When Val awoke the day after seeing Nicky, the first thing that popped into her head was how much she hated him. She hated him because he was happy. She hated him because he had a career and a new lover. She hated him because he looked great and was doing something he loved. She was sick with jealousy. He had broken her heart all over again. He was off to New York and L.A.—both places where they were supposed to have been together.
She looked around the flat and saw the bodies that had crashed there. She hated all of them, too. The hangers-on with no life of their own. She gathered enough strength to scream at the top of her lungs. “Everybody out! I want everybody out. Now!”
Bewildered, the crashers staggered around getting their things together. They had seen Val have tantrums before. As a rule, these childish outbursts didn’t last long, and after a couple of days they were back having fun. They waved their good-byes and told her they’d ring later.
She had wanted to be alone; now the quiet was overwhelming. She picked up a roach from the ashtray and took a long drag. She looked at the clock: it was eight o’clock in the evening. She went to lie down, but that didn’t work. She took a couple more hits of the J, then went around the room and drank all the booze in the half-empty glasses. She picked up the phone and dialed her mother’s number without even realizing what she was doing. When the phone rang, she panicked and was just about to hang up when her mother’s voice came through, loud and clear. For the first time in her life she felt a warm feeling at the sound of her mother’s voice.
“Mummy, it’s me Valerie. How are you?”
“Valerie, dearest, how nice of you to telephone. Where are you?”
“Still in London, Mummy. But I’m ready to come home.”
“Well, well that is a surprise. I think that would be wonderful. What brought this on? Is the film finished?”
“Oh yes. That’s all done. I’ve had fun but funnily enough—” She hesitated, then blurted out, “I miss you.”
“Valerie, I can’t begin to tell you how happy that makes me. Let me know when you’re arriving. I’m sorry I have to cut you short darling, but Jimmy Buford is here.”
“Oh. Okay, Mummy. I just wanted to say hello. I’ll let you know the date when I book my ticket.”
“Yes, dear you do that. Be happy and God bless.”
Val said God bless to the dead phone in her hand and burst into tears. Even her mother was happy and with someone. It wasn’t fair! The phone rang and she thought it might be her mother calling back to say how much she loved her. She picked it up.
Of course it wasn’t. It was a nice girl named Jessica who had been in her Broadway show. She had been kind to Val during the run. She bubbled on about bumping into Val’s mother on First Avenue. She’d been walking Joey, her new poodle. The puppy was named after Joe the hairdresser who still came to the house to do Anne’s hair. Joe now had a blond afro and so did the poodle, hence the name. Jessica said she’d begged Anne for Val’s number. She couldn’t be in London without seeing her. She was with her girlfriend. They had done Europe and were on their way back to the States. They were only going to be in London for a couple of days. Val gave them her address and told them how nice it was to hear an American accent again and that they just had to stay with her, she wouldn’t take no for an answer.
She was on good behavior for the first day of their visit. She smoked a joint with them and took just one lude when they went dancing. The second night they talked Val into going to the theater. Jessica was thrilled; she’d managed to get a box for one of the biggest hits of the season. It was great fun until Val nearly fell over the balcony. Then she fell asleep through the entire second act and snored loudly. They helped her stagger out before the end of the show, too embarrassed to be there when the lights came up. Val had forgotten to tell them she’d washed down three downs with half a bottle of wine.
After that fiasco, when they thought things couldn’t get any worse, they arrived back at her flat to find someone had broken in and all their jewelry and money had been stolen. Thank goodness their passports were still there. The next morning they left as fast as they could without even waking Val to say good-bye.
Val felt terrible about the incident—so terrible, in fact, that as soon as she realized they’d left, she took two ludes with some wine. She managed one phone call to her connection and told him to bring her some hash. Luckily, he was there when she collapsed. It was serious. She ended up having her stomach pumped by a very private Harley Street doctor. He warned her that if she continued abusing her body to such a degree it was going to kill her. He suggested going to a private rest home for about six weeks and said it would take that long to clean out her system. She was appalled by his suggestion and left the office in a total panic. When she got back to the flat she immediately called her agent. He made reservations for her at once on the next available flight to New York.