My overly dramatic best friend, Kay Sue, said in her slow, southern, eleven--year-old drawl as she plopped down on the front Greyhound Bus seat by the window, "This view is incredible and makes me feel I'm on the brink of being famous."
I looked out the same dirty window. My eyes saw nothing unusual. I saw an old concrete Greyhound Bus Station in Adel, Georgia.
It'd taken us months to save for our bus trip adventure to Tifton. Tucked inside each of our pocketbooks was $5.00. The bus tickets cost $1.50 each. We figured $5.00 was plenty for our bus tickets and lunch at Chef Louis'---we'd use the leftover money for Hollywood later.
I laughed, "Kay Sue, we could be real movie stars. Right?"
"Sure. But, it'd really be better if we were twelve. Eleven's such an awkward age."
We were independent free spirits inside the nearly empty bus. Kay Sue smiled as she took a pack of Winstons and a box of matches out of her purse.
"Here, take one. Smoking makes us look older. It's glamorous."
So, I slid a cigarette out of the pack, struck a match, and blew out a puff of smoke. At that moment, coughing my head of was so worth being glamorous!
She said, "Now we have to put on makeup."
Kay Sue took all kinds of makeup out of her pocketbook.
"Hey, where'd you get all that stuff?"
"It's Mom’s. Don't worry. She won't notice I borrowed it."
There, on the bus, she made me look like a movie starlet in a movie magazine. I had rouged cheeks, cherry red lips, and highly arched penciled eyebrows.Then, she applied makeup to her smiling face.
She said, "Let's unbutton the top button of our shirt. It'll make us look much more alluring."
"Kay Sue, what does alluring mean?"
"Oh, alluring is that come hither look."
"Why do I want people to come hither?"
"Oh shut up. I don't know. It's what they say in movies."
In Tifton, the bus dropped us off downtown at Chef Louis' on Main Street.We ordered a BLT and a Coke. I knew it was a fancy restaurant because my yummy BLT was stuck together with pink toothpicks.
After we ate, Kay Sue and I walked the entire length of Main Street three times hoping to find a movie star agent.
I said, "Kay Sue, have you picked your movie star name? I picked Rosemund Kent for mine."
"No, no. That's not classy enough. I know. You can be be the lovely Miranda Monroe and I'll be the beautiful Elisha Taylor."
Later, as we casually strolled to catch the homebound Greyhound, I realized---I like myself just as I am without Winstons, makeup or come hither looks. I'm like a rare painting that's real. I'm a fine original.
Right then I decided if fate declared I had to be a Movie Star, then I'd look and act like myself. But, I might be flexible about my professional name. Miranda Monroe may work out.
Our angry, frowning mothers were waiting for us when we got off the bus in Adel.
I asked Kay Sue. "How'd they know? It was supposed to be a secret."
"I think my ratty little brother told. I try, but its hard to keep a secret in our house."
"I don't mind. I'm not angry. I'm more mature than when we left Adel this morning".
As we said goodbye I yelled, "I'll never forget this adventure. I had a fantastic experience Elisha."
She yelled out, "I know Miranda, it was superbly exhilarating for me too."
Bio
Carolyn Slovitz is a young seventy-something imaginative creator of stories. Her stories end happily, or at least as happy as possible. “Miss Mean Minnie Greene, her first book and audiobook, is an exciting and hilarious children’s WITCH story. She also published a Christmas story featuring Cocoa and Nestle, ‘ her Granddogs.’The name of the book is Cocoa and Nestle, Double Trouble Dachshunds. It is a warm, funny, charming, and endearing Christmas story. Both her books are on Amazon. Carolyn enjoys hiking, gardening, enjoying her three grandchildren, and writing.