Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand

My parents were flying in this afternoon. Ben and I were supposed to meet them for dinner at the Olympus . I rushed, worried that I was keeping them waiting. And I still hadn’t had a minute to sit by the pool with my froufrou drink. Tomorrow, before the wedding.

God, the wedding was tomorrow? I suddenly felt like I had compressed about three weeks’ worth of activities into the last two days. But if I could make it to tomorrow, I’d finally be able to relax. Ben and me both.

I shouldn’t have worried about keeping my parents waiting. When I arrived at the restaurant—after once again glancing around for glimpses of Sylvia and Boris—they were already seated, munching on appetizers. Ben was nowhere in sight. I took a moment to call him, but his phone rolled over to voice mail. I tried not to be annoyed.

I was kind of weird in that I liked my parents. Of course, the fact that I wasn’t living with them anymore might have made getting along with them a lot easier. I couldn’t help but admire them, at least a little. They’d been married thirty-five years and still held hands in public. I could only hope to be so lucky.

I slipped into one of the empty seats in the booth across from them. “Hi. Sorry I’m late.”

Gail Norville, my mother, beamed. “That’s all right, we went ahead and ordered something and were having a very nice chat. I hadn’t realized how much I was looking forward to this trip. I’m so glad Dr. Patel said I could come.”

Mom wore a wig. If you didn’t know you couldn’t tell, because it was the same ash-colored graying blond as her own hair, and well done. Mom was like that—tasteful and very put together, and she wasn’t going to let a little thing like cancer disturb the order of her universe. She wore a soft blue blouse and skirt and comfortable-looking sandals. Trading her usual pumps and heels for the walking sandals was the only other concession to her illness.

Right at the moment, though, she didn’t look sick. Her cheeks had color, and she was smiling at my father, Jim Norville, a tall, athletic man in late middle age. He wore a polo shirt and slacks and was beaming just as hard back at my mother.

“We came here for a weekend right after we were married. It was kind of a joke—we didn’t want to wait twenty years for a second honeymoon. We were just remembering.”

After all this time I was still learning things about my parents. Mostly things I didn’t want to know. “I feel like I’m interrupting,” I said. “You want me to go?”

She gave me her “don’t be silly” look. “The town has changed so much since then,” Mom continued. “This was before all the big theme hotels went up. It’s like a big amusement park now.”

“Where’s Ben?” my father said, glancing around like my fiancé was hiding and not like it wasn’t perfectly obvious that I’d arrived alone.

Off gambling like a two-bit hustler. “He should be here any minute,” I said instead.

“Oh, when your father and I came here we were attached at the hip. You couldn’t pry us apart for a second.” There they went, making puppy eyes at each other again.

“Well, you weren’t trying to put on a TV show at the same time,” I muttered.

“That’s true, and I’m sure the show is going to be just great. I can’t wait to see it. And how are the plans for the wedding coming together?”

The weekend’s real priority. Of course, if Ben did better at that tournament than he thought he was going to, we might end up watching the finals ringside instead. But wasn’t that the beautiful thing about Vegas? We could have the wedding any time we wanted—we just had to find a drive-through chapel. My mother would freak. “Everything’s on track, except it’s at six now instead of two.” Please don’t ask why. . .

“Oh? Was there a problem with the earlier time?” Mom said.

“No,” I said, shrugging and trying to play it cool. “It just worked out better that way.”

“And you have a dress?”

“It’s hanging in the closet in my room.”

“And a photographer? What about a photographer—”

“Mom, this is why we picked Vegas. We don’t have to worry about anything but showing up. The chapel takes care of everything. They’ll even have a cake.”

She sighed and looked unconvinced. I suddenly felt like I had robbed her by not letting her help plan a big wedding.

I held my temples. “I’m not going to apologize for getting married in Las Vegas , okay?”

Mom gave me a look. “I wasn’t asking you to.”

“Then why do I feel like apologizing?”

“You didn’t think you were going to get out of this guilt-free, did you?” said my father, as if reading my mind. He grinned wickedly. I rolled my eyes.

I caught a familiar scent, heard footsteps, and looked over in time to see Ben arrive through the front of the restaurant. I wasn’t aware of how worried I’d been until I felt a sense of relief when he came to the table.

“Sorry I’m late, I got held up. Mr. Norville, Mrs. Norville,” he said, shaking hands with my parents. He slid in next to me, put his hand on my leg, and smiled. And all was forgiven.

“It’s Gail, please,” my mom said, and if possible, she beamed even wider. “Or Mom, even.”

Ben was always telling me I had too much family. Even if it were just my parents, he’d probably still say it was too much family.

“Ready for the big day tomorrow, Ben?” Dad asked next.

Ben’s eyes went a little wide, and for a moment he seemed to be at a loss for words. As a lawyer, he recognized when he was being cross-examined. “Ready as I’ll ever be,” he said, managing a thin smile.

“It’s going to be wonderful, ” Mom said.

Ben, his smile frozen, gave me a sideways glance that clearly pleaded, Say something, get me out of this.

Poor guy. “So,” I said brightly. “Any other big plans this weekend? Besides the stuff that’s all about me.”

She said, “We’re going shopping. I’m going to treat myself by spending too much money, and your father’s going to carry the bags.” Dad rolled his eyes, but he seemed just as happy at Mom’s good mood. “Do you have time to join us? I’d love to buy you something nice.”

Was it too late to ditch the whole show? “I’m afraid not. Maybe you could buy something nice for me anyway.”

“Maybe I will.”

And at that moment I was glad to be here, glad they’d decided to come, because it was so nice seeing Mom smiling, happy, and not thinking about being sick.

But tomorrow, somehow, some way, I was going to find time to sit by the pool with a froufrou drink. I might even miss my own wedding to do it.

I had to have makeup done. I sat in a chair while a nice woman made me look gorgeous. I had to wear nice clothes. Erica brought in a wardrobe person to dress me up: nice slacks, shoes with heels, a low-cut blouse in a photogenic shade of red. I was a different person when they all finished with me. I never had to worry about this kind of thing on the radio. I loved wearing jeans to work. I reminded myself to keep that in mind the next time I thought about doing something like this.

My stomach was roiling. I had done remote shows before. It was always a bit of an adventure, working with strangers and wondering if an unassuming glitch was going to derail the whole process. The trick was to keep plowing ahead like nothing was wrong. The minute you started acting, sounding, like something was wrong, the audience could hear it, and you’d lose them. They wanted confidence. Whatever went wrong, make it part of the show.

But I had never done this in front of an actual audience. This added a whole new level of anxiety. If—when—something went wrong, I wouldn’t be able to hide behind the microphone.

Ben stood backstage with me and held my hand. “Wow, you really are nervous.”

My palms were sweaty. I kept telling myself, I can do this. I was in control here.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I’m thinking this is a little crazy. What if no one shows up?”

“Wait, are you worried that no one’s going to show up, or are you worried about doing this in front of a bunch of people?”

I whined a little. “I’m not sure.”

“You going to be okay?” What he meant was, was Wolf okay? Was I going to be able to keep it together? When I got nervous, scared, or felt trapped, the Wolf grew agitated. Harder to control, harder to keep inside. I had to stay in control, or she might come bursting out of my skin, a snarling werewolf onstage in front of a theater full of people.

That might make the morning papers. There was such a thing as bad publicity. I didn’t want to go there.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I think I’ll be okay.”

“I’ll be right here if you need me.”

I squeezed his hand. That did make me feel better. “Thanks.”

I couldn’t stand it anymore. There were noises on the other side of the curtain. Crowd like noises. I had to look. Edging up to the curtain, I pulled it back a couple of inches and peered out.

The place was almost full. I spotted a few empty seats, and a few people wandering up and down the aisles. Their voices made a rumbling ocean of noise.

I quickly pulled back and ran into Ben. “Omigod. It’s full. The place is packed.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?”

“It’s great. It’s fabulous. I think I’m gonna die.”

He tried to give me a pep talk. “Haven’t you ever been onstage before? You seem like the kind of person who did a lot of theater in high school.”

Not that I wanted to be reminded. “I did one play. Annie Get Your Gun. I was a dancing Indian during the politically incorrect Indian song.”

He looked doubtful. “You played an Indian? Kitty, you’re blond.”

“I wore a wig made out of black yarn. It wasn’t a very ethnically diverse high school, okay?”

A woman wearing a headset, the stage manager, caught my attention. “You’re on in two minutes, Kitty.”

“Thanks.”

Another deep breath. But not too deep. I was about to start hyperventilating.

“So,” I said. “How many people do you think are out there with silver bullets in their guns waiting to take a shot at me?” Like Boris and Sylvia?

He gave me a look. “I wish you hadn’t said that.”

“Ha! I’m not being paranoid, you thought of it, too.”

He pressed his lips shut and didn’t say a word.

The stage manager gestured at me again. “It’s time.”

Deep breath. I mentally rehearsed my intro again, imagined myself walking out there and being brilliant. Not a problem.

Ben gave me a quick kiss. “Knock ’em dead.”

“Thanks.”

I walked out into the spotlight like I knew what I was doing.