Page 461 - Some Dance to Remember

Some Dance to Remember 431

“It’s almost four. We’re due back at the Falcon Crest shoot. Jane is so
punctual about tea. She’s so lovely. I wonder how she ever married that
terrible man!”
Ryan kissed Kweenie good-bye.
“By the way,” January said, “where is he?”
He always meant Kick.
“I don’t know,” Ryan said. “I don’t know.”
“Fame is so short,” January said. “I suppose his Universal Appeal has
turned to Universal Ennui.” She bussed the air on both sides of Ryan’s
cheeks. “You were so lucky to have him while he was hot.” She settled in
behind the wheel of her red Mercedes. “Whoever has him now has less
than you had.”
Ryan executed his worst Rita Moreno imitation. “I speet on whoever
hass heem now.”
January raised her hand and made a writing motion in the air. She
wanted his signature. “Ryan,” she said, “do be an angel.” She winked at
me. “Later, Magnus.”
Ryan waved after them speeding down the drive. “She’s such a bitch,”
he said.
“January?”
“No,” he said. “Kweenie.” He spit out the secret we’d all kept from
him. He proved himself the intuitive mystic. “If only she’d had his child.”
“You know?”
“It figures,” he said. “Betrayal always figures.”
“With all Kweenie’s acid and all Kick’s steroids, it would have been
born a monster.”
“Not to me.”
“Especially to you.”
“I should have killed them both.” He kicked at a chicken. “I can’t even
kill myself. I don’t have Thom’s courage.” He looked at the contract papers
and then at me. “Shit,” he said, “why not?”
“No,” I said. “No. You’re not seriously considering January’s option!”
“I’ll consider anything. It’s my story.”
“It’s his story too.”
“It’s all Rashomon, isn’t it? There’s my story and his story. Let him tell
his. I gave him enough material. Besides, he always said he wanted us to
do a project together.”
“The secrets of two are secret.”
“Unless one of them keeps journals, notes, letters, and videotapes; and
the other one wants to be a story told in bed at night around the world.”

©Jack Fritscher, Ph.D., All Rights Reserved
HOW TO LEGALLY QUOTE FROM THIS BOOK