Free Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool by Peter Turner Page A

gonna see one of their shows. I have to take a look at the
competition!’
    Gloria stormed off and hailed a taxi.
    Suddenly it dawned upon me why she was so mad. Gloria didn’t really think that she could actually play Juliet. It was just her crazy way of trying to find out if I was sexually attracted
to her.
    Of course I was. The attraction was undeniable. Since the day she’d borrowed my shirt there had been many occasions when our friendship could have become closer, but I was wary of becoming
involved. Gloria was a Hollywood star, she’d been married four times, and she was more than twenty years older than me. I went back home to think.
    It was late. I was sitting reading when I heard footsteps running up to my room.
    ‘Guess where I’ve been, Peter?’ Gloria burst through the door with a triumphant look all over her face.
    ‘The Royal Shakespeare Company,’ I confidently replied.
    ‘Well,’ she said. ‘I sat next to some dame in the theatre who told me that she’d played Juliet at the Royal Shakespeare Company. She’d played lots of parts there.
What’s more, she’s a hell of a lot older than me.’
    ‘Who was that?’ I asked.
    ‘Peggy Ashcroft,’ she announced.
    We collapsed in a heap of laughter on my bed.
    She spent the night in my room. From then on we were inseparable.
    ‘You’re wanted on the phone! It’s your cousin. It’s Eileen Connolly.’
    I woke up instantly. One eye opened but the other was stuck.
    Eileen had a peculiar knack of ‘being there’ at very crucial times. It was she who, when I was thirteen years old, taught me how to smoke. Then six months later she told me about
sex. She’d been my bringer of knowledge, my confidante and confessor. Her sudden appearances usually heralded a major change in my life.
    ‘Where is she?’
    ‘She’s on the phone,’ Jessie replied.
    ‘No.
Where
is she? Tell her I’ll call her back.’
    ‘You can’t. She says she wants you
now
.’
    I pulled on a pair of jeans, then stumbled along the landing. As I looked down the staircase to Gloria’s room I could see that the door was firmly shut, so I went into the sitting room and
picked up the receiver.
    ‘What are you doing in bed at this hour? It’s nearly twelve o’clock.’
    ‘I didn’t realize. How are you?’
    ‘Great. But listen, how are you? Jessie’s just told me Gloria isn’t well and that she’s there with you in the house. Is that right?’
    ‘Yes, that’s right.’
    ‘You know, it’s really strange, Pete, but I’ve been thinking about her all week. Honest. I have. Now isn’t that weird?’
    ‘Yes, that’s strange.’
    ‘I’ve even had those photographs developed. Do you remember? The ones we took in New York. Oh, there’s a lovely one of you and Gloria standing by the window in her flat, and
there’s a smashing one of me holding her Oscar. Everyone says I look like Jane Fonda, but me mother thinks I look more like Henry. All the girls at work want to have it blown up to stick
behind the bar. Only for a laugh. Don’t you think that’s funny?’
    ‘Eileen, I’m not properly awake. Can I call you back? I haven’t yet been in to see Gloria.’
    ‘Hang on a minute, Pete. You can’t go in to see Gloria because the doctor’s there with her. He’s giving her an examination. Him and your mother are attending to her right
now. Well, that’s what Jessie just told me. What’s the matter with her? Is it something serious?’
    ‘I’ll have to phone you back. I’ll have to see what’s happening.’
    ‘You’ll have to calm down. What you need is a break. You need to get out of that house for a while. Listen, I’m working tonight at the Belgrave Club. Why don’t you get
yourself down there after your play and we’ll be able to have a drink and a talk? That’s what you need.’
    ‘Okay, I’ll see what I can do.’
    ‘Peter,’ Jessie whispered from the bottom of the stairs as I was about to go into the middle room. ‘Don’t go in there. Not