{"id":3727,"date":"2020-07-12T10:50:11","date_gmt":"2020-07-12T17:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/?p=3727"},"modified":"2020-07-13T12:04:19","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T19:04:19","slug":"the-same-woman-maru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/archives\/3727","title":{"rendered":"The Same Woman (Maru)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now and then over the course of his life, Andrew encounters a woman he feels he already knows, though he has never met her before. The first time<\/a> was in 1955 when he was six-years-old, second time<\/a> 1962, third time<\/a> 1966, fourth time<\/a> 1970, fifth time<\/a> 1978, sixth time<\/a> 1987, seventh time<\/a> 1993, eighth time<\/a> 1998, and the ninth time <\/a>in 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

July 2006. Andrew and his wife Luisa are both\nfifty-eight, Andrew an attractive man descended from Ashkenazi Jews, his brown\nhair cut short, Luisa a beautiful woman with long black hair, her mother\nQuebecois and Chippewa, her father Afro-Cuban. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writers and musicians, Andrew and Luisa have been\nmarried for nineteen years and live in a lovely house Andrew built thirty years\nago near Vancouver, British Columbia. Their children Owen and Lily are both twenty-four,\nLily an actress living part-time in Los Angeles and part-time in New York, Owen\nthe new Drama teacher at a private high school in Vancouver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew has published six collections of short\nstories and written several plays, one of them made into a movie, four of them\nnow staples of the small theatre repertoire. Luisa has published two\ncollections of short stories and a novella that was made into a movie, and together\nshe and Andrew have written two original screenplays that were made into\nmovies. And though they are not wealthy from their writing, they are in good\nshape financially and continue to be of interest to publishers and theatre\ncompanies in Canada and England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the last four years, along with their writing,\nthey have been composing songs and occasionally performing as a duo in various Vancouver\nvenues, mostly living rooms and pubs, both of them guitarists and singers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the biggest news in their life right now is\nOwen being home after six years away. He is currently living in the other house\non their property, a small two-bedroom place that was originally a dance studio\nAndrew built for his first wife Kiki with whom he had Owen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Owen graduated from Julliard in Drama three years\nago with great hopes of succeeding as an actor, though not in the way Lily has\nsucceeded with roles in movies and television shows. No, Owen hoped to become a\ndarling of the avant-garde theatre movement, and to that end he moved to Berlin\nwith his girlfriend Sophie who graduated from Julliard with him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Owen and Sophie\u2019s dismay, after two years of\nscouring the theatre scenes in Berlin, Amsterdam, and London, they found\nnothing remotely kin to the avant-garde theatre they had studied so\npassionately at Julliard. And when Sophie landed the part of a goofball cutie\npie in a German television sit-com imitating an American sit-com, Owen and she\nparted ways and Owen moved back to New York where he failed to land a part,\navant-garde or otherwise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tired of working as a bartender sixty hours a week\nto pay the rent on a sofa in a one-bedroom apartment he shared with three other\npeople, Owen returned to Vancouver where Dessie, his friend since childhood, is\nthe music teacher at New Foundations, a private high school, and touted Owen\nfor the Drama teaching job there.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A star among his Drama peers while at Julliard, and\nhaving lived for three years in Berlin and Amsterdam and London and Manhattan\nassociating with theatre people and playing his clarinet in ensembles with\nother accomplished musicians, Owen is by turns angry and depressed about living\nwith his parents again and preparing to spend at least the next two years instructing\nteenagers in the dramatic arts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew and Luisa have mixed feeling about Owen\nliving with them again. On the one hand, he\u2019s one of their favorite people in\nthe whole world and they missed having him around. On the other hand, they want\nhim to be happy, and he is definitely not happy being home and becoming a high\nschool Drama teacher, something he and many of his fellow actors at Julliard\nconsidered the ultimate failure, especially if one fell so low before late\nmiddle age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoping to engage Owen in something other than\nmoping around and reluctantly designing his Drama program for the upcoming\nyear, Andrew and Luisa decide to invite him to perform with them at their next\ngig, a living room concert at the home of Cal and Terry who live a mile away\nand have known Owen since he was in utero. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So on a sunny morning in July, Andrew cooking an\nomelet for the three of them, Luisa making toast and hash browns, Owen sitting at\nthe table drinking coffee and perusing the New\nYork Times<\/em>, Luisa invites Owen to perform with them at their upcoming show\nat Cal and Terry\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know what I\u2019d rather do?\u201d says Owen, looking\nup from his perusal of the Theatre<\/em>\nsection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d asks Luisa, bringing the coffee pot to the\ntable and refreshing Owen\u2019s cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHave a wooden stake driven through my heart,\u201d he says,\ngiving her a blank-faced look. \u201cYou could take turns wielding the mallet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWas that a No?\u201d asks Luisa, looking at Andrew who\nis just now pouring the beaten eggs into a saut\u00e9 of zucchini and mushrooms.\n\u201cSounded like a no, didn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDefinitely no-ish,\u201d says Andrew, turning his\nattention to grating the cheese. \u201cThough one never knows for certain when the\nreply is metaphoric.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Owen puts down the paper and smiles falsely at his\nfather. \u201cI don\u2019t mean to imply your music isn\u2019t just<\/em> the thing if one likes earnestly rendered tunes reminiscent of\nthe simplistic folk music of the 1960s and 70s. In fact, I applaud you two for strumming\nyour guitars and singing your cute old-fashioned songs for your friends. But I\u2019m\nhaving a hard enough time adjusting to being back here and preparing to do\nsomething I vowed I would never do. Thus to stand with you in Cal and Terry\u2019s\nliving room noodling on my clarinet while you play chord progressions that make\nmy teeth ache would be the last straw and I would then swim out into the ocean\nand drown. Does that clarify the meaning of my stake-through-the-heart\nmetaphor?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt does,\u201d says Andrew, abashed. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, O.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell I\u2019m not sorry,\u201d says Luisa, glaring at Owen.\n\u201cYou\u2019ve been home for two months, and a month from now you start your job at New\nFoundations, which, by the way, you are incredibly fortunate to have. As you\nare incredibly fortunate to have a house to live in and food to eat.\u201d She takes\noff her apron, starts to leave the kitchen, stops, turns to Owen and adds, \u201cThe\nyoung man who left here six years ago was kind and thoughtful and resourceful\nand a joy to live with. The petulant little boy who came back is a self-centered,\nelitist, unimaginative, thankless pain in the ass.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having spoken her truth, she storms out of the\nkitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s right,\u201d says Owen, looking at his father. \u201cI\u2019m\na thankless shit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re nothing of the kind,\u201d says Andrew, shaking\nhis head. \u201cYou\u2019re having a tough time. And you\u2019ll get through this with a new\nunderstanding of what you want to do with your life, teeth-aching chord\nprogressions notwithstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t mean that,\u201d says Owen, getting up and\ngoing out the open door. \u201cI love your music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alone with his omelet, Andrew recalls the day Kiki\nsaid she wanted a divorce and was moving to Los Angeles and giving Andrew full\ncustody of Owen, and how four-year-old Owen would shake his head and say No<\/em> whenever Andrew tried to explain\nabout Kiki leaving, until finally Andrew stopped trying to explain and a year\nlater Owen came to him and said, \u201cI know why Kiki left.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy?\u201d asked Andrew, gazing at his beloved child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause she found out Luisa was actually my\nmother,\u201d said Owen, nodding solemnly. \u201cSo she knew she better go away and never\ncome back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Owen brings Luisa a bouquet of roses that\nafternoon, and while she stands at the kitchen counter arranging the roses in a\nvase, Owen thanks her for waking him up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t remember exactly when it was I turned\ninto the kind of person I\u2019ve always hated,\u201d he says, sitting at the kitchen\ntable. \u201cA closed-minded, self-centered, holier-than-thou cultural snob, but I\ndid, and that\u2019s probably why I failed as an actor. Because directors could see\nI was a phony.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSweetheart, you haven\u2019t failed,\u201d she says,\nsetting the vase of roses on the table and sitting beside him. \u201cYou\u2019re on a\njourney. I know that\u2019s a clich\u00e9 and probably makes your teeth ache, but you are.\nWe all are. And sometimes we find ourselves in a situation we can\u2019t see our way\nout of and we have to make the best of things until we do<\/em> see a way out or we discover that what we thought was the wrong\ndirection turns out to be the way we needed to go, if I may mix my similes or\nwhatever they are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Owen nods. \u201cMy favorite teacher at Julliard, Sig\nPerlman, used to say if we communicate in any way to the audience that we know what\nthe other characters in the scene are going to say, the scene will fail. And\nhe\u2019s right. Good actors play every moment as if they have no idea what might\nhappen next.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At supper\u2019s end a week after Owen and Luisa\nreconcile, Owen asks his parents if they would be up for hosting a small dinner\nparty, the guests to include his friend Dessie, who got him the teaching job at\nNew Foundations, Dessie\u2019s husband Jonah, a bass player and software engineer,\nand Maru Stein, the founder and executive director of New Foundations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe Cal and Terry, too?\u201d says Owen, having done\na complete about-face since Luisa deftly smacked him with the bamboo cane of\nher honesty. \u201cAnd anyone else you\u2019d like to invite. Maybe a theatre person or\ntwo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSalmon on the barbecue,\u201d says Andrew, who is now helping\nOwen design the Drama program to be unveiled at New Foundations in September.\n\u201cCorn on the cob.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA fabulous garden salad,\u201d says Luisa, who loves\nto cook. \u201cAnd for appetizers, mini-falafels with cashew butter lime sauce and\nhummus and guacamole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll take that as a Yes<\/em>,\u201d says Owen, getting up to clear the table so they won\u2019t see\nhim crying, but they do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The afternoon warm and humid, Andrew is out on the\nbig south-facing deck tending the barbecue\u2014salmon steaks and corn-on-the-cob\u2014when\nOwen emerges from the house with Maru Stein. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew\u2019s first impression of Maru from twenty feet\naway is that she is a giantess emanating a brilliant golden light, but as she\nand Owen cross the deck to him, she shrinks to Andrew\u2019s size and appears to be\na lovely woman in her fifties with reddish brown hair cut in a boyish bob, her\neyes dark blue. She is wearing a sleeveless magenta shirt, blue jeans, and\nhiking sandals, her arms muscular, a tattoo of a small red rose on her right\narm just below her shoulder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She shakes Andrew\u2019s hand with a pleasingly strong\ngrip and says with a slight German accent, \u201cA great pleasure to meet you. I\nhave been reading your stories since they first appeared in The Blitz<\/em> those many years ago, and I\nmust tell you my daughter fell in love with the theatre because of your plays.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m flattered,\u201d he says, wanting to blurt I love you<\/em>. \u201cWhere is your daughter\nnow?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s in England, in Oxford, the artistic\ndirector of a small theatre company. They\u2019ve done all your plays, most of them\nmore than once.\u201d Maru\u2019s eyes widen as she senses Andrew\u2019s attraction to her.\n\u201cWhen I told her I was going to meet you she said to tell you she can\u2019t wait to\nread your next play. Do you have one in the works?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo,\u201d says Andrew, suddenly aware of how close the\nsalmon is to perfection. \u201cTo be continued. I must tend the salmon lest I\novercook.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA rare skill,\u201d says Maru, winking at him as she\nmoves away with Owen to meet Luisa. \u201cCooking salmon just so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosquitoes ferocious at dusk, the humans move inside for supper, ten of them around the big dining table: Luisa, Andrew, Maru, Owen, Dessie, Jonah, Cal, Terry, Electra Wickersham, and Mark Kane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electra is an actress Andrew has known for\nthirty-four years. Short and buxom with a gravelly voice, she played the droll\nsister of the main character in the world premiere of Extremely Silly Ariel Gets Wise<\/em>, a play based on two of Andrew\u2019s\nshort stories\u2014Andrew\u2019s first adventure in the theatre world of Vancouver\nthirty-four years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kane, a stylish dresser in his sixties with a\nsilvery gray pompadour, wrote Extremely\nSilly Ariel Gets Wise<\/em> and got it produced at the Kleindorf Theatre where he\nwas and still is the stage manager. Following the success of Extremely Silly Ariel Gets Wise<\/em>, Mark\nadapted two more of Andrew\u2019s stories for the stage, but that play lacked sufficient\noomph to get beyond a staged reading and Mark has never written anything else,\nthough he loves to talk about what he might<\/em>\nwrite one day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the height of the feast, the salmon cooked to\nperfection, the corn sweet and tender, much good wine consumed, Cal, a\nprofessor of Philosophy at Simon Fraser, asks Maru what inspired her to found what\nhas become one of the most prestigious high schools in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy children,\u201d she says, nodding. \u201cPublic high\nschool was a disaster for both my son and daughter. Before high school they\nwere excellent students and eager to play music and make art and build things,\nyou know, and then they were totally shut down by the idiocy of the public high\nschool system, so I got them out of there and homeschooled them. I would have\nsent them to the Waldorf High School, but lacked the funds, and when they went\noff to college I thought why not create an alternative school with excellent\nteachers and get the corporations to fund it so we could give scholarships to\nlow income people, and those who could afford the tuition would gladly pay to give\ntheir children an extraordinary experience rather than put them through a system\ndesigned to crush their spirits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell I can attest to the efficacy of your school,\u201d\nsays Cal, raising his glass to her. \u201cI\u2019ve had several of your former students in\nmy classes and they were head and shoulders above most of the other students.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m very glad to hear that,\u201d she says, placing a\nhand on her heart. \u201cThank you for telling me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd you<\/em>\nwill be teaching Drama there,\u201d says Electra, looking at Owen who she\u2019s known\nsince he was a baby. \u201cHow exciting for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll do my best,\u201d he says, frowning and scratching\nhis head. \u201cIf only I could remember what they taught me at Julliard. It\u2019s all such\na vague memory now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark and Electra and Cal and Terry and Dessie and\nJonah and Maru all laugh, while Luisa and Andrew hold their breaths until Maru\nsays, \u201cDon\u2019t worry, Owen. It will all come back to you in the heat of battle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBe careful, Owen,\u201d says Mark, who has been\nmarried three times to women much younger than he and is currently dating a\nwoman forty years his junior. \u201cAll your students will fall in love with you,\nthe tall, dark, and handsome Drama teacher just a few years older than they.\u201d\nHe looks at Maru. \u201cHow daring of you to hire one so young.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYoung teachers are a vital ingredient in our\nsystem,\u201d says Maru, aiming her words at Owen. \u201cBecause the kids don\u2019t relate to\nthe younger teachers as versions of their parents, but as slightly older\nfriends who can help them with their struggle to become adults. And it is a great<\/em> struggle for most of them because the\nlast thing they want is to turn into their parents, and without someone like\nOwen to emulate they see no alternative but to rebel or withdraw into their\nshells.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crawling into bed at midnight, Luisa says to\nAndrew, \u201cWhat a great mentor Maru will be for Owen.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes,\u201d says Andrew, closing his eyes and seeing\nMaru gazing at him. \u201cShe\u2019s a powerhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s one of your special women, isn\u2019t she?\u201d says\nLuisa, embracing him. \u201cCouldn\u2019t keep your eyes off her, could you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIs she one of your<\/em>\nspecial women, too?\u201d he says, growing aroused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course,\u201d she says, kissing him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late August, a few days before Owen will make\nhis debut as a high school Drama teacher, Andrew and Luisa and Owen throw\nanother party, this one a big potluck attended by several New Foundations\nteachers, lots of actors and musicians and theatre people, and several\nneighbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maru arrives at the height of the party with her\npartner Adriana, a stunning Brazilian woman in her thirties who is the Dance\nand Percussion teacher at New Foundations. Owen was unaware that Maru and\nAdriana were in a relationship and so did not convey this information to his\nparents. Andrew and Luisa are both surprised Maru made no mention at their last\nparty of having a partner, and Luisa is not<\/em>\nsurprised Maru\u2019s partner is a woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew is dizzied by the conflicting emotions\narising in him\u2014jealousy and relief and sorrow and happiness\u2014when Maru introduces\nhim to Adriana, an exquisite mix of Afro-Brazilian and Latino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am so glad to meet you,\u201d says Adriana with her Brazilian Portuguese accent Andrew could listen to forever. \u201cI devour your stories and we watch your movies and now I feel like I meet a god.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs do I,\u201d says Andrew, looking from Adriana to\nMaru and back to Adriana. \u201cGoddesses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adriana and Maru exchange mysterious smiles, Owen\nand Dessie come to greet Maru and Adriana, and Andrew turns his attention to\nthe barbecue on which many foodstuffs are approaching doneness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is glad for the distraction of the salmon\nsteaks, chicken thighs, slabs of zucchini, potatoes, ears of corn, hamburgers, sausages,\nand various shish kebabs because they keep him from gawking at Maru and longing\nto embrace her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why am I\nso ferociously attracted to her? <\/em>he\nwonders as he looks down at the various sizzling things. Must have something to do with how open she is to me and how open I am\nto her. Only it\u2019s more than that. It\u2019s as if we are two parts of one being separated\nlong ago, which is how I felt when I met Luisa, our attraction to each other a desire\nto be whole again.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHoney,\u201d says Luisa, putting her arm around Andrew.\n\u201cI don\u2019t want to tell you how to cook, because you\u2019re a wonderful cook, but I\nthink most of what\u2019s on the grill now is done. Yeah?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes,\u201d says Andrew, realizing he hasn\u2019t been\ntending the foodstuffs at all, but standing at the barbecue appearing<\/em> to be tending the foodstuffs\nwhile off in the clouds imagining becoming one with Maru. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew joins Cal and Terry and Electra at one of\nthe many tables arrayed on the deck, his plate heaped high, a cold beer just\nopened, and as he settles into easy banter with his tablemates, Maru and\nAdriana arrive and ask if there\u2019s room for them at the table, room is made, Adriana\nsits between Electra and Cal on one side of the table and Maru sits next to Andrew\non the other, her shoulder touching his, and Andrew is filled with a divine sense\nof completeness, a feeling, to paraphrase Stevie Wonder, of being exactly where\nGod wanted him to be placed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere we are together again,\u201d says Maru, speaking quietly as she gently bumps Andrew\u2019s shoulder with hers. \u201cHow are you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGood,\u201d he says, no longer afraid of how he feels\nabout her. \u201cYou?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA bit preoccupied,\u201d she says in a way he takes to\nmean she\u2019s been preoccupied with him<\/em>,\n\u201cbut otherwise excited about school starting next week.\u201d She takes a deep\nbreath. \u201cOwen tells me you\u2019ve been helping him with his course design. I love\nwhat you two have cooked up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell I got my undergraduate degree in Drama,\u201d\nsays Andrew, recalling those long ago days in California, \u201cand I was hoping to\nget into Yale and leap from there to the professional stage, but instead I\nmoved to Canada and became a carpenter and a writer. And now I\u2019m sitting with\nyou at the zenith of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know what you mean,\u201d she says, watching Adriana\nlisten intently to Electra talk about the current revival of Ah Wilderness<\/em>. \u201cThis is definitely a\npeak experience for me, being with you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supper is followed by pie and coffee and tea in\nthe living room, and when everyone is settled somewhere, Luisa and Andrew enter\nwith guitars, Owen with clarinet, and they launch into a lively instrumental Owen\nrecently composed called My Teeth Ain\u2019t\nAching No More<\/em> full of surprising chord changes to which Owen blissfully improvises.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They follow the instrumental with Luisa singing a\nlove ballad she and Andrew wrote called The\nThing Of It Is<\/em>, Owen adding tasteful harmonies to Luisa\u2019s fine contralto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And lastly Andrew and Luisa sing a song they wrote\ncalled So Far<\/em> So Good<\/em> about a couple who keep being pleasantly surprised that no\nmatter how old they get they don\u2019t lose the knack for loving each other, the\nsong ending with a stirring clarinet solo that brings the house down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day after the party, recalling the moment he\nand Maru sat beside each other and shared the feeling of being exactly where\nGod wanted them to be placed, Andrew puts pen to paper and out flows the first\nscene of a play he will write over the next few weeks called Time and Again<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The play is about a man and a woman roughly the\nsame age who meet eight times over the course of their lives, and whenever they\nmeet\u2014on a playground, at the beach, at a party, in a park, in the foyer of a\ntheatre, on a bus, on the street\u2014they are entranced with each other, yet always\ndiscover one of them is involved with someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each scene ends with the man and woman parting\nways without making arrangements to stay in touch, save for the last scene in\nwhich they are elderly and meet at a neighborhood caf\u00e9. Over coffee and\nbiscotti, they discover they live just around the corner from each other and\nare both free to unite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Andrew finishes the first draft, he gives the\nplay to Luisa and she reads it in a single sitting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She finds him on his knees in the garden thinning\nbaby chard plants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fantastic, A. I think it\u2019s the best thing\nyou\u2019ve ever written.\u201d She smiles down at him. \u201cDo you\u2026 will you want me to work\non this with you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlways,\u201d he says, looking up at her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure,\u201d she says shyly. \u201cYou\u2026 we haven\u2019t\nwritten a new play in a long time and I didn\u2019t know if you still wanted to do\nour usual back and forth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course I do,\u201d he says, getting up and embracing\nher. \u201cI\u2019m always just cruising on the surface until you and I run the lines and\nfind out what really wants to be said.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, good,\u201d she says, breathing a sigh of relief.\n\u201cI think this will make a wonderful movie, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re further along we\u2019ll show it to Nick,\u201d he\nsays, referring to Nicolas Thorsen, the filmmaker who made their previous\nmovies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou amaze me,\u201d she says, looking into his eyes.\n\u201cJust when I thought we might never write another play, you come out with this\nheartbreaker.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIs it sad?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh my God, yes,\u201d she says, her eyes full of\ntears. \u201cThe sadness of missing their chance to be together over and over again when\nthey\u2019re so right for each other. It\u2019s hilarious, too, and I\u2019m so glad they get\ntogether at the end, but\u2026 I couldn\u2019t help wishing they\u2019d taken one of those earlier\nchances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut maybe they weren\u2019t ready for each other until\nthe last scene,\u201d he says, walking to the house with her. \u201cMaybe the promise was\nnot to be fulfilled until they learned whatever they needed to learn along the\nway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe so,\u201d she says, taking his hand. \u201cBut I\u2019ll\nbet lots of people who see this play will be emboldened to take a chance if\nthey ever get one again.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A month after school starts, Owen implores Andrew to help him cast and produce the first play of the year, a sappy television sit-com masquerading as a play he inherited from the previous Drama teacher called Don\u2019t You Wish?<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing how overwhelmed Owen is by his daily\nteaching load, Andrew agrees to lend him a hand with the play and enlists\nElectra and Luisa to join them for three afternoons of auditions. Once the play\nis cast, Andrew shows up at the New Foundations multi-purpose room every\nweekday at 3:30 to assist Owen in managing the cast of fourteen and the\nespecially rowdy crew of twenty-two. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now and then Maru stops by to watch Owen directing the kids and to sit with Andrew and watch the play take shape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t You Wish<\/em>? is such a big hit, the initial two-night run is extended to a second weekend with a Sunday matinee, the four hundred seats sold out for all five performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately for Andrew and Owen, no one blows the\nwhistle on them for their extensive rewriting of the dialogue, the three entirely\nnew scenes they wrote to replace those they found ruinous, and the new and completely\ndifferent ending they invented\u2014their creative tampering bringing them closer\ntogether than they\u2019ve ever been.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winter play at New Foundations is A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em> with a cast of\n(seemingly) thousands. Electra and Andrew and Luisa help again with the\nauditions, and this time both Luisa and Andrew assist Owen with the many afternoon\nrehearsals, which in the beginning resemble riots and eventually, miraculously,\nresult in three acceptable performances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew and Owen severely edit The Bard to bring the\nrunning time down to ninety minutes so they can include three hip hop songs composed\nand performed by teenagers in togas and accompanied by energetic ensemble\ndancing choreographed by Adriana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally comes the spring musical, Guys & Dolls<\/em>, with Dessie conducting\nthe student orchestra and coaching the singers, Adriana choreographing the\nnumerous dance numbers, Andrew and Luisa again assisting Owen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dress rehearsal and Performance #1 are epic\ndisasters, Performance #2 begins promisingly but quickly devolves into chaos, Performance\n#3 has a few startling moments of cohesion but is otherwise another catastrophe,\nand Performance #4, with only a few dozen people in the audience, is a stirring\ntriumph from start to finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summer cannot come soon enough for Owen and Andrew\nand Luisa, and when school finally adjourns in early June, Owen does nothing for\na week but sleep and mope around while Andrew and Luisa fly to Montreal to\nattend five staged readings of their play Time\nand Again<\/em>. The cast is stellar, several play directors from Canada and\nEngland and Australia come to hear the play, the audiences rave, and Nick\nThorsen, who sits in the first row for all five of the readings, offers a\npittance for the screen rights, which Andrew and Luisa gleefully accept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As June becomes July, Maru and Adriana invite\nAndrew and Luisa over for supper at their spectacular new house in one of\nVancouver\u2019s ritziest neighborhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After supper they retire to the living room, Maru pours\na rare Spanish peach brandy, and Adriana says with her Brazilian Portuguese\naccent Andrew could listen to forever, \u201cI know this will come as surprise, but\nwe want to have a child and for you, Andrew, to be the father.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luisa purses her lips and frowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew clears his throat and says, \u201cWe are speaking\nof artificial insemination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you prefer,\u201d says Adriana, who grew up\nsomething of a wild child in Brazil and has few of the scruples common to North\nAmericans. \u201cOr we could make the baby, as we say in Portuguese, naturalmente<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUm,\u201d says Luisa, scrunching up her cheeks, \u201cI would have a problem with that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen artificial,\u201d says Adriana, nodding. \u201cOr you\ndon\u2019t do anything if this seems too\u2026\u201d She looks at Maru. \u201cHow do you say it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMuch to ask?\u201d guesses Maru. \u201cToo much of an entanglement?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToo big a commitment?\u201d says Luisa, looking at\nAndrew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe thing is,\u201d says Andrew, searching for the right\nwords, \u201cI can\u2019t imagine knowing I\u2019m the father of a child and not wanting to be\ninvolved with the child in a big way. Do you know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh we want you to be involved,\u201d says Adriana,\nnodding emphatically. \u201cWe love you. That\u2019s why we choose you for the father.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell,\u201d he says, looking from Adriana to Maru, \u201cI\u2019m\nflattered, of course, but\u2026 we weren\u2019t planning to spend our late middle age and\nelder years raising a child. Spending time with our grandchildren, should that\never come to be, yes. But not\u2026 co-parenting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou would not be co-parenting,\u201d says Maru, shaking\nher head. \u201cWe will be the parents and you would be uncle and aunt. Or\ngrandparents.\u201d She shrugs pleasantly. \u201cWe don\u2019t expect you to say Yes<\/em>. But we love you both and we admire\nyou and so we thought we\u2019d ask. If not you, we know a few others we may ask,\nand if no one wants to do this with us, we will go with the unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHave you thought about adopting?\u201d asks Luisa, who\ncertainly understands why they would want Andrew\u2019s genes in the mix. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m only going to have one child,\u201d says Adriana, gazing at Luisa who has become her dear friend. \u201cAnd then we see. Maybe we adopt, maybe we don\u2019t. But I know I want one child who comes from me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing like it,\u201d says Luisa, tears\nspringing to her eyes as she thinks of her daughter Lily. \u201cWe\u2019ll let you know\nsoon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThank you,\u201d says Adriana, taking Luisa\u2019s hand.\n\u201cWe are honored you even consider doing this for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At midnight, neither Andrew nor Luisa able to\nsleep, Andrew gets out of bed and says, \u201cChamomile tea?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On their way to the kitchen, Luisa says, \u201cWho am I\nto judge them? I made Lily with a man I slept with once, a man who never even knew\nhe made a child with me, a man I didn\u2019t even like.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about judging them,\u201d says Andrew, turning\non the kitchen light. \u201cIt\u2019s about marrying them without any legal right to the\nchild.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d says Luisa, filling the\nkettle. \u201cMarrying them?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI mean what if five years from now Adriana leaves\nMaru and moves back to Brazil or her next partner turns out to be a psychopath\nand by then we\u2019re in love with the child and powerless to intervene? I\u2019d be\ndevastated and so would you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAdriana won\u2019t partner with a psychopath,\u201d says\nLuisa, waving the thought away. \u201cBut you\u2019re right, in a way we would be\nmarrying them and I don\u2019t want to be married to anyone but you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fact is, we don\u2019t want another child. If we\u2019d\nwanted another child we would have had one or adopted one. But if we had a\nchild with them and fell in love with her or him, which of course we would,\nthen we\u2019d want to be with the little pooper every day, which would mean being\ndeeply involved with Maru and Adriana for the rest of our lives and I don\u2019t\nthink we want that. Do we?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMight be wonderful,\u201d says Luisa, anguished. \u201cI\nlove them. And I\u2019d love to see the child you\u2019d make with Adriana. But something\ndoesn\u2019t feel right about this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI agree,\u201d he says, terribly upset. \u201cIt\u2019s\u2026\nemotional extortion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, it isn\u2019t,\u201d she says, annoyed with him. \u201cThey said they don\u2019t expect us to say Yes<\/em>. How is that extortion? What doesn\u2019t feel right has nothing to do with them. It\u2019s about what we<\/em> want, and we don\u2019t want this. Right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d be seventy-eight when the child is twenty,\u201d\nsays Andrew, smiling at the thought of mixing his genes with Adriana. \u201cI wonder\nwhat Owen and Lily would think if we did this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe that\u2019s what doesn\u2019t feel right,\u201d says\nLuisa, making their tea. \u201cComplicating our already complicated life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the morning, they continue discussing the possibility of joining their lives with Adriana and Maru and the yet-to-be-born child, and the more they think out loud together, the more they warm to the idea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut I would only go into the little sperm-catching\nroom,\u201d says Andrew, putting his arms around Luisa, \u201cif you came in with me and inspired\nmy contribution. If you know what I mean.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen it would be our<\/em> gift and not just yours,\u201d she says, surrendering to the\nmomentum of creation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few days later, Andrew and Luisa go to tell Adriana and Maru they are willing, and Adriana and Maru burst into tears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just now check my fluid,\u201d says Adriana,\nembracing Luisa, \u201cand right now I ovulate. So because it will take some days to\narrange things at the clinic for Andrew to give his seed, we wait for my next\ntime to try.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy wait?\u201d says Luisa, surprising herself and all\nof them, too. \u201cWhy not now? Naturalmente<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe would love that,\u201d says Maru, looking into Andrew\u2019s\neyes. \u201cA sacred tryst.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And before Andrew\u2019s rational mind can rise above\nthe fervor of the moment, he and Adriana go to the bedroom and Luisa and Maru\ngo out into the garden and sit together on the bench by the lily pond holding\nhands and praying\u2014this ritual of procreation enacted again the next day and the\nnext.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December, during the Christmas holiday, Adriana\nfive months pregnant, she and Maru come to Andrew and Luisa\u2019s house to tell\nthem they have just seen the ultra-sound of Adriana\u2019s womb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t what we planned,\u201d says Maru, her eyes\nsparkling with tears, \u201cbut we are happy to tell you we are going to have twins.\nFraternal twins. A girl and a boy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2206<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That night Luisa dreams the boy is named Teo and\nthe girl is named Rosa, and when the babies are born they are given those names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

fin<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wedding Song<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now and then over the course of his life, Andrew encounters a woman he feels he already knows, though he has never met her before. The first time was in 1955 when he was six-years-old, second time 1962, third time 1966, fourth time 1970, fifth time 1978, sixth time 1987, seventh time 1993, eighth time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[858,83,5957,3844,5989,5962,5157,79,5992,448,5991,51,5988,5973,5990,9,33,101],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3727"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3733,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3727\/revisions\/3733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}