Sky Tongues Read Online Free PDF Page A

and over, looking out for miles across the blue Pacific ocean.
   While we were closing up a little after midnight of our first night there, Milo said she’d bought a paper on her break and circled all the open-call auditions. “You wouldn’t believe how many there are!” she declared, grinning from scale to scale. “Like, hundreds! I figure we can ask Gus for some time off and check out a few of them. It couldn’t hurt right?”
   On the contrary, I knew that auditions could often hurt quite a bit, but I kept my mouth closed on the subject. Instead, I said, “What makes you think he’ll give us the time off? He’s never given us time off.”
   “That’s my point. We haven’t had a single day off the entire summer. I’m sure if we beg enough he’ll say ok, especially if we can get Hillel to run our booth for a while.”
       “ And why would Hillel do that?”
   Milo wiggled her eyebrows up and down. “Let me worry about that.”
   I stared at her. “You’re kidding, right? Hillel?”    Laughing, she continued packing up all the plush prizes and never did answer me.
    21

   That night Milo cornered Gus and begged him for the following day off.
   “No way,” he said quickly. “I need your booth open.”
   “Hillel will cover for us!” she insisted.
   Gus eyed her skeptically. “Is that so?”
   “Yeah. Go ahead and ask him.”
   “Hillel is the laziest son-of-a-bitch gods ever put on this planet.”
   Milo repeated her statement, telling Gus to ask him, which Gus immediately did, calling Hillel away from his hackey sack game.
   “Yeah, I’ll do it,” Hillel said. “No problem, boss.”
   Looking even more skeptical, Gus gave in, shrugging his shoulders. “Alright then, but if any of you kids give me any grief, if I lose even a single dollar tomorrow, you’re all gonna be on my shit list for a year.”
   Milo jumped up and hugged him around his neck. “You won’t lose a penny, Gus. We promise!” She then proceeded to thank him about a hundred times.
   To myself, I was wondering about the “we” shit she was promising, but as usual, I didn’t say a word.

22

   In the morning, before I was even fully awake, Milo began showing me the things she’d circled in the paper and pointing out bus routes on a map. I had to forsake a shower and get dressed as fast as I could, gloves and all, and then we were on our way, a mere twenty minutes after she’d shaken me awake.
   “This is insane,” I told her while we sat on the bus among a few dozen other people who all seemed to smell bad. “It’s hot and I’ve given up a day’s pay.”
   “Quit whining,” she said, staring out the window at the ugly landscape. “If I get even one of these jobs, I’ll pay for the damn day myself.”
   I sat back and pouted, mentally preparing myself for what I knew was going to be a long-ass day.

23

   By mid-afternoon the temperature was well over a hundred degrees, my tongues were miserably parched and Milo had yet to receive any positive feedback from any casting directors.
   “I need to find water for my tongues,” I told her.
   “Ok, just one more place first,” she said. “This audition is for an ice cream commercial, so it’ll be nice and cool inside. We might even get free ice cream!”
   I made a face behind her back but followed her onto the bus and to the next destination.

24

   We arrived late. The waiting room only contained only one actor who held a script close to his face and moved his lips while he read.
   Milo signed in, received her script and sat down beside me. “I told you it would be cooler in here.”
   Ignoring her, I pulled off my gloves and began licking my tongues to get them at least somewhat moist. A few minutes passed and a door opened. An actor came out looking dejected and the one who had been waiting went in. Impatient, I asked the receptionist if there was a