Diary of an Ugly Duckling

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Diary of an Ugly Duckling Page 14

by Langhorne, Karyn


  be on the show anyway, Shamiyah thought it would be

  better if I didn’t tell anyone (except you, of course).

  And all that’s fine with me: I don’t want to hear Ma’s

  mouth until I have to. She’s not stupid, though. She

  knows something’s up—that’s why she’s mad at me.

  She’s been needling me with questions since I got

  back from California . . . but all I do is smile.

  Shamiyah and the camera crew will be here either

  today or tomorrow, so I guess my days of silence are

  about to end with a scene that would shame the

  campiest dramatic moment in Hollywood. I wish you

  were going to be here to see it!

  It’s only been a couple of weeks, but people are

  starting to tell me I look “different.” Of course, I’m still

  losing weight, but they always say, “No, that’s not it,”

  and just keep staring at me, like somehow continued

  inspection will answer the question. Ma does it a lot. I

  just stand there and smile. I don’t really see any

  difference yet, if you want to know the truth. I scanned

  a picture in—you can tell me what you think.

  I hope your detail doesn’t have to make that supply

  run you wrote about. Sounds dangerous. Really dan-

  gerous. I know it’s what you’re trained to do . . . but

  maybe you could call in sick that day? Just joking . . . J

  Be careful out there,

  Audra

  “You want to bring some cameras into it, fine

  with me!” Edith shouted, signing her name

  in a broad flourish across the bottom of the paper

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  Shamiyah proffered, then slamming the pen down

  on the kitchen counter. “Just don’t expect me to put

  all my private business on TV just because she wants

  to”—she gave Audra the kind of hard, gangsta stare

  Audra saw all the time at the prison—“because that

  is not the kind of woman I am!”

  “No, no, of course not, Mrs. Marks,” Shamiyah

  nodded as though she were in vigorous support of

  Edith’s position, then gave Audra a quick wink the

  second her mother turned her head. She looked ex-

  actly like she had the last time Audra had seen her,

  only now she wore a teal camisole in some shiny,

  lingerie fabric over her demin jeans and seriously

  pointy, black high heels. “We want your honest reac-

  tion. That’s what makes it a reality show.”

  “Oh, you’ll get my honest reaction,” Edith snorted,

  glaring at Audra in disbelief. “And I honestly hope

  you’re kidding about this whole idea, Audra. I hope

  this is one of your weirdo jokes, right? That you

  watched Now, Voyager again on TV, and now you’re

  poor, put-upon Bette Davis, treated badly by her

  family until she gets beautiful and runs off on an

  ocean cruise with Charles Boyer—”

  “Actually, it’s Paul Henreid,” Audra corrected, ig-

  noring the wheeling, circling motions of the cam-

  eraman as he angled himself into position just a foot

  from her shoulder. Edith’s tone dug at her, tingling

  her most sensitive spots and goading her toward re-

  sponse. “I’m impressed, Ma. I didn’t know you

  knew that movie—”

  “Oh, stop it Audra!” Edith snapped, shaking her

  head so hard, Audra knew she missed the exten-

  sions she’d just taken out a few days ago. Now she

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  was experimenting with a look that featured heavy

  bangs and razored short sides that Audra thought

  made her look a little too much like a Marine. “You

  can’t be serious, right? This is why you went out to

  California? You aren’t actually going to—”

  She stopped, staring hard into Audra’s face. “Oh

  my God . . . that’s it. I knew there was something

  different about you! You’ve already started it. What

  did you have done to your face?”

  “Laser treatments for the acne .. . though the

  doc says I’ll need a few more. And . . .” She hesi-

  tated, steeling herself for Edith’s next explosion, as

  Shamiyah nodded vigorously, urging her toward

  confession. “And a drug to lighten my skin tone.”

  Edith’s mouth fell open. “Lighten your skin!” she

  repeated, peering close into Audra’s face. “You’re

  actually going to lighten your skin? Why? What’s

  wrong with the color you are now?”

  “Nothing . . .” Audra began slowly, “but . . .” Her

  eyes swung toward Shamiyah, whose head was bob-

  bing furiously with encouragement.

  “Go for it,” she mouthed, silently stretching her

  lips so that there was no mistaking what she was

  trying to communicate. “Go for it!”

  “Nothing . . . except that I’m darker than every-

  one in my family,” Audra said quickly, pushing the

  words out with more difficulty than she had antici-

  pated. After all, she’d said them a thousand times

  before. Only there hadn’t been cameras before. “I’m

  darker than everyone in my family,” Audra repeated.

  “Darker than Petra and Kiana. And you. Everyone

  I . . . love,” she concluded, as unexpected emotion

  sprang to her throat.

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  Edith frowned, then tried to turn away from the

  cameras, but they followed her, recording both the

  sudden softness and the fearful nervousness that

  flushed into her face. She mastered them an instant

  later, and swung on Audra, choosing once again

  not to ignore the family resemblances—or the lack

  thereof. Instead, she fired back with a sharp, “Are

  you nuts?” And before Audra could respond, she

  had launched into, “I’ve seen these shows. They

  turn women into—into—Miss America look-alikes,

  whether that suits them or not.” She eyed Audra du-

  biously, shaking her head. “I should have known

  something was up. I should have known when you

  finally started getting serious about losing that

  weight. But don’t tell me you’re this pathetic, that

  your self-esteem is so low, you’d actually do some-

  thing as crazy as this. That you’d be willing to put

  yourself through all that.”

  Audra swallowed back her tenderness in a single

  bitter gulp.

  “Oh, I’m absolutely going to put myself through

  it, Ma.” Audra twisted her lips into a determined

  grin. “I’m going to put myself through all of it.”

  “But why, Audra?” Edith’s voice rose in exaspera-

  tion, and if Audra wasn’t mistaken, she threw up

  her hands as extra emphasis just for the benefit of

  the cameras. “You’ve lost some weight and I think

  that’s great. But surgery and—and”—she struggled

  with the words as though they were choking her—

  “skin bleaching. Why would you do something like

  that?”

  “To be something different, Ma,” Audra replied

  calmly. “To see something different—something
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  143

  other than fat, black and ugly when I look in the

  mirror—”

  “You still gonna be the same person on the in-

  side,” Edith said, as if that weren’t obvious. “And if

  you don’t like yourself now, you won’t like yourself

  any better, just because you see something different

  when you look in the mirror.”

  “I like myself just fine,” Audra declared. “It’s a

  matter of making the outside match the inside.”

  “Audra . . .” Edith muttered. “Audra, Audra, Au-

  dra . . .” she repeated, then folded her arms about

  herself and stared at her daughter with an expres-

  sion Audra was certain she’d never seen on the

  woman’s face before. Amazement, fear, anger and

  contempt seemed to have blended into a single arch

  of eyebrows and pull of lips. Audra waited, staring

  back at the woman, feeling she wouldn’t have been

  surprised if her mother reached out an arm to hug

  her or a palm to slap her face. But in the end, she did

  neither: just kept staring at her with that strange

  look frozen on her face.

  “There are also some amazing prizes offered to

  the contestant with the biggest transformation.”

  Shamiyah interjected. “A modeling contract, cash, a

  part in a movie—just a walk-on part, but still.” She

  grinned so wide Audra could have counted all her

  teeth. “It could lead to all kinds of opportunities.”

  “A modeling contract,” repeated Edith, her eyes

  still fixed on Audra’s face, her lips in a tight line. The

  eyes seemed to say, “don’t do this,” but the lips car-

  ried a different message, one of determined distrust.

  “Is that what you want?” her mother asked at last.

  “You wanna be a model? A movie star?”

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  Audra shook her head. “I just want to look like

  Petra . . . and you,” she said quietly, speaking to the

  woman’s eyes, trying hard to ignore the judgment

  in the rest of the face. “I just want to fit in . . .”

  Edith lowered her eyes, then turned away entirely.

  The camera crew might have picked up her expres-

  sion, but Audra got nothing, nothing but a bit of her

  shoulder. Edith sighed and that shoulder lifted

  nearly to her earlobe. Audra waited, feeling the

  weight of the air between them. Would she finally

  admit it now—now, to stop Audra from going to

  California, to stop her from erasing her skin tone as

  an Ugly Duckling?

  Audra held her breath, feeling a confession swir-

  ling between them, the explanation for the words

  she’d overheard all those years ago: She ain’t

  mine . . . She ain’t mine. She glanced at Shamiyah: the

  woman was following the scene between them with

  such intensity, she looked like all she needed was

  some popcorn.

  When Edith spoke there was a sadness in her

  voice that hadn’t been there before.

  “Fine. Do it,” she said tersely. “It’s your body,

  your skin, your life. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be

  better off.”

  Audra stared at her, her heart sinking deep in her

  chest with disappointment. Clearly, her mother in-

  tended to take her secrets to the grave.

  “She’ll be in California for the surgery from the

  end of June through September,” Shamiyah said

  when the silence became loud and unbearable.

  “You—the whole family—are invited to the Reveal

  at the end of the process. We’re already working

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  with the Army to get permission for your other

  daughter and son-in-law to join us and I’m opti-

  mistic. But that’s just the taping. You won’t see the

  episode on TV until the end of November. If Audra

  gets enough audience votes, she comes back to do a

  special show with the other top three Ugly Duck-

  lings,” she continued, grinning again as if the

  power of her smile alone could diffuse the tension in

  the air. “That’s a real cool show. The UDs—the Ugly

  Ducks—will get a crash course in modeling and take

  a screen test. We’re going to be using this really cool

  interactive tool to let people vote online and use cell

  phones to crown a winner that very night—”

  “So you’re gonna be gone.”

  Audra shrugged. “Three months. I only go back if

  the audience votes for me—”

  “They will,” Edith muttered. “You got a black

  woman turning herself into a white woman? They

  will . . . just so they can keep talking about you.”

  Audra opened her mouth to object, but her

  mother changed topics before she could speak.

  “And just what are you gonna tell Kiana about

  this?” she said at last. “She looks up to you. She

  thinks you’re the strongest, most wonderful person

  in the world—and she always has.” Edith studied

  the floor as though the effort of paying Audra this

  compliment had cost her something. “I sometimes

  think she loves you more than she does her own

  mother. Or me.” The woman’s smoky eyes pinned

  Audra’s in query. “How do I tell her that her beloved

  Auntie A is actually a shallow, superficial mess?”

  The words stung, but Audra did her best not to let

  her hurt show. “You give with one hand and take

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  Karyn Langhorne

  with another, Ma,” she said, as a wry smile lifted

  her lips.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means, don’t tell her anything,” Audra

  replied. “I’ll tell her myself. In my own way, in my

  own time. Probably the next time we read The Ugly

  Duckling.” And she leveled her most penetrating

  gaze on her mother again. “Anything else?”

  Edith gathered herself up like an affronted

  Queen. “Else? What else is there? You made up your

  mind. Me and Kiana will get by those three months

  somehow.” She turned, head up, lips turned down,

  and marched toward the doorway, batting at the sur-

  rounding cameras. “Get away from me, now. I’ve said

  all I’m gonna say about it, so you can turn those

  things off.”

  “You realize we may end up showing some of this

  on television, Mrs. Marks—” Shamiyah began.

  “Yes, I realize that,” Edith snapped. “But I ain’t the

  one who’s done something she ought to be ashamed

  of,” and she swept herself from the room.

  Chapter 12

  June 5

  When I get back—if I come back—I’m moving out. I

  know I’ve said it before, but this time, I mean it. Even if

  I have to move to one of those tough-girl neighbor-

  hoods where you need a switchblade to go out for

  your morning newspaper. Or maybe I’ll stay out there

  in Los Angeles and live among the “beautiful people.”

  Maybe I’ll even be one of them!

  And no, I’m not avoiding your que
stions about Art

  Bradshaw. I just don’t have anything to report. I haven’t

  seen him at all since his daughter’s party and I don’t

  plan to—not until after the surgery. Then I might just

  call him up and treat him—and his daughter—to a nice

  meal. I guess I owe them “thanks.” If it hadn’t been

  for their one-two punch I probably wouldn’t have

  called UD.

  But then, again, maybe I would have. I don’t

  know . . .

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  Karyn Langhorne

  Anyway, it’s great news that you might be given leave

  to come to the Reveal—and even better news that one

  or both of you might be home for good in December. Is

  Michael seriously considering re-enlistment? Is he

  insane? You’re not going to re-up, are you? Kiana

  needs you guys.

  So do I.

  Be careful out there,

  Audra

  “Marks!”

  His voice rumbled through the air toward

  her, low and smooth as the bass line of a soul groove,

  and Audra stopped short, struggling with the com-

  peting emotions that welled up inside her.

  Bradshaw.

  She sighed. It was bound to happen, she knew it

  as soon as she saw his name on the duty roster. For

  whatever reason, Bradshaw was working the grave-

  yard shift tonight, and Audra knew that tonight, af-

  ter all these weeks and months, the thing that had

  been opened with movie flirtation and the invitation

  to his daughter’s party would finally, at last, be

  closed.

  She turned around slowly, searching her mind for

  the angle, the character, the stance to play this

  scene, feeling the need of the protection of a role,

  the safety of an imitation.

  “Well, well. Look what the cat dragged in,” she

  drawled, slewing out a foot and lifting her chin,

  dead diva style. “How are you, Bradshaw?”

  He was as handsome as ever, every tall, muscled

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  149

  inch of him. There were smudges of fatigue under

  them, but his amber eyes glittered a little and a bit of

  a smile twitched the corner of his still-delectable lips.

  “Heard you were cleared,” he said, as though that

  answered her question. “Woodburn make you

  switch to nights?”

  No, you did, Audra thought, but kept the words in

  her mind. Instead, she shook her head. “My idea,”

  she said quickly. “How about you? What are you do-

  ing here?”

  But he appeared not to have heard.

  “You look different, Marks.” Art Bradshaw

 

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