Fishy Queen (Drag Queen Beauty Pageant Book 2) by Malachite Splinters

Author:Malachite Splinters [Splinters, Malachite]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

Anthony and I arrived together for the photoshoot at eleven. And we were actually running a little late. We had been talking about what Anthony was going to do for his audition.

I had agreed to reschedule his first coaching session for later today, thought we hadn’t agreed on a time yet.

So we would be alone again.

I couldn’t wait.

Ellegrandé was waiting for us.

We were last through the door and came in to find the other two gathered in front of her, and wearing street gear, loaded down with big duffles and gym bags and wig boxes, they looked very out of place next to her polished extravagance.

Ellegrandé was a big girl, but she carried herself with gravitas, like she was the prow of a ship cleaving the waves of the deep. There was a reason Duane Tyrone had outlasted almost every other drag artist of his generation. He was good.

Ellegrandé had never tried to modernize. She was always the picture of eighties wow glamor, with sideswept updos overflowing with cascading curls and jeweled brooches and shoulder pads and brocade wrap dresses and eyeshadow in shades of flamingo, mandarin and turquoise. And it was something to behold, like a vintage music video come to life.

Her presence at the bar night after night was the soul of House Ellegrandé, her sheer force of personality taking the club down the years into the history books and into the stuff of New York legend.

And I had to give credit where credit was due. I had to give her credit for keeping this place going when most of her contemporaries had long since gone out of business.

“Let me take this opportunity,” she purred in her trademark Ellegrandé tones, “to welcome you ladies to the House of Ellegrandé, New York’s original drag cabaret.”

Clarion Call curtsied and Lucky Penny, seeing her, followed suit.

I chewed my lip. She had never called it that before. It was House of Ellegrandé, Home to the Fishiest Queens in New York. She had never called it New York’s Original Drag Cabaret. It wasn’t New York’s original drag cabaret.

“I’ll let you fine and fabulous queens get into your war paint,” Ellegrandé smiled at them like she was officiating the ribbon-cutting ceremony of a public monument. “Our photographer Salazar will be setting up in the green room. We’ll begin the photo shoot as soon as you’re ready and end the day with a quick tour of my kingdom and a cocktail, on the house.”

Everyone clapped politely and murmured Thank you.

When the door had closed behind her, I showed Clarion Call to her work station, which used to belong to Damaris, and Lucky Penny to hers, where Marcus Fong used to sit.

“Do you have a steamer?” Clarion Call asked as she unzipped her gym bag and carefully took out a folded garment bag.

I showed her where it was. At that point, the buzzer went and I looked around in surprise.

Anthony, who was already at his station carefully pulling a headband over his braids, looked up as well.

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