The Beauty Part 2

No one expected Selena to show up at the bar that night, but she did, looking more stunning than ever.

Every hipster in the place turned to stare as she jerked across the room.  It looked like she had stapled several twigs around her head to look like a crown of thorns.  The blood had dried like crimson tattoos running down her temples.  Her eyes reflected the lights and she was gorgeous.


So we're sitting there and she staggers over and doesn't even try to order a drink.  She just stared at us all and we could see the new holes in her cheeks she had  poked through her skin.  With her shy smile the holes rode her cheeks like charming dimples.

"Hey", she said.
We all said whatever.
"Not one guy whistled at me on my way here.  NOT ONE tried to grab my ass or creep on me."  She started laughing.  "I'm ugly! I'm Ugly!" She yelled at us, still laughing.

 It was funny but not in the way she thought it was.  Selena had become a godess.  Ever since she had come in people had been inching closer and scraping their chairs and overrunning the booths around us.  Selena didn't notice until that one annoying kid touched her shoulder.

It was a reverent, adoring touch as if she were a favorite statue.  I was sitting right there when her right arm seemed to swing out with a will of it's own, whirling backwards to smack him along the side of his face. Unfortunately, she had one of those tacky heavy glass candle holders they put on every table in her hand at the time.

No one knew what to do and then everyone was doing something different.  It was total chaos in there.
And in all the excitement Selena somehow vanished.  She just wasn't there anymore.

I had a dream about Selena last night.  I was like her reflection as she looked in the mirror.  And I had her thoughts as she gazed but they weren't what you'd think of as "thoughts", you know like "words".  They felt like worms crawling thorough my head, slimey and struggling to climb over the hundreds of worms that were twisting there.  I really wanted to see myself because I was heartbreakingly lovely, but all I could feel were the worms.

And then she just wasn't around anymore.  Didn't come back to work.  Not out at the bar or anything.  I mean no one ever saw her, and how could you miss a beauty like that?

***************

The Beauty Part 1

When she came to work with those big X's carved into her cheeks, we didn't say a thing.  At least not to her.

Of course we talked about it between ourselves in the alley on a smoke break or at lunch at the Thai place. She seemed to not be self conscious at all about the X's, and would still look you or a customer right in the eye.  When Selena looked at you with those golden green eyes of hers, look out.  Many, MANY people fell hard for her.  But she wasn't ashamed of her face or whatever, and she almost seemed to enjoy our uncomfortableness around her.
And we still never said anything.

After the second week of this and her scars  had healed into thin dark lines, we decided that someone needed to bring it up with her, you know like find out what was going on.  Samantha cornered Selena in the break room and then told us what had happened.

She just came right out and said it, "Selena what happened to your face?"
Samantha said she actually shivered when Selena said, "I'm ugly now, right?" in an eager, puppyish voice.

So Sam said, (she said she "crooned") "No no no Selena, you're beautiful, you're still beautiful everyone says so," and she was right.  She always was a heart-stopping beauty; the scars now lent her a depth that she didn't have before.  Now she was a fierce tribal warrior, carrying her flame of beauty into battle.
VERY attractive.

So then Selena said, "No!" and she pushed Sam away, hard (according to Sam) and ran right out of the store.

Weird, we all thought.  She doesn't want to be pretty? Is that why she did the X's?  We discussed it for a bit, but the store needed closing and those cocktails weren't going to drink themselves.

*************

The Lovers

The Mistress, a long-legged luxuriant woman used to getting her own way, sauntered into the bar.

And there He was, at the end in the corner.  A clear view of the entire bar is how He liked it.

"Hello," she said, sitting and setting her purse on the bar.

He lit her cigarette.

"You're early," she said blowing smoke into His face.

"If you're on time you're late."  He said.

"Ha."

"So are we going..." He started in at the elbow, rubbing with a thumb.

"Can I at least have a drink?"

Drinks were had.  3 each.  Then:

"I saw the picture."

"Which one?"

"I saw the picture.  I saw the two of you.  IN THE PAPER."

"Oh yeah, well you know I'm a big deal baby.  It's just publicity..." He had moved to the thigh, high up just above her left stocking.

"But," she said clenching her thighs together suddenly trapping his hand, causing Him to fall of His stool dragging her with Him.  They got up.

Then:

"But something is different.  She looks different."

"So?"

"She looks like me!"

"Again, so what?  You have a hot look baby, why shouldn't she have it too?"

"But what does that mean?" the Mistress cried.

"Sssshhhhh.  Why don't we just get out of here, huh?" He drained his drink (4th) and took her arm.

"You're not leaving Her."

"Keep your voice down."

"You're making Her into Me!"

"You're crazy."

"Married men always lie," the Mistress hissed.





And she walked out that fucking door.

*****************

Outside in the fading sunlight, she looked up and down the street.  The cars still looked like cars, the streets had not collapsed with the cataclysmic occurrences.  She dragged her heart into the sunset.

******************

$90.00 an Hour

"So I kind of think that  I might be like a love godess or something."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, like people, men, fall in love with me and I have to continually give pieces of myself away to....satiate some kind of motion of the universe. I have to bring love to the world.   "

"Uh huh.  Let's go back to this 'love godess' thing.  I think we're onto something there."

"Well, no, I mean like I think some people are Dwarves?  And elves and goblins? Like we're all descended from these....ancestral mythological beings.  And you can still see some of the traits the old traits in them.  Have you ever noticed that?"










"Uhhhhmmm.  And you're...."



"Well yeah I said 'love godess' I kind of meant....Aphrodite or something.  A MAJOR deity.  That demands....a sacrifice.   I mean my psychic told me I was reincarnated from a temple dancer.  OH MY GOD.  What if all of my lives I've been the same spirit, this 'LOVE GODESS'  trained to serve men and-"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.


Oh, you're serious.  Huh."

********************************************

Mrs. Frederick T. Marsh

When I accepted Mr. Frederick T. Marsh's marriage proposal, I was a young girl down on her luck.
And he rescued me!
I was living furtively in a storage cabinet in his law offices, having recently become the char woman.
I was avoiding living a life of sin and destitution on the mean streets of the city, but that storage cabinet, my home for going on 2 months, was very cramped and unsavory.  My head rested on my clean rags and my meals were eaten off a wiped dust pan.
One day I was cleaning the dust pan to ready for my mid-day meal when a tentative knock sounded on my door.
As I thought no one knew the storage room was occupied, I kept quiet.
But the knock came again.
"Yes?" I asked hesitantly.
"Can you...come out of there please?"  a stern male voice spoke.
I can tell you my heart sunk to my knees as I opened the door, fearing my last refuge would be taken from me,  that my future depredations were going to become a stark reality.
"Yes?" I asked, opening the door a smidge and holding it for support as my heart in my knees was making me feel very unsteady and weak.
"Hello"  he said, and this man that I was soon to know as Frederick, as Freddy, as Mr. Marsh my beloved reached out his hand and opened the door wider, covering my hand in a comforting warmth as he did so.
"Are you living in here?" he asked me.
Fearing reprisal in any case I decided to be honest with him. "Yes I am sir, for these past two months."
"And why would you choose to live in this small closet Miss?"
"I have nowhere else to go, sir. "
At this he looked down at his beautifully shined shoes, and then back at me, into my eyes that had not beheld one shred of human sympathy these past sorrowful years.
"I don't wish to be presumptive, but from a young boy I have always wished to be of service to those in need.  That is why I chose the Law as my profession.  But your situation...."  here he stopped speaking and please do not think I exaggerate when I tell you tears stood out in his grey eyes.
"Sir?" I prompted gently.
"I have watched you cleaning the offices through the late nights, and secretly I have seen you retire to this...closet.  To know that a fellow human is living under my nose in such conditions has been keeping me awake and in a quandry as how to remedy the situation."
He then got down on one knee, and producing a small twinkling ring, my knight and savior proposed marriage to me.
Right now you are thinking of what an absurd tale I am telling you, that possibly the fumes from the cleaning equipment had addled my brain!  But every word is true, as I am now 50 years past that miraculous day.


And that is how I became the duchess of this fine castle, far away from the life I knew, and the life I feared would be mine.
Presently my life is solitary and lonely, especially with Mr. Marsh moldering in his grave these past years.  He was a fine husband and provider and I did my best to do the same for him.  We had no children.  What I take pleasure in is  the sunlight reflecting off the gracious stone floors, the morning dove and the evening sparrows.   A lovely woman, (Martha is her name)  is my constant companion.

I have no complaints.  I will live easily and simply, until I join my Freddy asleep deep in the earth.

 *********************

The Many Doors

She entered the hallway and there were the doors.
Five of them and which to choose.

From the first door emanated an aroma of freshly baked bread, of soup and peach pie.
She reached for door knob but for some reason she couldn't seem to grasp it.
This frightened her so she passed it by.

The second door was recessed into the wall, and throbbed with the pulse of the
loud loud music behind it.  Herb-ed smoke wafted out from every crack.
She passed it by.

The third door was silent and grey, a thin mist snuck out from underneath and
 she moved away quickly sticken with apprehension.

The fourth door hummed with many voices, some unkind and violent.
 She paused, considering, but then moved on.

The fifth door, the final door.  It was quiet, but not deathly so.  It seemed to contain a presence that drew her.  The knob was cut glass, old fashioned.  She approached it cautiously.
It seemed to fit her palm perfectly.

She opened the door.

*****************************

I Can See Them There

They are there, sitting.
On the stairs, under the bare trees, in front of the house.
The door is behind them and they are waiting.

(They sit and from where i stand now years in the future, i pity them.)

The news is boiling in them, fermenting like an evil brew.
It has sharp jagged points dripping tears and screaming pain but
 I don't think they really feel it.
Still they wait, time stretching and contracting.
This is the old world still.
The sun is bright but not warm.
The sky is blue and vacant, cold.

Finally the arrival of those whom the news is meant for.
The news! The new!
With each mouth opening and speaking, a new world is created.

Standing senseless and abstracted they move.
Toward the door, toward the new.

And then the words come leaving behind the trees and the sky and steps, all of which existed in the time before those words were spoken,

and now everything has changed.

****************