Chapter 7
It was early the next morning when Sonya knocked at the screen door of Yolanda’s tiny and slightly neglected bungalow.
Contrary to Sonya’s modest but tidy bungalow, Yolanda’s wasn’t welcoming.
If anything, it almost screamed ‘stay out’.
The porch was falling apart, the grass was yellow, and the door seemed ready to abandon its job.
“Come in,” Yolanda called out.
Sonya opened the door, surprised to see Yolanda sitting at her dinette table doing her makeup.
“I didn’t know you did your own makeup,” Sonya said. Why didn’t Yolanda have a makeup artist to assist her. “And you shouldn’t leave your door open like that. You never know what creep might be wandering about.”
“It wasn’t open.”
“Your inner door was wide open. That flimsy screen door doesn’t count. It’s not going to keep anyone out.”
“Spoken like a true big sister,” Yolanda said, her eyes wide as she looked at her reflection and applied mascara. “Don’t worry about it. I mean, there are no vampires roaming about looking for fresh blood.” She let out an amused chuckle.
Sonya smiled as she picked up a bright pink lipstick from Yolanda’s dinette table. How strange that Yolanda would mention vampires. “You never know. People out here can be a little weird.”
Looking around, she realized just how small Yolanda’s bungalow really was. Her bed was right there in the living room, and the small dinette table was pushed up against a wall of the barely there kitchen.
“I remember being told that a vampire would suck me dry if I didn’t behave. Folklore. Don’t you just love it? Fill kids’ heads with wild stuff so they listen to the adults around them.”
“I think it’s more than just controlling their behavior.
These are cautionary tales, a way of telling children that it’s a big and, at times, dangerous world out there.
Then again, you don’t want to fill their heads with too much violence and gore, but.
.. when you’re young and na?ve you can easily get caught in situations that are too dangerous. ”
“Yeah. Yeah. I know all that. I think I maintain a pretty good balance of living my life all while keeping an eye out for any creep who might want too much of me.”
“Like Zwick?” Sonya said, pressing her to see the potential danger in the man.
Setting down the mascara Yolanda looked up at Sonya through the mirror. “Okay. Score one point for you.”
“I’m glad you see it my way.”
“And speaking of the creep, how did your visit with him go last night? Did you two have a nice chat?”
Sonya shook her head, not wanting to give her too many details. “Not really. He was busy and not in the mood to talk. I’ll try again tonight. But before I do that, I need to think it through.”
“Think what through?”
Sonya shrugged. “My reason for visiting him, for starters. What reason could I have for stopping by his office? I need a good excuse.”
Yolanda concentrated on her reflection as she carefully applied a bright red lipstick to her thin lips.
Watching the young actress/singer, Sonya considered all the things she wanted to share with her but couldn’t.
Did Yolanda know that the FBI had their eye on Zwick?
Did she know they suspected him of being a Russian spy?
Did she know that Zwick was using her? That she was simply a way for Zwick to get to Songbird?
No. She wanted to know what Yolanda knew... about Zwick, about Rhonda Baker and about the FBI investigation.
“Did you know a beautiful blonde named Rhonda Baker?” Sonya asked, straight out.
Yolanda set the lipstick down and turned to face Sonya. “That blond. Such a classy woman. You know, good breeding and all. So straightlaced. So proper. What in the world could she be doing with Zwick?”
“Right.”
“On the other hand, you... You have so much talent, I mean the kind of talent that will bring you far. A talent like you doesn’t have to sleep her way to the top. Soon, every producer in Hollywood will be fighting to have you in their next project.”
“That’s sweet of you to say.”
“Besides, I really can’t imagine you with Zwick. I mean, look at you. Anyone can see you have more class than that bozo ever will.”
“Hmm,” Sonya let out with a cryptic grin.
“Since you put it that way. I guess, I could go see him just to thank him for giving me a chance. After all, I came out of nowhere and now I’m the star of his production.
Besides, not everything has to be about that casting couch.
I have to hope that there’s a grain of humanity left, even out here in Hollywood. ”
“How optimistic of you.”
“Talent and integrity will prevail,” Sonya said with a touch of doubt in her own words. “They have to.”
Yolanda turned to the mirror once again, gave her cheeks a final touch of blush and stood. “Integrity. That’s a word you don’t hear too often out here.” Setting her hands on her hips, she gave Sonya a quick up and down glance. “But you seem full of it.”
“I beg your pardon,” Sonya said.
“Integrity. You have class. Even in your everyday clothes, no makeup, hair a mess, whatever... you have that special something not many people have. Almost as if you were born to nobility. I bet you’ve always had it easy because of that.”
“You’d be surprised.”
“Oh. Come on. You’re more royal and regal than Connie, who plays the queen. Everyone’s been saying it.”
“Saying what?”
“That you should have the role of the queen.” She shrugged. “Then again, I guess there’s a reason the Songbird needs to be so regal as well.”
“Okay. Enough with all the flattery. You’re going to make me blush.”
“And that’s another thing, exactly.”
“What’s that?”
“You don’t blush. You don’t get flushed. You don’t get flustered. It’s almost as if everything just rolls off your back. Have you been to London lately?”
“I beg your pardon. What does that have to do with anything?”
“It’s almost as though you’ve spent a lifetime in the company of royalty. As if Queen Elizabeth herself showed you how to carry yourself, how to walk so gracefully. Tell me, did you grow up in the Forbidden Palace?”
Sonya laughed. “You have a wild imagination, Yolanda. But it’s this simple; my mother taught me to walk with a book on my head.
That took care of my posture. Then she was very strict with saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.
When I was old enough, I hung out at the local theatre where they were always putting on some royal play or another.
I picked up a few things here and there.
I guess I was attracted to their ways and emulated all of it. ”
“Method acting,” Yolanda said.
Sonya frowned.
“That’s when you totally embody the character. You become one with the role. You believe yourself to be a queen.”
“But I play the Songbird,” Sonya argued.
Yolanda looked curiously at her. “Didn’t you look into the history of the Songbird. Didn’t you read the entire script?”
Sonya shrugged. “No and no. I haven’t had time yet. It mustn’t be very professional of me, but I’ve been concentrating of the songs and not much on character building.”
Yolanda smiled. “The Songbird was once human.”
“Yes. I’m aware of that part.”
“Well, as a human, she was queen.”
“Really. I didn’t know that.”
“Yes. And that’s why the Songbird always appears at the Palace window, singing a melancholy song to the queen and king.”
“And how do you know so much about the Songbird. Have you been studying it?”
Yolanda nodded, shrugged then shook her head. “I originally hoped to get your part but then tried out for whatever was left. The important thing was that I get a part.”
“Maybe you should have tried harder for the part of Songbird?”
“You should know better than anyone else how impossible that part is. How many women do you think have the vocal range the Songbird requires? I mean, it’s positively crazy. And then you... you go and hit that high C like it was nothing.”
Sonya smiled. “I’ve heard you sing. You have a beautiful voice.”
Yolanda shrugged and turned to shove all her makeup into a small cosmetic bag. “I can hold a tune, and that’s about it.”
“You undersell yourself. All you need is a little training.”
“Don’t get me wrong, but I think that vocal training is for the birds... as it were. Either you can sing or you can’t.”
“That’s not true. Your vocal cords, or vocal folds; they’re muscles that you have to train.
You have to work it and train it and maintain it.
You should have heard me the first time I tried to sing.
I had a small and frail voice with barely a half octave range.
Slowly, I built on that. I had a teacher who showed me breathing exercises. ”
“I find that hard to believe. Your voice sounds so natural and effortless.”
Sonya shook her head. “Well, it’s not. Believe it or not, I hated those singing lessons.
I thought all the breathing thing was so silly, not to mention useless.
I was like you. I thought either you can sing or you can’t.
But, with time, my lungs opened up, my vocal cords became more pliable, and I was hitting higher and higher notes.
But then...” She choked on the words and stopped talking altogether.
“Then, what?”
Sonya shook her head dismissively. “I like how you decorated the place. Really cute, and young.”
“Don’t change the subject. What happened?”
“A few years later, late into my teens, I...” She hesitated, weighing her words. “Singing wasn’t such a priority, and maintaining my voice took a backseat to other... endeavors.”
“Like what?” Yolanda sat and looked up at Sonya, waiting for her to spill her life right there on the dinette table.
“I got hooked on opium.”
Yolanda gasped. “You? Regal Sonya? Hooked on opium? I don’t believe it.”
“Believe it. And believe me when I say that it just about killed me.”
Yolanda took Sonya’s hand in hers. “How horrible. How did you get out of it?”
“Friends and family who believed in me were a great help. I had people who took me away from areas where opium was so readily available. It took a while, but I was finally able to regain control and with that, I found my voice again.”
Yolanda bit down on her bottom lip. “I know of a few people who succumbed. I’d say you were lucky to get out of that addiction alive.”
Sonya nodded, silently reliving those horrible days.
“China was so horribly hit by the rampant opium addiction. So many young lives destroyed.”
Again, Sonya nodded. Indeed, though she’d made it out alive, she’d seen others around her losing their lives over the drug.
“Did you know that England was the one who introduced opium to China?” Before Sonya could respond, Yolanda continued.
“We suffered our biggest humiliation after that, and many say that’s why England did it.
They wanted to weaken China, and they did so by weakening its people. They got so many people hooked.”
“What about you? Were you ever affected?”
Yolanda shook her head. “I was too young. I heard the words opium and addiction and all that. I knew it was a bad thing. And I remember when this addiction epidemic killed our Empress. Oh, how my mother cried. That’s all I really remember about it.”
Since they were getting comfortable with discussing touchy topics, Sonya decided to play the part of the spy Zwick thought she was. “What do you think of Zwick?”
Yolanda’s eyes widened in surprise at the sudden change of topic. “Think of him? I don’t know. Do you think he’s an opium dealer, or what?”
“No,” Sonya said with a laugh. “All that sad talk about the past was bringing me down, so I wanted to talk about something else. I want to know more about Zwick.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Tell me, little sister. He’s not just a producer. He’s really a Russian spy, isn’t he?”
“A spy? I don’t know about that, but he did mention how he found it odd that you suddenly showed up for audition.”
“Why would that be odd?”
“How well trained you are. Almost too well trained. And when we talked about my not getting the part of Songbird, he said he absolutely wanted you in his production. He specifically wanted you.”
“I thought you said it was because you couldn’t sing that part.”
Yolanda shrugged. “He could have fixed that if he’d really wanted. I mean, it wouldn’t be the first time notes were altered to suit a singer. No. He wanted you. He very specifically wanted you. He said you could be useful. That you would be interesting to watch.”
“Interesting to watch? Me? Why?”
“Don’t ask me,” Yolanda said with a shrug. “I’m just a dumb, aspiring actress.”
“Dumb? You? No, Yolanda. Don’t say that. You may be young and na?ve, but you’re not stupid. You’re a lot smarter than you think. And you are a truly convincing actress.”
Yolanda jumped out of her chair. “Oh, Sonya. You do know how to make me feel good about myself. Thank you. I needed a little pick me up.”
Sonya patted her shoulder. “Well, it’s my turn to go get ready. I’ll see you on set.” She turned to the door.
“I’ll be right along. I’ve been eager to shoot this scene for a while. It’s my favorite scene.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. This is where I tell the queen who Songbird is. You see, my character is actually the smartest in the entire film. She’s the one who figured out that Songbird was once the queen.”
“Hmm, yes, I guess you’re right. That does make her the smartest one in the entire film. That’s why you’re so convincing in your role,” Sonya said. “You’re smarter than anyone gives you credit for, sister.”
Sonya let herself out and headed to the studio. Now convinced that Yolanda knew a whole lot more than she let on, she had to figure out her next move.
But something nagged at her even more than her connection with Zwick. Yolanda had mentioned the last Empress. What did she really know?
Too much, Sonya feared.