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is how much coffee you drink.”
    “You drink too much booze, ” Roland cried out. “You can’t hold your liquor!”
    “I surely cannot hold my liquor!” Gladys agreed. “Everybody knows that about me. But I’ll tell you another thing—I wouldn’t have as big asex life as I have, if I could hold my liquor!”
    “Boot me your lipstick, Celia,” said Gladys to the other showgirl, who silently pulled out a tube from the pocket of her silk robe and handed it over. Gladys painted her lips with the most violent shade of red I’d ever seen, and then kissed Roland hard on both his cheeks, leaving big, bright imprints.
    “There, Roland. Now you are the prettiest girlin the room!”
    Roland didn’t appear to mind the teasing. He had a face just like a porcelain doll, and to my expert eye, it looked as though he tweezed his brows. I was shocked that he didn’t even try to act male. When he spoke, he waved his hands around like a debutante. He didn’t even wipe off the lipstick from his cheeks! It’s almost as though he wanted to look like a female! (Forgive my naïveté,Angela, but I hadn’t been around a lot of homosexuals at that point in my life. Not male ones, anyhow. Now lesbians, on the other hand— those I’d seen. I did spend a year at Vassar, after all. Even I wasn’t that oblivious.)
    Peg turned her attention to me. “Now! Vivian Louise Morris! What do you want to do with yourself while you’re here in New York City?”
    What did I want to do with myself? Iwanted to do this ! I wanted to drink martinis with showgirls, and listen to Broadway business talk, and eavesdrop on the gossip of boys who looked like girls! I wanted to hear about people’s big sex lives!
    But I couldn’t say any of that. So what I said, brilliantly, was: “I’d like to look around a bit! Take things in!”
    Everyone was looking at me now. Waiting for something more, maybe? Waitingfor what ?
    “I don’t know my way around New York City, is my primary obstacle,” I said, sounding like an ass.
    Aunt Peg responded to this inanity by grabbing a paper napkin off the table, and sketching upon it a quick map of Manhattan. I do wish I had managed to preserve that map, Angela. It was the most charming map of the city I would ever see: a big crooked carrot of an island, with a dark rectanglein the middle representing Central Park; vague wavy lines representing the Hudson and East Rivers; a dollar sign down at the bottom of the island, representing Wall Street; a musical note up at the top of the island, representing Harlem, and a bright star right in the middle, representing right where we were: Times Square. Center of the world! Bingo!
    “There,” she said. “Now you know your wayaround. You can’t get lost here, kiddo. Just follow the street signs. It’s all numbered, couldn’t be easier. Just remember: Manhattan is an island. People forget that. Walk far enough in any direction, and you’ll run into water. If you hit a river, turn around and go in the other direction. You’ll learn your way around. Dumber people than you have figured out this city.”
    “Even Gladys figuredit out,” said Roland.
    “Watch it, sunshine,” said Gladys. “I was born here.”
    “Thank you!” I said, pocketing the napkin. “And if you need anything done around the theater, I would be happy to help out.”
    “You’d like to help?” Peg seemed surprised to hear it. Clearly, she had not expected much of me. Christ, what had my parents told her? “You can help Olive in the office, if you go for that sortof thing. Office work, and such.”
    Olive blanched at this suggestion, and I’m afraid I might have done the same. I didn’t want to work for Olive any more than she wanted me working for her.
    “Or you can work in the box office,” Peg went on. “You can sell tickets. You’re not musical, are you? I’d be surprised if you were. Nobody in our family is musical.”
    “I can sew,” I said.
    I must’ve said itquietly, because nobody