private training. By the end of the first week, the fantasy of being a voice-over artist was starting to merge with reality. It was too late for her to tell me I couldn’t do this, because I knew I could.
I left Sarah a message asking her to call me at seven o’clock in the evening my time.The phone rang just as I turned the key in the dead bolt.The lock snapped easily and I opened the door.
I pirouetted over Cat One crouching in the bathroom, stepped into the hallway, and reached for the phone. “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s me,” said Sarah.
“Hey, thanks for calling me,” I said.
“Why have you been avoiding me?”
“I lost my job—”
“Oh, Holly—”
“No, it’s actually a good thing. I’m in training now to become a voice-over artist.”
“A what?”
“A voice-over artist.You know. They do voices for cartoons and stuff.” I waited for her to respond. “I started private training a week ago and the part is the lead voice. Well, I don’t have it yet. I have to audition. But I think I can get it.”
“Hang on,” said Sarah. “You’re in private training? To be a cartoon? How?”
“Well, I speak into a microphone, they record it, and drop it over animation.”
“Holly, I know what a voice-over artist does. I asked how you got the job.”
“Well, like I said, I don’t have the job yet. I have to audition for it. But one of my customers put me in touch with a TV producer, and he liked my voice and offered to pay for my training.”
“Your voice? Are you getting paid? I don’t understand.”
“I don’t get paid, so I need financial help until I get this job,” I said.
“Wait a minute. Voice-over work requires several different voices,” said Sarah.
I didn’t respond.
“You heard me, Holly. Several voices.To do this, you have to speak in several voices.You are going to use that Committee”—she spit out the word—“to do this job, aren’t you?”
“Uh ...” I opened my window one inch and then, lying back on the bed, I felt around the night table for my cigarettes. I waited like an indignant child put in the corner for a time-out because he dared to assert himself. I tried to blow the smoke out the small crack in the window. My building was nonsmoking. I swore to the landlord that I didn’t smoke. I said, “I never touch cigarettes. They’re evil, bad.”The few times he dropped by I’d told him I’d had a party the night before and my now former friends smoked in my apartment even though I asked them not to.
“You need to talk to Milton about this. He’ll put a stop to it,” Sarah said.
I got up and paced the cold hardwood floors, waving my cigarette, hoping the smoke would dissipate, or at least fly backward to the bedroom and out the window. Finally I said, “I did. He set up a new contract with Betty Jane.”
“He what ?” said Sarah. “How is this facilitating integration?” I’d always let Sarah and Milton believe I was on board with the whole idea of integration. But I still hadn’t decided what I wanted. I only knew that the thought of life without the Committee made my world go dark. “Well, I don’t care what Milton says; I forbid this, Holly, I forbid it.”
Sorry, Queen Elizabeth.
“In fact, I think it’s time you moved home, Holly.”
“Why? Because I want to do something with my life?”
“I want you to do something with your life too, Holly, but be realistic. Doing the job you are proposing is impossible as far as I am concerned.”
“Well, then you’ll be happy to know that I am doing it, Sarah. I am doing it.” Sarah remained silent. “And, besides, Milton said this is the only way to integrate the Committee.” Sarge did tell me to treat this like a covert op and use any means necessary to secure the funds.
“How?” she snapped. “I can’t believe I’m paying for this.”
“The Father.You said the Father pays.”
“Well, if you want to do this, then you call him and ask for the money. I won’t do
The Cowboy's Surprise Bride