The Price of Fame.

Katy was four when she found the limelight.

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It was quite by accident as she was the fourth in a line of three older sisters and life was usually hectic and no one paid too much attention to her as she played with her ‘Barbies’.

‘We’ve won!’ exclaimed her mother Meg, and that changed Katy’s little life.
The family boarded the dogs, locked the house and set off to the Wild Coast Sun hotel on the beach of white sand and turquoise waves. The prize was a whole week of cosseting…..no cooking cleaning………..just sun and fun sighed Meg as she adjusted her wide brimmed sun hat and sipped her frosty drink, making sure that the little umbrella in it did not go up her nose…again! She peered indulgently at her daughters swimming in the far off shallow end, supervised by their indulgent dad.

Katy thrust a typed note under her nose and after a nap she felt enthused enough to sit up and take notice.
‘Wow, a fashion parade Katy? And you’re the right age…
“Under fives are invited to strut their stuff on the ramp this afternoon at 3pm. Just wear your prettiest outfit and join in. Win a prize.” ‘
‘I’ve got my new shorts with the frills, Mommy…..please please can I go?’
Still in a good mood, Meg murmured, ‘sure Katy, and yes I will come and watch you. I’m sure we all will.’

At precisely 12 minutes past 3 it was the turn of “little Miss Katy Meyer from Johannesburg,” to take her turn on the ramp. The games room of the hotel had been converted into a fairly glamorous place and suddenly her little daughter, fourth in line for most things, made her entrance through the red curtains on the stage at the back of the room.
‘Wow, Katy, you look all grown up.’ Meg sat up and took off her sunglasses to see better.
There was her smallest girl glowing like a beacon.
Katy paused, almost dramatically, tilted her head so that her curls swung down her back. She came towards the audience. Her smile captivated everyone and there were small outbursts of applause here and there. Her 3 sisters glowed with pride.

After 9 small girls had had their turn on the ‘catwalk’ they were interviewed by the compere, one by one.

They watched amazed as Katy sat on the edge of her chair and chatted artlessly with the big friendly man.
“And what do you have in mind when you grow up Katy,” he asked, bending down so they were on eye level with one another.
“Oh I know exactly what I want to be,” she said coyly.
“And what might that be Miss Katy Meyer?”
“I am going to be a waitress,” she announced as though she was going to find a cure for cancer.
The man concealed his surprise as best he could, “and what makes you choose that for your career”?”
“’Cos when we ate out at the Spur onetime, my daddy left a heap of money on the table for Connie, our waitress,” she said with such shining eyes that the audience covered their laughter with a burst of applause.

That evening Katy turned into a monster.

She had won a host of prizes. Amongst the vouchers for toys, beauty treatments, clothes and free entry to Waterworld was a magnificent chocolate cake decorated with a Sleeping Beauty Castle complete with a princess. Katy was still wearing the tiara she had been crowned with and the little purple cape that had been draped around her shoulders.

She directed her sisters imperiously, as to the manner born, who was to sit where and took the knife determinedly from her mother’s hand and said, “MY cake, I’ll cut it.” She cut small slices for each of them and an enormous one for herself and directed them to “start eating, there’s no more tonight, only tomorrow!”

Meg and her husband glanced at each other with horror. Is this what really lurked in their golden haired little daughter’s personality?
After tears from two of the sisters because Katy wasn’t sharing, everyone was eventually in bed and asleep.

‘That’s the beginning and the end of any one of our daughter’s having a career on the red carpet or any beauty pageant’, Meg and her husband decided as they got rid of the cake via the kitchen staff and sorted through the prizes for a few that were suitable for Katy’s age group.

Katy woke in the morning full of joy that they were off to Waterworld........... the cake and her 15 minutes of fame a dim memory as the day shone with promise.

“Come on everybody, let’s go,” she sang.

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