Page 13 - Connecting Obsessions.indd

She homed in on the obligatory table and joined the short queue

of wannabe actresses waiting to register. Once she had given her name
and been handed her sides—a short script to use later—and a form to

complete, she looked around for a chair but, seeing none that were free,
decided to perch on the edge of the stage to complete the form.

That done, Rachel looked around at the other girls waiting their
turn, nodding to one or two whom she recognised from previous

auditions. She’d never get used to doing this, but ever since she was a
little girl and realised that there were such people as movie stars, she set

her heart on joining them. And how! The burning ambition made her
feel like screaming sometimes as the breakthrough she so desperately

sought remained frustratingly out of reach.
She felt the usual butterflies in her stomach, but they were worse

on this occasion.
Admittedly, that experience on her way to the audition was no

help. At least twice she had the strangest feeling that someone was
following her. She checked, but no one was there—not that she could

see, anyway. Must have been her imagination but—she shivered a
little—it was creepy. Cool it. Think about something else.

She tried to. Was it really only twenty-one months since her arrival
in Hollywood? Sure, trying to get into the movie business was still new

to her, but she seemed to have been trawling around these wretched
auditions forever. Thank goodness for the sanity of her job at the burger

bar! That at least allowed her to survive, just, though money was tight.
Boy, was it tight! If she couldn’t find a part soon . . . No! She shook her

head. She wasn’t going there.
Today, she was wearing one of her standard audition outfits; a tank

top and mini skirt—not too short—and shoes with four-inch heels.

7 | Neil Mavrick