Dramatic Jewels

Julie found the idea of her daughter at drama school upsetting.  But she was determined not to intervene in Laura’s life.  Julie prayed for Laura to come to her senses and choose something practical to study instead.  Science, Accountancy, Teaching. They led to secure work and a certain future.  But drama? She visualised years of struggle and casting couches.  A lifetime of waitressing, hoping for the break that never came.  Once, Julie vented her frustration to a friend, a relatively recent friend who didn’t know her past.

“But she might be the next Kiera.” The friend had said.  “She’s beautiful.  You’ve got to let her try.”

“You watch too many talent shows on the telly.” Julie had retorted. “She’s just another in a long line of people waiting for fame to drop into their lap.”

“Let her have her dreams.  It doesn’t hurt.”

They bickered on.  But Julie knew that she had to let Laura choose her own way, and then be there for her when it all went wrong. 

The week of the audition for drama school came.  Laura barely left her bedroom.  Julie could hear scenes from Arthur Miller drift through the partition wall, and a periodic thump as the dead faint was rehearsed. She put the ladders up into the loft.  There, she retrieved a mildewed basket and took it down to the kitchen table. There was an old tobacco tin filled with glass and pearlescent beads.  Then, contained within an old Park Drive packet, she found some nylon cord wrapped around a card.   She began to methodically thread one onto the other.

When tea time arrived, Laura came out in search of food.  Julie beckoned her over.

“I wish my Mum was here to advise you.  She could have given you so much guidance.  She could have told you all about her days in rep theatre.”

“And that advert she did.” Laura joined in, smiling.  “Pity the advert wasn’t shown as often as she told us about it.”

“But these were her beads.  She liked an unusual necklace and loved to pull them all to bits and remake them.”  Julie held her work in her cupped hands, and then placed it into Laura’s. “Wear them for me?  Then I know that she’s with you.  Something might rub off them.”

Laura accepted the beads as if she were being handed her first BAFTA statuette.

http://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/180185089/vintage-bead-threading-collection?ref=shop_home_active_6

Vintage bead threading collection available in the Etsy shop, SewsAttic.

For more short stories from Sarah Miller Walters search for 'Athene and Other Stories' on Amazon Kindle.