Erika ran a hand through her long golden curls and hurried to catch up with her two companions. Like them, she was dressed casually in a bright-hued blouse and skirt that highlighted her voluptuous bust and firm legs. Her hair tumbled down her back and around her cherubic face and indigo eyes. Her porcelain skin gleamed in the streetlights. Several of the ladies of the night walking the Boulevard had been giving her harsh looks throughout the evening. Erika ignored them as best she could.
She wasn't getting nearly as many harsh looks as her companions. The taller and older of the pair, Kate Hudson, looked like a Greek goddess with her bony statuesque features and white alabaster flesh. Straight blonde hair a shade lighter than Erika's hung about her shoulders. She appraised the people walking past them with sky blue orbs behind sunglasses, casting a cool smile at anyone who looked back.
The other girl, Sarah Hudson, was a shapely woman with a handsome face and deep makeup. Long brick red hair accented her hazel eyes and laughing smirk. Any woman who stared at her received an answering look of challenge. So far, that look had also frightened off a few guys.
Oh well, Erika thought, the guys in question didn't seem like much anyway. The night's still young. If it goes sour, we can always head home and have fun with each other.
"You see these stars on the sidewalk?" a scantily clad skank asked, stepping into their path. She pointed at several other girls with her. "This is our turf, bitch!"
"We're not hookers," Kate coolly informed the skank. "Far be it from us to steal your business."
"Don't fuck with us," Sarah added with a glare. The hookers nodded and backed off. Kate and Sarah walked on.
I wish I could give them some advice; Erika paused in thought, looking at the prostitutes. So many of these girls have such messed-up lives, I would try to help them if they'd listen to me. I know people don't always appreciate help, though. I don't think it would be appreciated here.
She smiled at the hookers and several flashed her upraised middle fingers that confirmed her conjecture. Erika sighed and tucked her Scientology cross pendant out of view under her blouse as she headed away.
"Just ignore them," Kate advised her. "Those whores give Sarah and me trouble every time we come down this way. People like them are the main reason I've donated thousands to clean this area up."
Erika nodded. She did the same with the money she earned as an actress. It's working, she thought, looking around at the Boulevard. The people on this street look mostly content here in the week before college spring break. The crooks of this area are still evident but there aren't nearly as many as when I last walked the Boulevard. That's good. This is L.A.'s main thoroughfare of the arts. It has the Walk of Fame and many theaters and restaurants. I don't appreciate that it also has crime.
A large black van drove past, making her feel better. Kate's adopted father and another man were inside the vehicle watching over the girls and patrolling the area. Erika had requested their presence. I have a bad feeling about tonight, she had told Kate and Sarah. You never know what will happen. Sometimes pepper spray and fast feet aren't enough. It was Erika's first time picking up guys with them on the Boulevard, so the other two women had acquiesced to her demand.
Erika was nineteen years old. Kate and Sarah were in their early twenties. Erika had met them while filming a movie with Kate's mother Goldie Hawn. "The Banger Sisters" was a comedy about two best friends who reunited in the present after sleeping with dozens of rock stars in the 1960s. One of them, Goldie, was still into the groupie lifestyle. The other, played by Susan Sarandon, had settled down in the suburbs and become a mother of two. Erika played the older daughter whose drunken prom night revelry brought Goldie back into Susan's life.
In reality, Susan and Goldie had known each other for decades. Geena Davis, one of Erika's mentors as an actress and sexual being, had introduced Erika to them. Some months ago, Erika had discovered she was bisexual and wanted to be a happy swinger. Geena had pointed out Susan and Goldie as the two most experienced female celebrity swingers she knew. They had both grown up during the sexual revolution and first become famous in Hollywood during the 1970s and 1980s. If anyone could teach Erika to manage swinging and the acting career she also wanted, it was them.
Geena's "Thelma and Louise" co-star, Susan, had been thrilled to meet Erika. She had admired Erika's work playing an addict in the anti-drug thriller "Traffic" and gotten her a similar part in "The Banger Sisters". Both Susan and Goldie were veteran actresses who lived with common-law husbands. Erika had learned they were also still living the 1960s free love movement in the new millennium. They were decades older than Erika, though, so they did not find themselves attracted to her. She had shrugged that off and accepted the inspiration and advice they offered instead. Goldie had also introduced Erika to two girls her own age who wanted the same lifestyle as Goldie and Susan had: Goldie's niece Sarah and her daughter Kate.
Kate was a new famous face in Hollywood. Recently she had wowed critics in the drama "Almost Famous". Her role as a rock groupie named Penny Lane had won her an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe. She was married to a musician but both lived open sexually. Her cousin Sarah was a year younger and starting a rock music career. She managed a small record label and produced several albums for herself and other artists. Both girls had grown up in Hollywood like Erika. However, their childhood had been far more open than hers had.
Erika had grown up sheltered. Her parents kept her isolated and home-schooled her when she wasn't attending classes for her religion. Acting was her only escape and she had become further excited about it as she grew more adept. Where is this going, her family would often ask as they watched her star in commercials and small press movies. Erika had answered them when she got multiple awards for her performance in "Traffic" and then embarked on a movie star's life.
I will always want this life, she told herself, thinking back on it. Never have I been that content with myself. I've always been told I'm a point of light, a supreme being who just needs to awaken the powers inside her the way I'm shown. I never have seen that working perfect, though. I know that when someone says they have all the answers they are always misinformed or lying. However, I can't tell them that. They get mad at me if I do. It's far better to be someone else, someone other than me. I love other people too much to forever step outside their lives.
Fame had not been easy. At first, Erika was not comfortable with the world outside her church and family. Life's lessons had hit her fast and hard. Scientology preached self-reliance but it was also big on motivating its followers to seek nothing other than its teachings as guidelines for development. Erika had always somehow known that was wrong.
Watching many of her friends turn away from the church over the years had supported her doubts. She was confident she would never leave the church herself, as she accepted the basic beliefs and would always be grateful for the things her religion had taught her about communication and emotion. However, Erika knew she did not want to be forced to live a life that was in but not of the real world.
I know our mistakes too, she pondered, recalling the anger the hookers had shown her. I have to be careful about voicing my thoughts to the wrong people sometimes but I still have knowledge and opinions. I see over half the world confused by our strange ways and much of the rest despising us for things we've done. The lawsuits and censorship, the greed, the people we've injured on both physical and spiritual levels. It all disturbs me so much. I have a larger conscience than many people in my religion, especially the leaders.
Unlike them, I am not selfish and I will never believe our way is all there is. We've only come along in recent years while other truths including psychology have been around for centuries. I don't like using and manipulating others, either. I think it's better to show someone the reality of the person you are if they're against you rather than just hate them and do whatever you can to mislead and dispose of them. Sometimes people need assistance to open their minds and if you give that aid, it helps clear the planet of its troubles. Aren't we supposed to be doing that?
