Loudmouthed, redheaded Cee Cee Bloom has her sights set on Hollywood. Bertie White, quiet and conservative, dreams of getting married and having children. In 1951, their childhood worlds collide in Atlantic City. Keeping in touch as pen pals, they reunite over the years ... always near the ocean. Powerful and moving, this novel follows Cee Cee and Bertie's extraordinary friendship over the course of thirty years as they transform from adolescents into adults. A bestselling novel that became a hugely successful film, Beaches is funny, heartbreaking, and a tale that should be a part of every woman's library.

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Beaches
A Novel

Chapter One

Los Angeles, California

1983

The dancers were holding Cee Cee above their heads. "Andnow," she said, "as I lie in the arms of four promiscuoushomosexuals from West Hollywood, my tits pointed towardsthe heavens like an offering to the gods, I slowly turn my head, look outat America and ask the musical question ... "

Everyone was laughing. The dancers were laughing so hard theymade Cee Cee bounce up and down. Then Hal played the arpeggioand Cee Cee sang,

Toot, toot, tootsie good-bye!
Toot, toot, tootsie don't cry,

with the slow soulful rhythm of a torch song. Then the dancers turnedfront, and Cee Cee slithered down their shoulders and their backs untilshe stood on the floor with the four handsome boys swaying behind her.

The little red light on the phone had been lighting up for a longtime. The stage manager grabbed the receiver, put it up to his left earand put his finger in his right ear so he could hear above the din of themusic.

"Yeah?" he whispered into the phone. It was someone for Cee Cee.

"She's workin'," he said softly. "Huh?"

The caller was a woman and she wouldn't take no. The stage managershrugged, told her to hold on, and then put the receiver down onthe long table next to some scripts. Hey, Cee Cee Bloom was singing.As far as he was concerned the whole world could hold on.

The choo choo train that takes me,
Away from you no words can
tell how sad it makes me.

Now the music went into the up tempo, and the boy dancers beganto tap-dance and Cee Cee was tapping, too, keeping up with them. Herskill was remarkable. She hadn't tapped in years and it was hard, butshe'd been knocking herself out for the last few weeks working on it,trying to get it back.

"Hey!" Cee Cee yelled as she came out of a turn. "These bozos aretwenty-two years old and I'm thirty-six. So applaud, for chrissake."

Everyone laughed and applauded. The crew and the guest stars andthe director and the guy from the network. Somebody even cheeredbravo, and now Cee Cee whirled around the room looking just asskilled as the boy dancers. Someone, maybe it was one of the writers,whistled one of those whistles that people whistle for taxis in New York,and Cee Cee cracked a smile.

"All right," she hollered, "could I get you to fall for thirty-nine?"Everyone laughed, applauded, and cheered again.

Toot, toot tootsie don't cry
Toot, toot, tootsie good-bye!

Suddenly, the dancers lifted her onto their shoulders and twirledaround. She raised her arms in the air. The crowd was applauding andstomping and cheering as the song ended, and Cee Cee was helped tothe floor. The choreographer, elated with his own success, hugged her,and the director hugged her, and all the boy dancers hugged her.

"You did great on the hard parts," Lester, the curly-haired dancersaid.

"Are you kidding?" Cee Cee answered. "Everybody knows hardparts are my specialty." The dancers laughed.

"Who's on the phone?" the wardrobe mistress asked.

"No one," the director said. "Hang it up."

The wardrobe mistress picked up the telephone receiver and held itto her ear.

"Hello?" She listened. "Just a second. Cee Cee," the wardrobe mistresscalled.

"Later," Cee Cee told her. "I'll have to call 'em back."

The wardrobe mistress held the phone receiver out to Cee Cee.She had a helpless look on her face.

"Roberta Barron," she said. She hoped Cee Cee would shrug noncommittally;then the phone could go back in its cradle and disconnect,and the wardrobe mistress could call her boyfriend and ask himwhat he wanted for dinner.

"Who?"

Good, it was no one important. The wardrobe mistress couldhang up.

"Barron. Roberta."

Cee Cee ran to the phone and grabbed it out of the wardrobe mistress'shand.

"Lunch, people. One hour," the director said. Everyone wasmilling and talking and getting their things together.

Cee Cee spoke into the phone in a voice that didn't sound like herusual voice because it was almost timid.

"Bert, is it you?"

Her face was scrunched up as if that would help her to hear betterover all the noise.

"Huh?" she said, working at listening. "Talk louder, Bert -- I'm in aroom full of people."

Later, when the others were trying frantically to locate her, someonewho had been standing nearby remembered that what Cee Cee had said next was, "Hey, I get it. I'll be there." Then she had ripped partof an inside page out of a script that was on the table, scribbled somethingon it, and put it in her purse. After that, she hung up the phoneand walked quickly out of the rehearsal hall. Everyone thought she wasgoing to lunch. But they were wrong ...

Excerpted from Beaches by Iris Rainer Dart
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.