He Knew a Broadway Star

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On that epic evening Ellis Morgan found the newspaper singularly devoid of anything resembling news. He stowed it under his thigh and stared for a time out the train window at the too-familiar commuter landscape. He tried his mad game of pretending he was racing a bicycle against the train, but that adventure bored him after he came to quick grief against a culvert.

So when he suddenly discovered a magazine abandoned by a previous passenger, Ellis was delighted. Even if it were printed in Arabic, there would be pictures.

It was one of those sleek little magazines of the arts and the theater, with invaluable information about who was writing what in North Africa. Ellis found an article, a profile of sorts, about a certain Vania Derrold who, after much success in London, had begun what seemed to be an even greater success on Broadway in the new Kingsley Loomis play.

As Ellis vaguely remembered hearing his wife Janet’s enthusiasm about Vania Derrold’s acting ability, he began to plow his way through the article. Vania, it appeared, had experienced a remarkably unremarkable childhood — public schools in an upstate city. Like me, Ellis thought.

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