It was 1953 and Marleena didn't want to go to this party, but she knew it could bring her the "connections" she so desperately needed to be an actress in Hollywood. Having done some extra work at the studios, she was anxious for a speaking role and because of her beauty, was noticed by Frederick VanHan, a leading Producer but a notorious womanizer.
Marleena's girlfriend Beth was not enamored with the idea of her lover's adventure to the VanHan's estate alone, but Marleena felt she had to do this by herself in order to secure a place in the producer's financial heart strings. Marleena promised she'd only coyly tease, and if any advancements were made, she'd protest and leave quickly.
"You're not the Hollywood type," huffed Beth, helping Marleena with her bra.
"That's what they said about Bette Davis."
"But she's not a lesbian."
"How do you know?" questioned Marleena, coyly embracing her lover. The ease with which these two women connected wasn't lost on either of them, and the love was never taken for granted. But with the honesty came responsibility, and Marleena's dream sometimes clouded Beth's ideas of spending a life together.
"Rent's due this Thursday. And we don't have it," courted Beth.
"Relax. Tonight VanHan is going see I'm the future star of the cinema and is going to offer me a speaking role in RIDER OF THE NIGHT." She giggled, striking a pose. Beth looked at her, shook her head and smiled.
"I love you. Be careful."
"I'll be fine, sweetie. I love you, too."
"And don't read any palms tonight or VanHan will be all over you."
Marleena, thanks to her mother, could read people's palms and would often offer her services to liven up any party she attended. And knew it often times got her noticed and talked about, an adoration she always enjoyed.
The long dining table for the 25 guests was covered in the finest crystal, silver, and glass a producer's salary could afford. And while Marleena was meeting a lot of people and, no surprise to her, charming them to death with her beautiful smile and coy attitude, there was one woman at the party who sat across from her at the table in quiet silence-- seemingly unaffected by Marleena's charms. The woman's beautiful brown eyes seemed to stare right through Marleena, her stunning face and exquisite milky skin radiating from the candlelight like an angel. Marleena was impressed by this gorgeous stranger, but found her beauty unnerving.
"Marleena, why don't you read some palms before the main course?" remarked VanHan at the end of the table, nudging a friend. Conversation quickly turned to her and she gladly claimed the spotlight.
"Oh, Frederick. Really?"
"Here she is, this extra, reading Louisa's palm-- my star-- outside her trailer. I was so intrigued with what she said, I knew this was the beginning of a friendship."
"Or something," remarked a guest, followed by a chorus of laughter.
Marleena pointed her finger at Frederick, motioning for him to behave himself. He could only smile.
Several guests joined in the party game, showing her their lined palms as Marleena reported about their life lines, their heart lines, and their destiny lines.
But the mysterious woman across from Marleena showed no interest-- only staring coldly in silence. As the next course arrived and the conversation turned to politics, the woman still continued to stare Marleena down in quiet servitude.
Marleena wished she was sitting next to VanHan at the moment. Any advances by Frederick would be easier than the uncomfortable silence this beautiful woman continued to emote. Was this woman some kind of power dyke that was going to corner Marleena when she went to the bathroom?
"Tell me," said the woman, leaning across the table to Marleena with a sly smile. "What do you see?" She extended her hand.
Marleena took her hand and instantly felt how warm this woman's touch was. Hot, and very sexy. Marleena turned the woman's palm towards her and suddenly froze.
The woman's hand was blank. No lines-- anywhere. No creases or folds to be seen. Marleena stared, dumbstruck, trying to figure it out when from the edge of the woman's wrist Marleena saw three small lines sprouting forward in a vertical fan shape. The image that suddenly entered into Marleena's mind was that of a tool-- a three pronged garden hoe-- that Beth had used in their window boxes. And then she realized what the three lines really meant-- or rather, what they reminded her of.
A pitchfork.
And within an instant the woman's hand turned ice cold.
"Now you know who I am," said the woman, smiling with a sly hint of playfulness as she pulled her hand back to her lap, staring Marleena down.
Marleena waited until after dessert to excuse herself from the party. VanHan was confused, wondering why she had to leave so quickly, but rationalized it as a simple gesture of playing-hard-to-get.
Two days later Marleena got the speaking part and was only one day late with the rent, following an advance from VanHan. But Marleena felt that acting and Hollywood was not for her, and within the same year decided to go back to school to pursue something more tangible.
She credits her decision to the simple fact of realizing that what she encountered at VanHan's party was no simple woman. Who she was, and whether it was a joke or not, still haunts Marleena's memory.
If this indeed was her warning to Hollywood and its people, she wanted no part of it. Beth and her and bigger plans.