She was seized with a spasm, and David summoned the doctor. Later, he and the doctor had a talk.
“I’m afraid your mother hasn’t much longer, David.”
And so the decision was made for him.
He went to see Cissy Topping.
“I’m in love with someone else,” David said. “My mother always thought that you and I—”
“So did I, darling.”
“I know it’s a terrible thing to ask, but—would you be willing to marry me until—until my mother dies, and then give me a divorce?”
Cissy looked at him and said softly, “If that’s what you want, David.”
He felt as though an unbearable weight had been lifted from his shoulders. “Thank you, Cissy, I can’t tell you how much—”
She smiled and said, “What are old friends for?”
The moment David left, Cissy Topping telephoned David’s mother. All she said was, “It’s all arranged.”
The one thing David Kenyon had not anticipated was that Josephine would hear about the forthcoming marriage before he could explain everything to her. When David arrived at Josephine’s home, he was met at the door by Mrs. Czinski.
“I’d like to see Josephine,” he said.
She glared at him with eyes filled with malicious triumph. “The Lord Jesus shall overcome and smite down His enemies, and the wicked shall be damned forever.”
David said patiently, “I want to talk to Josephine.”
“She’s gone,” Mrs. Czinski said. “She’s gone away!”
18
The dusty Greyhound Odessa-El Paso-San Bernardino-Los Angeles bus pulled into the Hollywood depot on Vine Street at seven A.M., and somewhere during the fifteen-hundred-mile, two-day journey, Josephine Czinski had become Jill Castle. Outwardly, she looked like the same person. It was inside that she had changed. Something in her was gone. The laughter had died.
The moment she had heard the news, Josephine knew that she must escape. She began to mindlessly throw her clothes into a suitcase. She had no idea where she was going or what she would do when she got there. She only knew that she had to get away from this place at once.
It was when she was walking out of her bedroom and saw the photographs of the movie stars on her wall that she suddenly knew where she was going. Two hours later, she was on the bus for Hollywood. Odessa and everyone in it receded in her mind, fading faster and faster as the bus swept her toward her new destiny. She tried to make herself forget her raging headache. Perhaps she should have seen a doctor about the terrible pains in her head. But now she no longer cared. That was part of her past, and she was sure they would go away. From now on life was going to be wonderful. Josephine Czinski was dead.
Long live Jill Castle.
BOOK TWO
19
Toby Temple became a superstar because of the unlikely juxtaposition of a paternity suit, a ruptured appendix and the President of the United States.
The Washington Press Club was giving its annual dinner, and the guest of honor was the President. It was a prestigious affair attended by the Vice-President, senators, Cabinet members, Chief Justices and anyone else who could buy, borrow or steal a ticket. Because the event was always given international press coverage, the job of master of ceremonies had become a highly prized plum. This year, one of America’s top comedians had been chosen to emcee the show. One week after he had accepted, he was named defendant in a paternity suit involving a fifteen-year-old girl. On the advice of his attorney, the comedian immediately left the country for an indefinite vacation. The dinner committee turned to their number two choice, a popular motion-picture and television star. He arrived in Washington the night before the dinner. The following afternoon, on the day of the banquet, his agent telephoned to announce that the actor was in the hospital, undergoing emergency surgery for a burst appendix.
There were only six hours left before the dinner. The committee frantically went through a list of possible replacements. The important names were busy doing a movie or a television show, or were too far away to get to Washington in time. One by one, the candidates were eliminated and finally, near the bottom of the list, the name of Toby Temple appeared. A committee member shook his head. “Temple’s a nightclub comic. He’s too wild. We wouldn’t dare turn him loose on the President.”