The road seemed to go on forever. Since leaving Salt Lake there had been little for her to do except sit back and watch the vast skies as day turned to night and the sun was replaced by tresses of stars. The bus was comfortable enough and the motion rocked her to sleep. She dreamed of sunny days to come in California.
The intercom woke her with a start “Sorry folks, we have to change drivers so there will be a break of about an hour before we set off to Sacramento. There is a place to eat over the way.”
The passengers, all four of them, spread themselves out around the Tahoe Moon diner. The waitress was slow to get to her table but she didn’t mind. “Coffee honey?” She nodded sleepily. “Did you want anything to eat?”
“No thanks”
The waitress filled a mug with hot brown liquid and put it on the table. “Do you mind some company?”
She shrugged. The waitress sat down opposite her. “My feet are killing me. I have been on the go all day. I am Marge by the way.” She held out a hand inviting it to be shaken.
“Hello, Marge. I am Barbara”
“I couldn’t help but notice your dress when you came in.” It was true. They were both wearing the same creamy beige tunic with red piping around the pocket and collar. “It could be the same material. I bought mine at the dime store. I wear it when I am working. I wouldn’t want to wear anything smart not with all the greasy food and suchlike.” She placed her hand over her mouth in horror “Jeez I didn’t mean… I mean yours looks smart on you.”
“It’s fine. I wear mine for work too.” The truth was that her journey was unplanned. She had gone from the Cinema directly to the bus station without thinking of a change of clothes. “I am an usherette at the Roxy in Centerville.”
The service hatch opened and an angry red face poked through. “I don’t pay you to sit around talking”
“You don’t pay me at all you old goat” the waitress growled “I am on my break”
The hatch slammed shut. Barbara was alarmed “I don’t want you to get into any trouble”
“That’s Al. Ignore him. He knows no one else would work for board and lodging only. Besides, do you see anyone that needs serving?”
She looked around the diner. Apart from the passengers, there were only a couple of lorry drivers eating. “It seems quiet”
“So, do you get to see all the movies when they come out? We have to wait for them to make it as far as Tahoe but I love that Marlon Brando. He can ring my bell anytime he likes. Do you have any favourites?”
Barbara didn’t hesitate “There is only one for me – Rock Hudson. I just love him.” The waitress pulled a face. “Nice looking man.”
“So how come an usherette from Centerville is in an all-night diner in Tahoe?” she asked, “you don’t look like the kind of girl that ought to be on an overnight Greyhound.”
“I am on my way to Hollywood.”
“That is kinda crazy” The waitress shook her head slowly. “Ten years ago I set out from Marshalltown Iowa to go to Hollywood. I figured myself as an actress waiting to be discovered but this was as far as my money would take me. I guess it is too late now.”
“Why, you are still young and attractive. Why give up on your dream?”
“You think so? Do you plan to be a movie star?”
“I might, but first I am going to see my boyfriend. He lives in Beverley Hills. He wrote me a love letter inviting me.”
“How romantic. Is he handsome?”
“Very”
“What is his name?”
“Rock”
The waitresses expression became quizzical. “Rock? As in Rock Hudson?”
“Yes. Rock Hudson.”
“Your boyfriend is Rock Hudson? Wow. No wonder you said he was handsome. He is a real dish.”
Then silence. The conversation stopped dead as the waitress studied her hands.
“You say he wrote you a love letter?”
Barbara fumbled in her bag “Yes I have it here”
The waitress took it reverently, smoothed it out on the table and began to read it. After a while, she raised head and stretched back in her chair before letting out a low whistle.
“Did you write to him?” she asked
“Yes. I said how much I admired him and how much I loved his new movie.”
“and he wrote you this letter back?”
Barbara nodded. Something about the expression of the waitress was beginning to scare her.
“Honey. I don’t want to rain on your parade but this is a standard letter that the studio sends out to all his fans.”
Barbara didn’t want to hear this but she was drawn onwards. “No, it is to me. It has my name at the top”
“Yes but if you look closely, Barbara is slightly out of line with rest of the letter. That is because the typist didn’t line it up accurately enough with the printed letter. “
This was bad. Worse because in her heart she knew what the waitress was saying was true. She ploughed on, her voice beginning to waver with emotion “but he says he loves me.”
The waitress put a sisterly arm around her shoulders. “Are you sure? Doesn’t it really say that he would love you to look him up next time you are in Beverley Hills?”
Fighting back the tears she carried on trying to believe what had been so crystal clear in Centerville “he invited me…”
“It’s just a turn of phrase. It doesn’t mean that he expects you to come and see him. I doubt that he even saw the letter let alone signed it. Besides, there is another reason that he can’t be your boyfriend.”
She hesitated and Barbara looked up at her.
“We might be a backwater up here but we do get all the news from Hollywood, just a little later than other folks. I have a girlfriend in Santa Barbara who sends me old copies of the Enquirer. They are full of rumours about who is seeing who including your Rock. There is one story that keeps cropping up. It is always denied by the studios but it keeps coming back. There is no delicate way to put this. He prefers trousers to skirts.”
Barbara absorbed this information so at odds with her vision. “You mean he is a homosexualist?”
“The worst kept secret in Hollywood.”
Now the tears began to flow as the brutal reality of the situation hit home. Barbara hugged the waitress, sobbing. “I am such a fool”
“Don’t worry” the waitress comforted “It is what happens when you get that damn stardust in your eyes. You can’t see straight. You can’t think straight. Why is it that I left Iowa? I had a steady job in an OK town – hell, I even had a steady boyfriend – yet off I set for Hollywood convinced I was the next Lana Turner”
Barbara sniffed loudly “I don’t know what to do”
“It seems to me you have a choice. You have a ticket all the way to LA. Just keep going. Never mind the Rock Hudson thing. You can still make it if you are strong - or you can cash in the ticket and go back to your old life.”
The very phrase chilled her. Her old life was what she was running from not what she hoped for. “I couldn’t go back” she stammered.
“I understand. I still send postcards of Hollywood to my old friends in Marshalltown telling them how well I am doing. How sad is that?”
Barbara shook her head “I am so confused. I need time to think”
“I have had all the time in the world here to think and I still haven’t decided anything.”
The bus driver put his head around the door “Bus will be leaving in ten. You folks had best finish up.”
Reaching in her bag Barbara handed her a slip of paper. “You go”
“What?”
“You go. You still have a plan. You can be that actress.”
The waitress looked at the ticket dumbfounded.
“If I take this. What will you do?”
“Stay here. I can serve table well enough.”
“Al won’t even notice.” Marge stood. “I don’t know how to thank you. I will write you here when I am set up and send you the fare. You might have worked things out by then.”
“All aboard for Sacramento” the driver yelled. With a final hug, she was gone. Barbara, the waitress, watched as the bus pulled away.
Al’s red face poked through the hatch “Don’t just stand there. Serve some refills. What do I pay you for?”
“You don’t pay me at all,” she said and picked up the coffee pot.
