The Secret Life of Souls by Ketchum Jack & McKee Lucky

Author:Ketchum, Jack & McKee, Lucky [Ketchum, Jack & McKee, Lucky]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror, thriller, Suspense, Mystery, Contemporary, Fantasy
ISBN: 9781681772806
Goodreads: 29912683
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2016-11-08T08:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

It’s not the same. A Green Room is a Green Room she supposes, with the familiar table of snacks and bottled drinks, the mirrored wall in front of her lined with brushes, combs, makeup, tissues and all that stuff, the rack of clothes, the too-bright lights. She’d been in them dozens of times but this is different somehow. She doesn’t feel like a star. She doesn’t even feel like a performer. What’s she doing here? She watches the grips and stagehands come and go and tries to settle deep into her oversized lounger, disappear into her red hoodie. Just disappear.

Her mom seems fine with all of it. Standing by the door talking to this guy John Latoya, the anchor-slash-producer who she’s yet to meet, talking as though it were any other shoot in the world, Fruity Fingers or Chomp Chips or whatever. And maybe that’s the way she ought to think about it, just any old shoot, just another job.

But it feels weird. They’re going to talk about her. She isn’t playing somebody. She’s supposed to be herself. Just be yourself, honey, her mom said. Nobody’s ever asked her to do that before.

When her mom and the anchor guy walk over she wraps her hand twice around Caity’s leash so that she’s just that much closer to her and she feels just that much more secure.

“How you ladies doing this morning?” Latoya says.

Big smile. At least the teeth are real, she thinks. He’s one of those people, she can already tell, who speaks to kids like they’re all in the first grade. There are paper towels sticking up out of his collar to keep the makeup from messing up his baby-blue shirt and blue-and-red striped tie.

“Delia, this is John,” her mom says. “He’s going to be interviewing us.”

John sticks out his bony hand and she shakes it.

“Pleased to meetcha,” he says. “Did you get to try any of those donuts? I like the sprinkly ones myself.”

Her mom pulls her cell phone out of her pocket and reads the text.

“It’s Roman,” she says. “Could you excuse me a moment?”

“Of course,” John says.

She punches in the number and walks off into a corner. John kneels down to Delia’s level. Tries to peer under her hoodie. She has her head down so he isn’t having much luck. He smells of cologne and hair stuff. Beside her she can feel Caity tense. The cologne and hair stuff probably offend her. She can’t blame her. Neither of them, it seems, are going to be instantly nuts about this guy.

John seems oblivious. He reaches over and ruffles Caity’s head. Her ears go flat. He doesn’t notice this either.

“So, how long have you two been buddies?” he says, agreeably enough.

“Since I got her.”

“When was that?”

“Two years ago. She’ll be three in November.”

“I see. So you’ve been friends a good long time, then.”

She raises her head. Looks at him.

“How come you want me and Caity on your show?”

The smile gets bigger but she can tell she’s caught him off guard.

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