A Midsummer Night's Scream

place that did.

'It's in that mall across from where we stayed for the mystery conference. We could take Ms. Bunting to lunch at that fabulous restaurant we discovered there, after we get her all set up.'

'You like her, don't you? So do I,' Jane said.

Martha at the needlepoint shop was gracious to Ms. Bunting, but had calmed,down and didn't gush too effusively — except for wanting to know which play she had been in with Sylvia Sidney.

Ms. Bunting said it was Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams in 1973. Sylvia was one of the leads. Ms. Bunting was offered only a small part, but she took it in order to get to know Sylvia. 'She was almost as old then as I am now. But she had more energy than I do. You know, she was once married to the publisher Bennett Cerf, and again to an actor named Luther Adler. She only died in 1999. She was eighty-nine years old. A very durable woman.'

'Indeed she was. And I've heard of both of her husbands,' Martha said. 'Well, I shouldn't take more of your time with this just now. I want to get you set up for class tomorrow.'

Ms. Bunting chose a combination of mauves, slate blues, and several clear greens. Martha told her what the assignment was, adding, 'But you, of course, Ms. Bunting, may do anything you wish.'

Five

jane dropped Shelley and Ms. Bunting at one of the entrances to the mall, then parked, as she always did, as far away as she could so that nobody was near enough to her car to ding it. In her eagerness to rejoin her friends, Jane trotted back to the entrance, arriving breathless and a bit sweaty.

'We've found something you'll like,' Shelley told Ms. Bunting. 'Would you like to come up the escalator with us to fetch it, or would you rather take a table and save it for us in our favorite restaurant? The restaurant is much closer. And you could order our drinks while we're gone.'

'The second option sounds best to me. I'm absolutely parched,' the older woman admitted. 'I wasn't expecting all this heat.'

They made sure they settled her by a window, and headed upstairs to buy the jewelry container for her flosses. Shelley slapped down a credit card and they rushed back down to the ground floor as soon as the clerk produced the receipt.

Ms. Bunting was already settled in, with a bottle of white wine for herself and Shelley, and the rose-flavored iced tea that Jane had requested.

Shelley reached into the department store bag and brought out the jewelry container, which was almost identical to the ones she and Jane had.

'Oh!' Ms. Bunting exclaimed. 'How dear of you pretty girls to get this. You must let me reimburse you.'

'No, it's a gift. We're all too hungry to mess around with money right now,' Shelley proclaimed. 'Besides, Jane and I wanted you to have it as a gift.'

'Then I'll pay for our lunch,' Ms. Bunting said.

'Let's just be nuisances and ask for separate checks and you and Shelley can split the cost of the wine,' Jane suggested.

They all agreed that this was fair. They studied the extensive menu and all chose different salads and entrees to share around.

'Would you like for me to go back to the car and get your flosses and needles while you two place our order?' Jane asked Ms. Bunting.

'I can't let you do that. It's too hot out there. Besides, it will give me something fun to do at leisure when I'm back at my hotel,' the older woman said.

They fell to gossiping about the cast, and agreed wholeheartedly that the most annoying by far was the director. Ms. Bunting said, 'John

and I seldom do amateur productions like this. It was only because we have family and friends here. I hadn't even looked at the script until we were on the plane, and was shocked at how silly it is.'

'Shelley and I purloined two scripts yesterday,' Jane said, 'and glanced over them. We agreed that it's obvious he's never even read a mystery. The reader or viewer deserves to know whodunit and why at the end. And he has no sense of humor. Are you sure you can't back out?'

'An actor never backs out,' Ms. Bunting exclaimed. 'No matter how bad the script is, we'll bring what talent we still possess to it. We'll just warn our local friends not to attend, as it's a miserable script.'

They didn't get any further with their criticisms because the salads arrived. All three were gigantic. 'I'll never get through this and the pasta dish I ordered,' Ms. Bunting said.

'They're used to guests like us. They'll box it up for us to take home,' Jane reassured her.

At the end of the meal, Ms. Bunting was looking tired. 'I'm seldom up as early as I was today, except on film shoots. They often start at dawn if they're shooting outside scenes, in order to get all the natural light they can.'

'We'll take you right straight back to your hotel for a nap. I may take one, too,' Jane said. 'This heat is exhausting.'

As they walked her to the hotel entrance, Jane asked, 'Would you like Shelley to take your things up to your room for you?'

'No, thanks. I'm not so tired that I can't carry these treasures, not to mention my leftover lunch. See you tonight — and thank you for the lovely day.'

'She was really fading away,' Jane said as she squeezed her way back into traffic.

'I wonder how old she really is?' Shelley asked.

'I don't think we'll find out. The older the actress, the younger she says she is,' Jane replied.

'Not anymore. Jane Fonda, Cher, Sally Field, and a lot of others are bragging about passing fifty these days.'

Jane said, 'But they all still look thirty-eight. Times and plastic surgery have changed our perception of age since Gloria Bunting's heyday. If there ever really was one for her.'

'What do you mean by that?' Shelley asked.

'I saw them on a local morning news show,' Jane explained. 'The interviewer queried them about what movies they'd made, and both of them turned up their noses at films and said they preferred live theater. They listed a whole lot of plays that they'd been in. Neither the interviewer nor I had ever heard of any of them.'

'But you've admitted already that you don't like live acting. And maybe those plays were never made into movies,' Shelley said.

'No, I don't like live amateur acting. Come to think of it, though, I do prefer movies, especially when I can buy or rent them and fast-forward or stop them when the spaghetti water starts boiling over.'

'So we're guessing that Gloria and John Bunting are a sort of third-rate Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn,' Shelley said with the slightest hint of criticism of Jane's opinion.

'That's not as bad as it sounds,' Jane explained. 'Lots of people in any field of the arts can probably eke out a good living doing first-rate work and not gaining enormous fame from it. It's certainly true of writers. I've read a lot of good books by writers who aren't famous, and probably aren't rich, but who tell a good story. It's probably true of actors and artists as well. They make their own niche and fill it.'

'I suppose that's right,' Shelley said.

'So who are the caterers tonight?' Jane asked. 'An outfit calling themselves 'The Ultimate Meal.' '