The Big Meow

“Come on, let’s get you up,” Helen said. She took one of Dolores’s arms: Ray took the other. Between them they pulled Dolores to her feet. She staggered a little, then leaned against the edge of the counter with the sinks, getting her breath.

“I can’t thank you enough, Miss,” Ray said, “Miss – “

“Just call me Helen.” She smiled at Ray, then turned her attention back to Dolores. “Miss, are you all right now?”

Dolores had turned herself around and was looking at herself in the mirror. A wan, sad sort of look it was, hopeless and helpless, as if the world had betrayed her one more time. “I think so,” she said, looking at Helen in the mirror. “But I feel so…so…” She shook her head.

“It’s all right,” Helen said, and turned away.

“Oh, but it’s not!” Dolores said. It wasn’t Helen she was saying it to, though, but Ray: she turned to him, clung to him. “You know what’s going to happen now! This is going to be all over the magazines next week. Or on that horrible radio show of Parsons’. How Dolores Canton can’t hold her liquor, how I passed out so cold that everybody thought I was dead, and the police were called, and…” She gulped as if something horrible had just occurred to her. “There are even going to be people who’ll claim this was some kind of publicity stunt to get my career going again. Oh, Ray, what studio’s going to hire me now? What am I going to do — ?”

“You’re going to do exactly as we agreed,” he said softly into her ear. “We’ll go to that meeting like we planned…and things like this are going to stop happening to you. Okay? Okay. Just trust me, Dolores. Come on, I’ll walk you downstairs and we’ll get your wrap.”

“You mean you’re not afraid to be seen with me after this? Oh, Ray, what if they — ”

“They won’t. Of course I’m not afraid. Now come on, darling. – Yes, all right, you’re a little wobbly. It’ll pass. Too much excitement, and okay, maybe one glass of wine too many – “

They paused, for suddenly standing there in the doorway was Elwin Dagenham, actually wringing his hands in distress as his gaze took it all in, especially the scattered pills. “Oh, Miss Canton, are you – did you – “

“I’m all right,” she said. “No, truly, Mr. Dagenham. I’m fine. I’ll be going now.”

“It’s all right, you don’t have to do that – “

“I do,” Dolores said. “I’m sorry. Ray, please – “

“Yes, all right,” Ray said. He nodded at Helen and walked Dolores slowly out of the room, murmuring to her as they went. Just for a moment, as he went out, Rhiow saw a glance pass between him and Dagenham: a strangely neutral look, as of people who mean to say something to each other later on. Out in the hall, the last few people lingering there stared at Ray and Dolores, watching them, and then hurried away in various directions, whispering. But Dagenham stood there still, his glance darting nervously around the bathroom.

Rhiow ignored him for the moment, coming out from behind the toilet. “Arhu,” she said, “if you can’t See, you can hear. Follow them. Listen to them. We have to know just when and where that meeting is. Go home with them if you have to, but find out.”

He flirted his tail “yes” and headed for the door. “Sif?”

“With you,” Siffha’h said, and went after him.

Watching Ray and Dolores go out, under his breath Urruah said, “It’s a shame that you didn’t have time to ‘tailor’ Dolores’s cure a little more.”

Rhiow looked at him. “What? How?”

Hwaith, sitting next to Urruah and peering out into the room, now glanced at Urruah and flicked an ear in agreement. “So that she’d have come out of this sick enough to have to spend a night or two in the hospital,” Hwaith said, “and couldn’t make it to this ‘meeting’ they’re talking about.”

Rhiow considered what he was saying and then lashed her tail “no”. “There wasn’t time for that kind of tweaking,” she said. “Though I understand your concern — ”

Helen meanwhile had turned to the mirror as Ray and Dolores went out and was apparently intent on adjusting her hair, not that Rhiow could see that it particularly needed any adjusting. Dagenham was looking at her, and Helen was coolly failing to notice the look without actually ignoring it: a delicate business, one worthy of a Person.

“Miss, uh, Walks — Walker – ?”

Helen looked at him at last. “I’d like to thank you,” Dagenham said. “That could have been very – uncomfortable for Miss Canton.”

“I’m sure she just had a little too much heat,” Helen said, “a little too much excitement. There are so many … attentive people downstairs.” She allowed her smile to warm a few degrees. “Some of them very attentive indeed.”

“Yes, thank you, that’s partly why I’m still here – ” When I really need to be downstairs talking to the police? Rhiow thought to herself. Yeah, I just bet. “There are some gentlemen downstairs who very much want to talk to you before you leave. One of the vice-presidents from Goldwyn, and the casting director from Paramount – “

Helen’s eyes widened just slightly. One above us, what now? she said silently in the Speech.