I sent up a little prayer to the direct deposit gods that the funds would be posted to my account by the end of the business day so I'd be able to withdraw the rest of the rent money—plus fifty bucks in cash.
I also doubled down on my speed, running through what appeared to be a top-of-the-morning meth deal in order to make my bus. It was almost to the empty kiosk.
“Stop! Stop!” I waved my hands frantically above my head, yelling out to the bus driver, hoping he’d wait for me.
And he did slow down...for two whole seconds—before he sped right back up, his stare fixed straight ahead as if he didn't hear or see me running toward him down the building's cracked walkway.
I made it to the curb just in time to slap my hand against the side of the bus as the driver rolled away.
Crap! Can this day get any worse?
In less than an hour, I would deeply regret asking myself that question.
* * *
“Oh,my God, twin! You look terrible!”
Pru, my best friend, came rushing over to me when I slunk into the backstage dressing room over twenty minutes late for our full-dress call time.
I knew she was kidding about calling me twin. That was an inside joke, dating back to our early days on the line before Rick learned to tell the only two African-American Benton Girls apart, despite us having different complexions and Pru standing a modelesque five eleven to my bare minimum five eight.
But I could tell from her expression that she was totally worried about me.
“Rick's gonna be hella pissed when he sees you looking like shit and not even ready to go on!" Dara, one of the second-line dancers from Northern California, called out from her vanity station.
Unlike Pru, Dara didn’t sound worried about me. In fact, her warning had a gleeful undertone. Dara was also my understudy, and I could almost hear her salivating for my crowd-pleasing mid-show solo.
A wave of exhaustion passed over me. The thing was, I'd love to give her a chance to shine. I could more than use a day off.
Unfortunately, both Dara and I were contractors who were paid by the show, and I needed the money too badly to skip even one performance.
No matter how bone-tired I was.
“And that's why we’re going to make sure she’s ready to go before Rick comes back here,” Pru announced. She turned to marshal the other topless dancers in her line. “Maria, go grab her bikini, backpack, and headpiece off the rack. Leah, you grab her a pair of show heels. She wears a size nine and a half.
“And you…” Pru grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me over to her vanity, where all her makeup was set out. “Let me see what I can do before Rick starts asking questions about why you look so tired.”
“Is it that bad?"I wasn’t in the habit of wearing makeup outside of official shows. Also, "Don't you think I should get into my costume first thing?”
Pru squirted a small pool of concealer onto her makeup brush.
“I don't know. When you saybad, are we comparing you to, like, a raccoon?” she asked. “Because then, no, it's not thatbad.”
She punctuated her sarcastic remark with a suck of her teeth. But her expression softened after she started attacking me with her makeup brush. “Seriously, Sunny, how much longer are you going to push yourself like this?”
“As long as it takes,” I insisted. “Hopefully, before anyone finds out…”
I let the rest of the sentence trail off, not just because I was afraid of being overheard but also because I was still coming to terms with all my plans blowing up in my face and the fallout from that explosion.
“If we had more time, I’d suggest a full-on drag queen cake.” Pru sighed. "But let me see what magic I can do with some concealer and an underbrush.”
Less than five minutes later,I breathed a grateful sigh of relief when I saw a non-zombie who'd gotten a decent night's sleep in the reflection of Pru's vanity station mirror.
And thanks to my best friend's earlier orders, my show outfit was hanging on the back of the chair she'd pushed me into, standing by for my incoming quick change.
“Oh, my God, twin. You truly are my fairy makeup godmother," I declared as I hopped up to don my crystal bikini. "I can't believe you got me looking like a whole human before Rick found out I was la?—”
“Sunny Gloria Johnson!What did you do?" Rick's always overdramatic voice rang out across the backstage dressing room.
