about sitting next to a girl who talked about twins named Honey and Bunny, they’d be hot on my trail.
“You have what? What were you going to say?”
“Nothing. I was just wondering if we were ever going to stop anyplace. I’m kind of hungry.”
She nodded. “I think we’re stopping in about an hour. You’ll be able to freshen up and get something to eat then. How far are you traveling?”
Since she was getting off in Ohio, she wouldn’t know I was going to Los Angeles unless I told her. Just in case, I thought I’d better not give her my real destination. But besides Los Angeles, I couldn’t think where the bus might stop after Springfield. I’m not very good at geography and the only state I could think of between Ohio and California was Texas.
“Texas,” I said. “To visit my aunt. They have a big ranch there.”
“Really? Do they have cattle?”
“Uh, yeah, but I think oil wells too.” The only thing I know about Texas is that James Dean’s last movie, Giant, is about this big ranch in Texas where they discover oil. I can’t wait for the movie to come out. James Dean was killed while he was working on it, so it’s the last James Dean movie there’ll ever be. Anyway, if I’d seen the movie already, maybe I would have known something more about Texas, but I hadn’t.
“Oil wells. My, my.”
I looked sideways at her. I don’t know