Free Dorothy on the Rocks by Barbara Suter Page A

Your voice, your talent. All of it. Everything’s a rental. So use it up. Wring out every drop before your lease runs out.”
    â€œYikes, Goodie, you’ve gone New Age on me.”
    â€œNew Age, darlin’? I’ve gone completely around the bend. I’m eight inches tall, I’m wearing pink plastic stilettos, and I’m dating G.I. Joe! So listen to me, Mags, dreams really do come true, and now I’m off to a cocktail party. One of the Cabbage Patch dolls is getting engaged to a Power Ranger.”
    â€œI thought Cabbage Patch dolls were babies,” I say.
    â€œIn body only. Those kids are wild. It’s quite a scandal and I don’t want to miss a moment.” Goodie blows me a kiss as he motors out the window and into the daylight.
    The phone rings. It’s Thomas Garrick, the accompanist. He’s available for the club dates. “That’s great,” I say. “Can we make an appointment for a rehearsal?” We both check our books and agree on two hours day after tomorrow. “Great, I’ll see you then,” I say and hang up.
    â€œGod respects me when I work,” an ancient Sanskrit proverb says. “But he loves me when I sing.”
    And he really loves me when I am gainfully employed and paying my rent and saving for retirement. I look at my appointment book and realize I have an audition in an hour and a half. Enough reflecting. Time to get it up and get it on and get the job. I check my schedule for the next day and am reminded I’m doing the Blue Fairy in
Pinocchio
at Trenton, New Jersey. I make a mental note to make sure I still have some blue glitter eye shadow. Thank God I don’t have to squeeze into Dorothy’s pinafore again.
    The audition is for a national commercial for one of those room deodorizer things that I never use, but I’m an actress and I can be enthusiastic about anything if it pays well.
    I pop a stick of gum in my mouth and light a cigarette and start getting ready. The phone rings. It’s Texas Joe, Goodie’s brotherand my old love. We still keep in touch. Maybe Goodie has been visiting him too.
    â€œI’ve got about ten minutes,” I say. “Then I have to scoot to an audition.” Joe understands. He’s actually a little starstruck by me. That shows what a long way civil engineering is from the performing arts—any closer and he’d know I was light-years from stardom.
    â€œI have another grandchild on the way. Beth is due in December.”
    â€œWow. That makes three, right? Good for you, but I still stay you’re too young to be a grandfather.”
    â€œWell, I got an early start, I was married at twenty-one,” he says.
    â€œThat is so scary to me.”
    â€œIt’s scary to me too, now,” he says.
    â€œAnd speaking of all that. How’s the love life? Are you still seeing the . . . nurse, is it?”
    â€œDentist,” he says. “And yes we are still seeing each other. She’s busy. Lots of teeth down here.”
    I laugh halfheartedly, take my gum out, and sip the coffee. We talk about the stock market for a few minutes and then about baseball and then about how much we miss each other. It’s the same conversation we always have. I tell him about Jack but don’t mention his name—or age: “I’m seeing someone. We’ve had a couple of dates. You know.” And then we get into a little of the sex thing. Texas Joe and I had great sex. He wore suits all the time and that really turned me on for some reason. So when we talk, it inevitably gets sexy and I get turned on and Joe’s voice gets thick, but today there isn’t time.
    â€œI’ve got to run, Joe. Sorry, but I can’t be late. Thanks for calling. I miss you.” As I hang up the phone, I know I mean it. I do miss Joe. I hold the phone against my cheek for a moment andthen realize I’m sitting stark naked on the toilet seat. I pull on a pair