“What time did you say?”
“Did anybody see the first-aid kit? I cut my finger on this gel frame.”
“Give me a hand with the ladder, will you? Just set it right here, under....”
“Look out! Don’t bleed all over the sofa!”
“It’s seven-forty-five.”
“Ouch!”
With all the past weeks of preparation, Peggy thought, you’d suppose that nothing at all would have to be left till the last moment, but somehow, no matter how well you planned, there was always something left undone. Or something that had to be redone. Less than an hour before curtain time, it seemed as if Come Closer had not the least chance of opening that night. But she knew that it would open, and she was sure that it would go smoothly and well. At least she hoped that she was sure.
Peggy went down the circular iron stairway to the dressing room she shared with Greta. It was time to start putting her make-up on. Greta was already applying the base, and the tiny room, no bigger than a closet, was perfumed with the peculiar odor of grease paint. Every inch of wall space except for the mirrors was covered with clothing—their own and their costumes—hanging from nails and hooks. A few garments were even suspended from some of the pipes that crisscrossed the low ceiling. The room was so narrow that when Peggy sat at the dressing table, the back of her chair was touching the wall behind her. The dressing table itself, a rough board counter covered with plastic shelving paper, was littered with bottles, jars, tubes, powder boxes, puffs, make-up brushes, eyebrow pencils, eye-liners, grease crayons, hairbrushes, combs, sprays, hairpins and other odds and ends.
Looking at the cramped, messy little room, Peggy suddenly thought of a movie she had seen, where several scenes took place in a star’s dressing room. It was an enormous room, she remembered, with a carved Victorian sofa and chairs grouped around a little marble tea table. At one side of the room had been an elaborate make-up table surmounted by a gold-framed mirror. On it were a very few bottles and jars. A pleated silk screen stood nearby, concealing an immense closet which held row upon row of costumes. Overhead was a crystal chandelier.
Peggy laughed out loud when she thought of the chandelier.