Murder at the Royal Ruby

by Nita Prose

I hated her too. I wanted her dead.

Why is the star of the show dead in the very first scene?

They don’t realize this isn’t part of the play.

I know all the actors’ parts by heart,

And this face of mine?

with the giant purple birthmark on my cheek the size and shape of Australia—

when I told my parents I wanted to study acting after high school, my dad nearly spat out his dinner

“That’s impossible,” he said. “Not with . . . that.”

pointed his fork at the blemish...

My mother stepped in, smoothing things over. “A girl has a right to dream,”

“Not with my money,” my father replied,

but I barely went to class. My father found out at midterm and disowned me.

Dirk Cleeves, the impossibly good-looking TV star with a face that looks chiseled from marble.

Every now and then, a girl in the audience faints when he takes the stage.

It is said that when Eleanor didn’t like certain actors, they’d mysteriously drop dead midseason.