Part 2

  After a grueling and humiliating day of poorly performing magic tricks in the Park, Emily just wanted to collapse on her bed and sleep.  She swallowed down her urge to cry.  This was not what she had envisioned when she had left home ten months earlier.  She didn't even know what was holding her to this town, other than she might have inherited some of her father's tenacity and stubbornness.  She refused to crawl home and admit defeat.

  Just as she was getting ready to indulge in a good pity party, her phone rang.  It was her mother, Kellie King.  "Sweetie, how are things going for you?  Did you find a good job yet?"

  "Hello Momma."  The urge to confide to her mother was nearly impossible to ignore, but she managed it, barely.  "Oh, yes.  Didn't I tell you?  I've got a fantastic new job!"  She winced a bit when the words left her mouth, thankful that her mother couldn't see her.  "I'm on my way to Stardom.  It's just taking me a bit longer than I expected."

  Emily had to pull the phone away from her ear because of the excited squeal that came from her mother.  "Do tell Emmie!  I knew you could do it!  Who are you working for?  Is he rich?  Handsome?  Single?"

  Emily sighed.  "Momma, you are incorrigible!  I am not looking for love, so it hardly matters IF my boss was single, handsome, or rich."

  Her mother was quiet for a second.  "Well, is he?"

  "No, um, I don't have a boss, well, I do, but I'm my own boss.  I've signed up my own deals and everything.  I couldn't have imagined being where I am today ten months ago.  It is---unbelievable!"

"Emmie, that's wonderful!  You're such a talented girl."

  Emily talked to her mother a few minutes more, then pleaded exhaustion and ended the call.  She shook her head.  Her mother never changed.  She was always wanting to know if Emily had found a boyfriend yet, or if there was boyfriend material anywhere nearby.  But her favorite scheme was trying to set Emily up with the neighbor's son, Blaine.

  Emily made a face.  Blaine the Bane.  That's how she thought of him.  Her mother seemed to think that just because she and Emily's father were childhood friends, then teen sweethearts, and then married right out of highschool, that Emily was destined to do the same.  And her mother picked Blaine, of all people.  Blaine who had cut her hair when she was 6 yrs old.  Blaine who planted slugs in her boots.  When he was teen he graduated to vulgar name calling and spreading lies about her all around town.  Blaine who was the town thug, if her mother ever cared to open her eyes to see it.

  Emily flopped down on her bed onto her back and threw her arm across her eyes.  Her life had come to this.  Lying to her mother, well, stretching the truth a little bit.  She did say she couldn't imagine her life being this way ten months ago, and that was the God honest truth.  She had made two hundred thirteen dollars and ten cents.  In four days.  She only needed eight hundred dollars more, in three days.

  She needed a miracle.