Star by Eliza Witte - HTML preview

57

‘Let’s get a new face now. Quickly!’ Annie said and they both giggled. Jessie quickly fixed her hair. Annie got the lipsticks, the mascara and the paints out of the set. Outside the music was booming and another song started. Both girls screamed out– it was one of their best loved songs! They started to act even faster, impatient to finally get out. But just when Annie thought they were done, Jessie pulled her back, ‘Take off your apron right this minute!’

‘What? You are crazy!’

They eyed each other mischievously and Annie read Jessie’s thoughts, ‘Oh, no!’

‘Oh, yes!’

And before any further arguments, Annie took off her apron and then her shirt out of her blue-jeans. She got her shirt tight around her waist. Jessie in return pulled up her skirt so that it looked even shorter, took off her pullover and remained only with the top on. Both aprons went to the paper-bin. They got out of the bathroom and dashed into the party.

‘OK, this is something new!’ Stu announced the next song and under the gentle beat of Chris’s sticks ‘The World’s In Your Eyes’ began. Annie stopped breathless in the middle of the bar. She looked at Stu and the rest of the world was suddenly gone for her. She started quietly singing along with him when crystal-clear tears welled up in her eyes, ‘Annie, what’s going on?’ Jessie asked.

‘I don’t know! Something's happened to me. I'm crying but not because I’m sad. It’s so beautifu-u-u-l!’ She sobbed.

‘You're crying from happiness.’

‘Yes,’ Annie said after considering Jessie’s words, ‘That’s right. When I read it I didn’t believe it but look at me now.’

‘Hey, you two,’ startled them Louie with his knack for turning up when least expected.

‘Don’t you have work to do? What’s going on here?’

‘You can’t complain, Boss! The bar has never been fuller on a Monday evening,’

Annie answered him without taking her eyes off Stu. Louie got totally nonplussed and hid himself in the crowd as fast as he had come and Jessie burst into laughter. She looked at Annie, who was still mesmerized by what was going on at the improvised stage in front of her, ‘You have to go to the bathroom again. It’s a shame - you’ve ruined already the make-up!’

XXXIV

At 4 o’clock in the morning Annie was still awake and busy. They left the bar with Jessie at the usual time when their shift was over and they got a cab as usual. So far Annie’s plan was working perfectly and Jessie played her role of the accountant to pay royalties to 58

the band exactly as she was supposed to. Good as that was though, Annie figured out that she was practically left penniless. Jessie scolded her with ‘I told you so’ but they had already started this and now Annie had to figure out how to pursue it further. It was a time for calculations. So she was sitting at the table in her room making math, when she finally reached the conclusion there was no way out of it unless she doubled the number of hours of her part-time employment at Louie’s, something that was bordering on the impossible given the classes she would have to attend. She got desperate and angry and at last she couldn’t hold it anymore, ‘This son of a bitch - Louie!’ She cursed and in her anger she threw the mug full of pencils against the wall. All the stationery spilled and amongst the rubbers and the pencils, Margaret’s joint also fell on the floor. Annie saw it. She came closer and got one cigarette between her fingers. Then from the bottom of her heart she apologized to the Boss for what she had to do assuring him that it was just for scientific purposes. She found a match with Louie’s bar logo on it and she lighted it. She choked heavily of course, at first, but she was determined to find out what was the big deal with the wicked sticks as she called them was all about. She coughed, turning a bit of green but carried on. She was trying to repeat exactly how she saw Stu doing it as if the tiniest difference could spoil the experiment and soon the stuff got her. She started to giggle and became dizzy. So dizzy was she that she had to lie in bed. And then… then the nightmare began – a transparent double Annie rose from Annie’s body and rose up to the ceiling. Annie panicked, ‘Oh, my God! My soul! My soul is going away!’ she pressed with two hands her solar plexus and, thank God, her soul vaporized back inside her but only to rise up again. Annie screamed, ‘I’m dying! Stay! Stay here! I want my soul back!’ She was completely panic-stricken as she got up from the bed.

She dashed out through the door into the corridor where she found Jessie’s door and banged on it as hard as she could, ‘Jessie, open up! Open the door please!’ Annie shouted as if insane.

‘Annie, what is going on?’ Jessie asked the very next second, dragging Annie into her room. ‘Quick before they kick us out!’ Annie burst in tears, ‘I’m losing my soul. My soul has left me. I’m dying!’

Jessie quickly hugged her and sniffed at her clothes.

‘Are you high or something?’ She looked worried.

‘No-o-o, I’m down.’

‘You’ve been smoking grass.’

‘Y-e-e-es.’

‘Why? What happened?’

‘I tried the cigarette with purely educational purposes in mind but my soul is away… I am dying… When a star loses her soul she explodes. When a star on Earth loses her soul she can never find her way back home. I’m a star, Jessie.’