Adrienne answered and mouthed to Delores, “It’s Thelma.” Exhausted from having performed two shows and doing the weather that night, Delores made shushing motions with her hands. “I’m not here,” she whispered, certain that Thelma was calling her to clean the tank. “You don’t know where I am.” Adrienne said she hadn’t seen Delores all day. “Should she reappear any time soon,” said Thelma, “I have some news that might interest her. Enrich her, actually.” Ten minutes later, Delores was seated across from Thelma Foote in her office. Thelma had hiked herself up so that she was sitting on her desk with her hands folded and her feet swaying back and forth. Her Keds thumping against the desk sounded like a bouncing rubber ball. The more she talked, the faster they bounced. “The bangs are really working for you. The kewpie doll thing you do with your eyes, it’s fetching, but you’ve got to remember to blink.
