The music from the competition could be heard from the street. Julia and her companions moved through the crowds of people up to the front doors. Noticing the Courier, Swank nodded his head and winked.
"Hey doll, you here to have a good time?" "he asked Julia with a predatory grin.
"That was the plan, Swank," she responded, looking around for anyone else to talk to.
"You fill out that dress real Ring-a-Ding, baby," Swank said, his eyes moving up and down Julia's body, stopping in areas that made Julia wish she was wearing a blanket over her head. "I can tell you're not packing heat by the way it clings. Who'd have thought you had such a nice set of cans."
"The part I really love about this outfit," Julia said as she leaned in, "is the combat boots. I can still stomp a mud hole in any pervs who get the wrong idea."
Looking a little apologetic due to the Couriers words, Swank looked over her shoulder to see her friends Boone and Veronica, both dressed equally well, nodding at him like it was time to step back. Deciding it was time to stop harassing the courier; Swank stepped aside and let her and her companions pass.
The casino was filled with people, the Top's tryouts were one of the most popular events on The Strip, and any local who could afford to get into The Strip came. Pushing through the crowd of people Julia kept a lookout for The King. She knew him well enough to deduce he'd be in a location where he could watch the acts and wouldn't have to socialize very much. Trying to get through the bars to the theater, Julia bumped into Marjorie from the Ultra Luxe.
"Hey, you're the lady who runs the Ultra Luxe," Julia said.
Marjorie turned to look Julia up and down, a sneer forming across her lips as she realized Julia was dressed in a less lavish fashion than herself.
Her nose slightly turned up in the air Marjorie said, "Oh, yes. I believe you are that Courier everyone's been talking about so much."
The man wearing a top hat who was standing next to Marjorie started talking to her again, obviously excluding Julia from the conversation. Not one to be put off so easily, Julia reached over and touched Marjorie on the elbow, causing the middle aged woman to turn and look at Julia with the same superior look she seemed to never lose.
"I just wanted to introduce myself, my name is Julia. I'd like to speak to you in the next few days about the future of New Vegas."
"That will be fine. You already know where I work," Marjorie said," Now, if you will excuse me, my colleague and I were talking business."
"Of course," Julia said, moving backwards carefully, not wanting to annoy this person if she didn't have to. Expecting to turn and find Veronica up in her caw, Julia was surprised when she saw a man with an eye patch standing next to her smiling.
"So it's true, the famous Mojave Courier did come," the one eyed man said. "Allow me to introduce myself; I'm Tommy Torini, talent manager for the Tops. I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time?"
"Uh, sure," Julia said, peaking over her shoulder to find Veronica waiving at her, the rest of her friends having wandered off to listen to the acts.
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to get on stage and give us a number?" Torini said, a smile on his face that could blind a person. "I'm afraid a lot of the lineup tonight stinks, and it would be great to have a local celebrity participate. You know, it's okay if you're not a great singer, they just want to see you."
'I'm not...I don't know, I'm not really an entertainer," Julia stammered.
"Come on kid, you don't have to do much. Everyone knows you're a warrior, they'll just be glad to see the gal who's fighting for them willing to get up and share the love. Tell you what, don't say no, don't say yes, just come with me backstage and take a quick tour. I'll show you some real easy to sing songs, let you pick one out, and you can make up your mind then. Don't! Don't say no! You'll be breaking my heart if you say no this early."
Smiling at how charismatic Tommy was being, Julia raised her hands to turn him down, and then in the bar behind him she noticed a man standing just in shadow. He tilted his trilby back from his head, revealing the pale, gaunt facial features of Vulpes Inculta. He stood there for a second, the light exaggerating his high cheekbones, blending into the darkness like he was part of the shadow. He smiled at Julia like he had a devious plan, as several people passed in between them, and once the crowd had parted he was gone.
"Maybe I will take that backstage tour," Julia said, her eyes wide with fear. Torini was too much of a gentleman to ask why the lady was upset, or turn to see what she was looking at. He smiled that things had someone how gone in his favor, and put his arm around her protectively.
"Glad to hear it babe! Glad to hear it! You're doing Tommy a big favor. A real big favor. I promise you won't regret it."
"I hope you're right," Julia said, looking for Veronica in the crowd, but failing to find her. She shrugged and followed Tommy, figuring Veronica had found some girl to flirt with.
…..
The ropes and riggings overhead made Julia feel uncomfortable; there were so many places for enemies to hide in the backstage of the theater. She found herself hyper alert to the ever creaking ropes and scurrying performers. The kings that were competing for a chance to work at The Tops gave Julia dirty looks from across the wooden backstage area.
Tommy placed his hand on her back very gently between her shoulder blades and led her to a private annex that had several pages of sheet music in boxes and stacks.
"Pick up a few, look through them; see if you can find something you mostly know. Even if it's really short, I can't wait to introduce you to a crowd of your ardent admirers. You'll knock them dead kid, just get something easy and fun. Light hearted, you know," Tommy said, emphasizing with his hands as she took a seat in the chair.
"Light hearted," She repeated, feeling a little overwhelmed by the idea of standing up in front of people.
Picking up a stack of sheet music, Julia peeled through page after page, looking for a title or words she knew. Most of the paper was gibberish, lines and marks that could have been Chinese, but she could read the English well enough, when the songs were in English. Frustrated with the paper's she'd been looking at, she reached in a dusty box located behind the chair and started methodically checking every paper. She bit her lip and looked closer at a song she though King had snag to her, but didn't know the words to and put it back.
After a few minutes Tommy Torini walked by smiling at her, "Anything catching you eye?"
"I didn't know there was this much music in the world," Julia said, feeling a little stupid.
"Well, we're lucky to have such a collection, honestly. Tell you what, maybe we can just go with an easy song everyone knows the words to, Camp Town Races?"
"I don't think I know it," Julia said, feeling even dumber.
"Hey, it's a shit song, don't worry about it," Torini said, whishing she'd just pick something and move on.
Focusing on the papers so her embarrassment wouldn't show too much, Julia flipped through a couple of pages, then stopped, realizing she knew this one song. She closed her eyes and remembered someone, maybe her mother, singing it softly in the kitchen of a ranch house while she cooked. The image stirred something in her that had been mostly erased from the gunshot wound to the head. Reading the words slowly she realized it was perfect, a sad simple love song that begged forgiveness.
Hesitantly Julia lifted her selection to Tommy, who took it and looked over it slowly.
"I want this one," she said.
"It's not that hard to sing or play…Can't say I've ever heard anyone perform it. You found a real lost beauty here. Are you sure you know it?"
"Like it was born from my dreams," she whispered, the strangeness of it causing both of them to shiver a little bit.
"Well, who am I to blow against the wind?" Tommy said as he handed the sheet off to a runner so it would get to the piano player in time. "Can you go on in fifteen?"
"Sure," she said, a question gnawing at her gut. "Say, have you looked out at who is in the audience?"
"Baby, everyone who's anyone is in the audience."
"I just…do you know if the leader of the Freeside Kings is in the audience tonight?"
The dejected way Julia asked his question made Tommy's romantic senses peak, and his business sense hope that the uncomfortable quality of this conversation meant he'd get one hell of a performance out of her. "Yeah kid, he's here. Sitting at a table for two in the back, funny thing, he's by himself. Won't let anyone sit with him. Guess it's nice how he comes to support his boys, which he wouldn't waste a chair doing it though."
"Thanks," Julia said, a small hope forming in her brain she dared not say out loud.