Bryn shook away her thoughts and the uneasy feeling of fever along her spine. This was business.
"Okay, he's doing a video and hiring dancers. But where does the photography come in?"
"You know those promo shots you took for Vic and Allen when they started playing the Stardust Lounge? He saw them, stared at them for a long time and asked if I knew the photographer. Well, of course, I hopped right in with your name!"
"Thanks," Bryn murmured.
"What's an agent for?" Barbara laughed happily. "But listen, I've got to run. I have another twenty dancers to line up. Boy, oh boy, am I in love with the man! Think of my percentages! And I'm going to put on the old answering machine and dance myself. Oh, Bryn! This has been a heck of a windfall!"
This time when Bryn laughed, it was with honest delight. She and Barbara were a lot alike. Barbara spent her days as an agent and her nights as a showgirl in a popular nightclub that was part of a new casino. Barbara loved to wheel and deal, and she also loved to dance. She could easily have gotten Bryn a job in her own show, but Bryn considered it a little toorisque for a woman who was raising children and also for her own comfort. Barbara was an efficient businesswoman and had concluded deals for a number of big names, but even so, this did sound like a nice windfall.
"You're right, the whole thing sounds great, Barb. I'm happy for you."
"Be happy for yourself, honey. You're going to make enough to come close to a real nice down payment Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
for that new house you've been dreaming about."
Bryn bit her lip. Money was, unfortunately, one of the key factors of life. One you couldn't live without.
Before herbrother Jeff's death, she had always felt that she had all she needed to survive. She could take the jobs she liked, turn down those she didn't.
If only he were still alive! Not because she resented her nephews--she loved them and would fight hell and high water to keep them--but because...because she had loved her brother, too, and life had seemed so normal once, simple, right and easy. She couldn't wallow in self-pity. She had to accept reality. Jeff was dead.
And he had died without a shred of life insurance. But growing boys had to be fed and clothed, taken to doctors and dentists--and brought to a baby-sitter when Bryn worked nights. Keith and Brian went to school, but Adam's day care was costly. She'd had to sell her two-seater Trans-Am and buy a small Ford van. And her pretty little two bedroom town house had become way too small. The boys had been moved into the darkroom, and the darkroom had been moved to the storage shed.
And the stuff that had been in storage...Well, it was stuck into closets, cabinets and any little nook that would hold anything.
Since she wasn't ready to fall back on being a showgirl, she couldn't afford to get fussy about jobs just because a man's eyes--seen on screen!--made her nervous."You still there, Bryn?" "Yeah, Barb." "Be at the oldFultonplace at ten sharp on Tuesday. He's
areal stickler for punctuality."
"The oldFultonplace?"The house was on one of the long roads leading to the desert; it had been built around the middle of the nineteenth century, and had been deserted for as long as Bryn could remember.
School kids still dared one another to go into it, as it had, of course, acquired a reputation for housing ghosts.
"You won't recognize what's been done with it!" Barbara laughed. "Ten o'clock, with everything you'll need for a full workout."
"I'll be there," Bryn promised. "Oh Barb? How many days' work is it? And when do I take the PR
photos?"
"Probably three or four weeks on the video.It's going to run about fifteen minutes, I think. But there will be a day or two off during that time for the photos. I'll let you know when."
"Thanks again, Barb."
"Arggggghhhhhh!"
Another ear-splitting scream sounded from outside.
"Got to go, Barb.The natives are getting restless."
"Give them all a kiss and a hug for me!"
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
"I will."
Bryn slammed down the receiver and raced outside again, anxiously scanning little faces.
Adam was crying his eyes out. And soon as he saw her, he ran toward her as fast as his chubby little legs would carry him and buried his head in her lap.
"What happened?" Bryn demanded of the older two.
"I think a bug stung him!" Brian answered worriedly, coming over and stroking his little brother's blond curls. "Adam--"
Adam began to wail again. Bryn picked him up.' 'Come on, Adam, you have to tell me what happened."
He raised a red and swollenpinky to her, the tears still streaming from his huge green eyes just a shade darker than her own.
"Bug!" he pronounced with a shudder. "It was a bad bug! Hurts, Aunt Bryn..."