RUNAWAY ROSE
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Rose arrived in Los Angeles two days later.
After spending the first couple of days in a hotel, she finally found a small apartment
that allowed dogs and moved in. She hadn’t yet found any kind of work, but she
had enough money to last her for a while, so that wasn’t immediately worrisome.
As soon as she had found a place to live and
gotten moved in, Rose set about learning all that she could about the film
industry. There were a wide variety of jobs beyond acting, but she already had
more than a year of experience as an actress and wanted to continue.
Despite her stage experience, Rose had far
less training in acting than many would-be stars, and she soon learned that
Alice’s comments about casting couches were correct. After two men had
propositioned her, promising her starring roles in exchange for sex, she
decided that there must be an easier way to become a film actress. She had long
ago promised herself that she would never be a prostitute, and selling herself
in exchange for stardom was something she was unwilling to do. Beyond that, she
remembered what she had been told about the way that some directors would
renege on their end of the bargain, and carefully avoided such arrangements.
After about two weeks, Rose took the
suggestion of one of her neighbors and signed up as a film extra. The work
didn’t pay much compared to what the stars were making, and the hours were
long, but it was clean, honest work, and it gave her the opportunity to act and
be seen in moving pictures. Over the course of two months, from early August to
early October, Rose appeared in three films as an extra. In the first, she was
a Biblical woman, in the second, a dancer, and in the third, a woman from the
time of the French revolution. She didn’t get much screen time in any of the
films, but she was working as an actress again.
Rose soon adjusted to life in Los Angeles. It
was a smaller city than many she had lived in, but it was growing, though
nothing like it would thirty years in the future, following the second world
war. Still, it was an urban center, and people from all over the world lived
there. The weather was usually warm, especially in the summer and early fall,
and Rose appreciated the long, hot days.
When she wasn’t working, Rose would make the
short trip to the beach, usually bringing Tripper with her. The large dog hated
being cooped up in the small apartment all day, but Rose couldn’t let him roam
freely as she had when she was living in Alaska. The territory was unfamiliar,
the neighbors unappreciative of the large, wolf-like animal, so she kept the
dog inside while she was away working. When she returned home each day, she
would take him for long walks on a leash, occasionally fighting to control him
as he raced to chase cats or investigate other dogs. On the beach, however, she
could remove the leash and let him run free as many other dogs did, keeping a
careful eye on him to ensure that he didn’t bother anyone, steal anyone’s food,
or fight with other dogs.
As time passed, Rose met some of her fellow
extras and her neighbors. She saw a few of a the big stars, but rarely came
into contact with them, and most of her contact with directors was when the
groups of extras were being instructed to do something.
Many of the people that she met were
friendly, but Rose found herself unable to get close to any of them. There was
a fair amount of competition between the extras, which curtailed many attempts
at friendship, and, despite the friendliness of some of her neighbors, she was
unable to form a bond with them. She was polite, acquainting herself with them
and occasionally visiting with some, but she soon gained a reputation for being
aloof and unreachable. Several young men took an interest in her, but Rose
could not return their interest. It had been only a few months since Robert had
died, and she felt unready for any new relationships.
Part of Rose’s aloofness was due to her
still-fresh grief, but another part came from a deep, disturbing suspicion that
she would bring grief to anyone she got close to. So many of those she had been
close to had died that she was beginning to suspect that she was cursed, that
something destructive followed her about, dooming any attempts at happiness.
Logically, she knew it wasn’t true, but her mind, trying to protect her from
further pain, kept her emotions in check, keeping her from becoming close to
others.