{"id":4186,"date":"2020-12-05T22:08:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-06T05:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/?p=4186"},"modified":"2020-12-05T22:08:15","modified_gmt":"2020-12-06T05:08:15","slug":"4-her-makeup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/archives\/4186","title":{"rendered":"4. Her Makeup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Early on a sunny Saturday morning in June, Stephen Ornofsky sits in a big wooden chair on the deck of the beautiful one-story redwood house where he lives in Melody, a small town on the north coast of California. He is thirty-four, two inches shy of six-feet-tall, with short brown hair and wire-frame glasses. His dogs, Hortensio, a big black mutt, and Moose, a brown floppy-eared Chihuahua, are sitting on either side of him waiting to go for their morning walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen lives in the beautiful\nold house with Maya Johansen, a former dancer and choreographer who is\nseventy-seven and paralyzed from the waist down. Stephen is Maya\u2019s primary\ncaregiver and best friend. Celia Flores, fifty-four, another of Maya\u2019s\ncaregivers, comes to live with Maya and Stephen every Thursday evening and\nleaves on Sunday morning, which means on those days Stephen is free to do as he\npleases, though he always gives Maya plenty of care on those days, too, unless\nhe goes out of town, which he rarely does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A musician and poet and\ngardener and guitar teacher, Stephen was just yesterday asked to be in a movie,\nand he told the moviemakers he would give them his answer today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sliding glass door\nopens and Celia steps out on the deck. She is still in her blue flannel\nnightgown, the morning chilly. Her long black hair is down and she has yet to put\non her makeup. Stephen wishes she would always go without makeup, but he knows\nshe feels compelled to try to hide her wrinkles, so he never reveals his wish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBuenos dias,\u201d she says\nquietly. \u201cComo estas?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBien,\u201d he says, smiling\nas she comes near. \u201cY tu?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m okay,\u201d she says,\nlooking out over the town cloaked in fog. \u201cDid you decide to be in the movie?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStill thinking about\nit,\u201d he says, getting up. \u201cShall I do the morning lifting?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWould you?\u201d says Celia,\nsmiling radiantly. \u201cMy back is okay today, but if I don\u2019t lift her this morning\nthat would be better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy to,\u201d says\nStephen, who loves making Celia smile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Maya is dressed and\nin her wheelchair at the kitchen table, Stephen makes coffee and Celia makes\nscrambled eggs and toast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo be in a movie or not\nto be in a movie,\u201d says Maya, waxing Shakespearean. \u201cThat<\/em> is the question. Can\u2019t you decide after<\/em> they write the script? What if it\u2019s horrible?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey want me to help discover\nwhat the movie is about through improvising with the cast,\u201d says Stephen,\nthinking of the alarmingly charming and disarming Carmen Fernandez, exactly\nStephen\u2019s age, and Joseph Ross, seventy-five, Stephen\u2019s old friend, who are\nmaking the movie, working title Funny\nLove Story<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLike Mike Leigh,\u201d says\nMaya, who once danced in a Mike Leigh movie. \u201cOnly Mike is a genius. I worry\nCarmen and Joseph are not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen serves Maya her\ncoffee to which she adds sugar and cream. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m torn,\u201d says\nStephen, sitting down with his coffee to which he adds nothing. \u201cOn the one\nhand, I like them and making a movie might be an interesting creative challenge.\nOn the other hand, I have so many other things I like to do, why be in a movie,\ntoo?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was in a movie,\u201d says\nCelia, serving the eggs and toast. \u201cWhen I was seventeen. Before I got married\nand had kids and got fat.\u201d She laughs. \u201cIn LA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou are not<\/em> fat,\u201d says Stephen, ever amazed by Celia.\n\u201cYou\u2019re gorgeous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI agree,\u201d says Maya,\ntasting the eggs. \u201cRubenesque. Or is it Rubensesque? His name was<\/em> Rubens after all. Oh my these eggs\nare cooked perfectly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen and Celia\nexchange smiles\u2014Maya having recently groused about Celia overcooking the eggs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat was the movie you\nwere in?\u201d asks Stephen, finding Celia surpassingly lovely at fifty-four and\nunimaginable at seventeen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGangster King<\/em>,\u201d says Celia, smiling self-consciously. \u201cMy cousin\nVeronica was dating a movie agent and he told her to find two more pretty Latinas\nto be the gangster king\u2019s women. So Veronica asked me and her niece Paula and\nwe went with her to the movie set for three days and they put us in sexy\nclothes, you know, and told us where to sit and lie down and walk around, but\nwe never said anything. We were just there in the gangster king\u2019s mansion and they\npaid us three hundred dollars a day.\u201d She laughs. \u201cWe were rich!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid you ever see the\nfinished movie?\u201d asks Maya, amazed by Celia\u2019s story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh yes,\u201d says Celia,\nnodding. \u201cMany times. It was a big movie in LA and Texas and Mexico and South\nAmerica, you know, for Latinos.\u201d She sips her coffee. \u201cWe have a DVD. Very\nviolent. I don\u2019t get killed, but many people in the movie get killed and they shoot\nVeronica at the end when they kill the gangster king.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After breakfast, Stephen\ntakes the dogs for a walk to the post office where in his box he finds a letter\nfrom a friend, four checks from guitar students, and the latest issue of Normal Magic<\/em>, a literary quarterly to\nwhich Stephen has submitted many poems over the years, though none have been\naccepted for publication. However, a few years ago one of his poems did<\/em> garner a personal note from the\nPoetry editor saying she loved his poem but didn\u2019t feel it was quite right for Normal Magic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen wrote the editor\na thank-you note for responding personally to his poem and asked if she would\nelaborate on what was not quite right about his poem since she loved it, and he\nenclosed a self-addressed stamped postcard for her reply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She wrote \u201cNot quite\nenough magical realism,\u201d and doodled a smiling face next to the word realism<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her reply inspired\nStephen to write a song about rejection, a song that always gets big laughs\nwhen he performs it at his Thursday night gig at McCarthy\u2019s<\/em>, the largest pub in Melody. The title of the song and\nthe last line of the chorus are Not\nEnough Magical Realism<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the post office,\nStephen continues through town with the dogs to the beach at the mouth of\nMelody River where he throws a rubberized tennis ball into the surf for\nHortensio to retrieve while Moose runs up and down the shore yapping at\nHortensio until the big dog gets back on dry land, drops the ball, and Moose can\nbring the soggy orb to Stephen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On their way home from\nthe beach, Stephen and the dogs stop by Murray\u2019s\nSeafood<\/em>, and Stephen and Murray Steinberg, a gregarious guy in his sixties,\nsit at a picnic table behind the fish shop and talk. Stephen holds Moose on his\nlap while Hortensio lies on the ground beside them exhausted from his exploits\nin the surf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaya and Celia loved<\/em> their fish & chips last\nnight,\u201d says Stephen, having brought home three orders of fish & chips\nafter meeting at Murray\u2019s Seafood<\/em>\nwith the moviemakers. Murray and Murray\u2019s\nSeafood<\/em> are to be in the movie, too, and Carmen and Joseph have taken to\nusing Murray\u2019s shop as their in-town meeting place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad,\u201d says Murray,\nwho admires Maya and was devastated when she became paralyzed and was no longer\nable to dance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaya even went so far\nas to use the word genius<\/em>,\u201d says\nStephen, avoiding eye contact with Murray. \u201cA word she reserves for the likes\nof Van Gogh and Mendelssohn and Mike Leigh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to be in\nthe movie, do you?\u201d says Murray, who has known Stephen for twenty years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think so,\u201d says\nStephen, stating his decision out loud for the first time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure I want to\nbe in the movie either,\u201d says Murray, who was gung ho at first about Joseph\nmaking a movie set in the fish shop. \u201cI thought they were gonna make a short,\nyou know, a ten-minute vignette, and now they want to make a feature film and they\u2019re\nauditioning professional actors and they want to improvise scenes to guide them\nin writing their script, and they\u2019re so serious<\/em>\nabout everything. And though I really<\/em>\nlike Carmen, and I like Joe, the whole thing feels very weird now. You know\nwhat I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think,\u201d says Stephen,\nchoosing his words carefully, \u201cJoseph and Carmen are having a love affair by\nmaking this movie in lieu of actually<\/em>\nhaving a love affair, and I think that\u2019s a beautiful thing, if you\u2019ll excuse my\nuse of the expression a beautiful thing<\/em>.\nHowever, I am not drawn to participate in their beautiful thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hear you,\u201d says\nMurray, nodding in agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYet,\u201d says Stephen,\nraising both index fingers skyward, \u201cI, too, really like Carmen, as in I have a\ncrush on her transcendent of any crush I\u2019ve ever had, and believe me I\u2019ve had\nsome big ones, and I\u2019ll always be grateful to Joseph for helping me out when I\nwas a teenager, but I still don\u2019t want to be in their movie, and hearing your\ntake on things confirms my feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Fortunately for me,\u201d\nsays Murray, resignedly, \u201cJoseph is adamant I only be Murray of Murray\u2019s Seafood<\/em> in the movie and not<\/em> involved in the days of improvising\nprior to them writing the script.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy not?\u201d says Stephen,\naghast. \u201cYou\u2019re one of Melody Theatre Company\u2019s finest actors. You were astounding\nin A Thousand Clowns<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThank you,\u201d says\nMurray, gazing thoughtfully at Stephen. \u201cBut for some reason just the idea<\/em> of me being on equal creative\nfooting with Joe and Carmen makes Joe furious. As in livid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYet another reason to\navoid the proceedings,\u201d says Stephen, rising to go. \u201cThank you, Murray. For\neverything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe feeling is mutual,\u201d\nsays Murray, slapping Stephen on the back. \u201cSay hi to Maya and Celia for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home again, Stephen\ncalls Carmen, thanks her profusely for inviting him to be in their movie, and\ngraciously declines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Carmen says, \u201cMay I\ncome see you? Now?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo try to convince me with your beauty and\ncharm and ineffable je ne sais quoi to be in your movie?\u201d says Stephen, who\nunder no circumstances wants to prolong his escape from the movie business. \u201cNo\nyou may not come see me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot about the movie,\u201d she says quietly. \u201cAbout\nsomething else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay,\u201d he says, looking out the kitchen window\nat the wooden bench in his vegetable garden and thinking that will be the\nperfect place to discuss something else with Carmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A striking brunette with a Spanish father and a\nFrench mother, Carmen arrives twenty minutes later and Stephen introduces her\nto Maya and Celia and Hortensio and Moose before taking her out to his big\nvegetable garden where they sit on the wooden bench with a foot of space\nbetween them. They are both wearing shorts and T-shirts, Carmen\u2019s long hair in\na ponytail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carmen takes off her dark glasses and says, \u201cSo\u2026\nwould you like to see about being in a relationship with me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heart pounding, Stephen says, \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh,\u201d says Carmen, blushing in surprise. \u201cYou\nwould?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut I still won\u2019t be in your movie,\u201d says\nStephen, shaking his head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo,\u201d she says, shaking her head, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They fall silent. Birds twitter. A neighbor\u2019s dog\nbarks. The ocean roars faintly in the distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo,\u201d says Carmen, taking a deep breath, \u201cdo\nyou think it\u2019s too soon to kiss?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe a little,\u201d says Stephen, also taking a\ndeep breath. \u201cI feel like I might be getting into a sticky situation with you\nand Joseph, and I really<\/em> don\u2019t want\nto do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI understand why you feel that way,\u201d she says,\nnodding, \u201cbut Joe and I have decided not to make a movie together and not see\neach other for a while. Things were getting confusing, for him more than me,\nso\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI understand in a non-specific way,\u201d says\nStephen, feeling both relieved and sad. \u201cYou think he\u2019ll be okay?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes,\u201d says Carmen, inching closer. \u201cWhat about\nhugging? Do you think it\u2019s too soon to hug?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo,\u201d says Stephen, who hasn\u2019t had a girlfriend\nin seven years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust so you know,\u201d she says, hugging him, \u201cI\nhaven\u2019t been in a relationship in seven years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo wonder you were in such a big hurry to\nkiss,\u201d says Stephen, kissing her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the house, watching Stephen and Carmen kiss,\nMaya says to Celia, \u201cSo it begins.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s so lucky,\u201d says Celia, her tears washing\naway her makeup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Procession of Desire<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early on a sunny Saturday morning in June, Stephen Ornofsky sits in a big wooden chair on the deck of the beautiful one-story redwood house where he lives in Melody, a small town on the north coast of California. He is thirty-four, two inches shy of six-feet-tall, with short brown hair and wire-frame glasses. His […]<\/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":[6296,6297,6298,6295,6300,6285,6286,6302,6281,6284,6299,1097,6305,6303,6304,6307,6306,6275,6301,9,33,6308],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186"}],"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=4186"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4188,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186\/revisions\/4188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}