Ruby met June outside the cinema on Wednesday with a message from Nina she wanted to show her.
“A performance and a discussion,” Ruby said. “A real evening. She wants to talk about a fee.”
June took the phone. Nina had written that she would like to discuss a small live programme about making a dramatized piece, with other ordinary material alongside it. She had called the video dramatized twice.
“That’s good,” June said.
Ruby watched her. “You mean it?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve never had anybody ask after seeing something I made. Normally I have to tell them six times that I exist.”
June gave the phone back. Ruby held it against her chest.
“And you’ve helped. Really.”
“I wasn’t trying to get you booked.”
“I know. That makes it better.”
They went upstairs to the little room the cinema sometimes used for discussions. Ruby had asked Nina if she could try some material there before the meeting. June had agreed to listen for half an hour during her break. There was no audience and no microphone, only chairs with three slightly different kinds of upholstery.
Ruby stood in front of them and described an audition at which she had been asked to cry more naturally, then to keep her chin higher, then to make the crying quicker because they were running late.
She tried the casting assistant’s voice. June laughed. Ruby tried it again, giving the assistant too much cruelty. June stopped laughing.
“First one,” she said.
Ruby returned to the first. “Good. She’s not evil. She’s got forty people to reject before lunch.”
It was funny again. June liked watching her get there.
Then Ruby sat beside her, still bright with the prospect of the evening. She opened another thing on the phone.
“I told people this morning. Look.”
Under a photograph of the cinema doors, Ruby had written that her closest friend knew the real story, that she was grateful to those who had stood by her, and that some exciting news was coming.
June looked at the words until Ruby took the phone back.
“What?”
“That’s not what I said.”
Ruby looked at the empty chairs. “I finally get something good and we spend the whole time taking it apart.”
“I liked the rehearsal. That post is using me to say the story is true. Change it.”
June held out her hand for the phone. Ruby kept it and began tapping.
“I’ve put that you confirmed the hurt, not the events.”
June turned. “Show me.”
Ruby held it out. It said, My friend has confirmed I experienced real hurt. Some details in the video were dramatized. I’m grateful to those who have listened.
It was closer. June gave the phone back without smiling at the compromise.
“I’m helping you rehearse,” June said. “That doesn’t mean you can put me in the programme.”
Ruby set the phone beside her.
“All right.”
June checked the time. She still had ten minutes before she needed to go downstairs.
Ruby was looking at the page where she had written the audition material. She picked it up and folded it, then unfolded it because the crease went through a sentence.
“Do you want to do the rest?” June asked.
“Are you going to enjoy it?”
“I was enjoying it.”
Ruby looked up. Then she stood and tried again.
This bit was about waiting in a corridor with six other women who all had the same haircut as her. Halfway through, she forgot what came next. June didn’t rescue her. Ruby stopped, looked at the ceiling and began again with a different line.
June laughed, slowly this time. Ruby grinned at her.
They managed five good minutes before June’s break ended. As they went down the stairs, Ruby asked if she could send her some other material later.
“Ordinary stuff,” she added.
“Yes.”
At the bottom of the stairs Nina was waiting with a folder. She smiled at Ruby.
“Let’s work out what we can actually offer,” she said.
June went behind the counter. She wanted the evening to be good. She wanted Ruby to get paid for being funny.