"Why?" I asked.
"From what you've told me, the last thing in the world our Madame Senetsky would want is this story leaked to the rag papers. No, if anything, should we be found out. I think we can expect the best possible treatment. Maybe we will make sure we're found out, in fact. Our careers may move faster than we all think." he concluded.
"You're sick. Howard. You're that ambitious that you would try to blackmail Madame Senetsky and use poor Gerta," Rose flared at him.
"All's fair in love and war, they say. and you've heard Madame Senetsky's speech about being in continuous battle, continuous competition. There are many, many talented people out there. girls. There are probably a dozen girls on this block and the next who sing as beautifully as you do. Ice. Go down to Broadway and look at the line of dancers competing for a Broadway opportunity, Rose. And the number of openings for positions in orchestras isn't exactly overwhelming. Honey. As for us. Cinnamon, you know what the competition will be like."
"Is this the great Howard Rockwell the Seventh or Eighth admitting he is not God's gift to the theater and therefore guaranteed to win the Tony Award?" Cinnamon quipped.
"All I'm saying is, when it comes down to it, whatever you can use to your advantage. you use. It's the same in every business, every field of work."
"It isn't for my father," I said. "We don't blackmail people to get them to buy our corn."
"You would if it came down to whether you would sell it or not," he insisted with confidence.
He turned to Cinnamon and glared at her with a face that could stop a charging tiger.
"You're going back up there very soon. and I'm going with you.," he said. "I want to see all this for myself. Then I'll decide what we should do, if anything."
"It might be impossible to get back up there. Howard," Cinnamon said, her voice revealing a certain degree of retreat. "If the window is locked and if we can't get up through Madame Senetsky's..."
"We'll find a way," he said confidently. He looked at the rest of us. "No one say anything to Steven. He's unpredictable," he said.
He turned to the door and opened it. Then he turned back to us,
"Isn't it nice how well we're all getting along? Trust. girls. It's all a matter of trust."
He laughed and walked out, closing the door softly behind him.
"How can someone so good-looking be so coldhearted?" Rose wondered.
"Didn't you ever look at a cobra? They're beautiful, but deadly," Cinnamon replied.
She started for the door. Ice and Rose followed.
"It's almost as if life is a series of stages, one curtain lifting to reveal another and then another and another," Cinnamon said. "Until you reach the final curtain, take your bows, and leave the stage."
"Hoping you'll hear applause," Rose added.
"Instead of boos and catcalls," Ice followed,
"Good night, sweet ladies, good night," Cinnamon said. We all hugged and they left.
I stood there alone, the whole evening ringing in my ears.
Later. after I had gone to bed and my head rested on my pillow, I turned toward my window and gazed out at the night. It seemed to me that a dark shadow flew by and up.
Gerta, I thought, returning to her body.
Surprisingly, the idea didn't chill me. It brought me comfort to know that even someone as desperately alone as Gerta could find a way home.
She wasn't there yet. Not yet.
Maybe we could help her, which in a strange and wondrous way would help us as well.
14 Betrayal
The following day it was impossible for us to concentrate on anything. I should say, with the exception of Howard, and of course Steven, who had no reason not to do his usual good work. All of us girls looked like we had slept on a bale of hay, whereas Howard looked as rested and chipper as ever. He seemed to take pleasure in our discomfort. too. I could see he liked having the upper hand, especially over Cinnamon, who didn't come back at him with her usual biting quips whenever he criticized one of us or ridiculed something we had said.