Real TV

Her eyes were oval large brown, crying but not bursting red, the eyes were clear, they were angled towards me, they were saying I didn’t comprehend, I couldn’t possibly understand, she was devastated and my words would ring hallow regardless of their accompanying compassion. And yet she knew, a pretty woman should not cry like that without awaking every sentiment within the man standing before her, she couldn’t help herself, yes my sentiments were hollow, her beauty somehow told me she couldn’t possibly suffer like the rest of us, she had been a star in real TV, and she was now famous, and I walked into this diner an average Joe, to have a cup of coffee so as to feel a part of the world by paying for a cup.

“Its not right that you should be crying like that, please calm yourself down.”

Crying berracouslously, “Its so unfair, how could he do this to me, and in front of all those people.”

I putting my hand on her shoulder, she didn’t sit at the counter because she didn’t want to be touched. “What did he do to you?”

“He made fun of me, he mocked me, he… he…” aaagh.

“Well suffering is not a good way to get even, you should just get angry, crying is not going to do any good.”

“Who are you, you don’t know, you don’t know nothing.”

“Well your probably right…” looking at my grubby uniform, I was a Pest Inspector, for Harry Solomon of Cockroach Incorporated. It wasn’t even my company I was just day labor, It was a job I owned to my victims, it paid the coffee, the uniform was included, nine years on the job, you get a free uniform after five, my blue jacket read, “Joe Wilson” an average Joe. And so I continued as she was molested by my long introspection, “…maybe I don’t know nothing.”

She stopped her sorrowful state, “I didn’t mean to insult you, you are trying to be helpful Mr… what is your name?”

“Joe, Joe Wilson.” I motioned to greet her hand.

Sniffling “Marlenette Thompson, that’s me. Yes that’s me”

“Who has put you in this sorrow?”

“What do you mean!” She seemed upset or surprised. “What do you mean you don’t know who I am?”

“Well not till now that you say your name is Marlenette, I don’t come here often, can’t say we met.”

Her shoulders dropped, she released a deep breath, tossed her head back, “And here I thought you were talking to me because I am a television actress.”

“Oh you are in television, sorry for not recognizing you but I don’t watch nor own a television, just what I read on the papers is all I know about television.”

“Now you make me feel so silly, I didn’t mean to be so distant, but its just men, and women too, they come up to me all the time and tell me how wonderful I am, and I don’t know if they are being serious or if they just want to get me to bed.”

“Yeah I could see how a pretty woman like yourself would have such a problem even if she wasn’t famous, so it must be really hard on you.”

“Well, yes, it is, it is…” she sort of drifted out of the situation, and then suddenly started ‘crying again.”

“What Happen to you?” While giving her a napkin for her tears.

“That jerk, we were the perfect couple, that jerk.” Sobbing “…and now it is all gone.”

“But what happen to you.”

“We were friends, you know real closed friends, and we decided that we would try out for COUPLES LIVE, we thought it would be fun, and it was. We were a popular couple, people really digged us, we were so cute, you should have seen us, he was caring, we got along really well, of course we never really slept together, we were friends, I wouldn’t have wanted it, but then one day we did sleep together, and… and…”

“hey, hey its ok, calm down, its alright, you don’t have to talk about it anymore if you don’t want to.”

“I want to talk about it, I cant keep it inside anymore, he flamed me on national television, in front of all the people that believed me, in us, he destroyed everything.”

“What do you mean he flamed you, I don’t understand?”

“He flamed me. We were the perfect couple, the perfect couple, we would cook together, all these fancy dishes, people would write us for our recipes, and we would give them live, he was the better cook, but we laughed a lot massaging the flour, baking, adding chocolate chips, oh god, it was so good.” She seemed to get happy from the memories. “and we gave each other aprons for our anniversary, we didn’t know we were going to give each other identical gifts, just like no one knew that our anniversary was a fake. And then the day of GRAND COUPLE SELECTION, he freaked out on me, I was so static, we slept together the night before, I wanted to sleep with him, we were obviously going to win, I was happy, we had duped the judges, and I felt it was because things were really right between us, really right, we hadn’t noticed when we fell in love, and that night was magical…” streaming her tears in every direction, her eyes now red, red, red. “oh god how could he have, that night was magical.”

“But what happen then,”

“we were in the kitchen, it was the final show, I don’t know why the kitchen was our favorite room, I don’t know, and then I dropped the egg, and as I was cleaning it I got some on his shoes, and he flipped, he flipped, he told me I was a good for nothing, that he didn’t love me, that he didn’t want anything to do with me, and I couldn’t believe he was saying those terrible things, and the cameras were rolling, live and he seemed to get more riled up the closer the camera got, he was like in his element, he told the audience, Jesus I still don’t know how he could do this, he told the audience, he dint love me, he told them he was gay, he told them….” Her crying reaching quiet time, her animal self was crying now.

I didn’t know what to do, the people in the dinner seemed attentive and thrilled with the whole thing, I didn’t really pay attention to them, but I don’t know I worried a little, and I kissed her forehead, and it seemed to calm her, so I held her close, “hey, you don’t have to worry that guy is an asshole, he shouldn’t have done that to you, not on national television like that, you have every right to hate him now and to hurt, you don’t deserve that kind of treatment!”

“Why would he do that, why…”

“Oh I am sure he didn’t mean to do it, he gave in to the pressure of reality TV, don’t think he was even in control of himself, he was not, how could he have been, no way.”

She looked at him with a sense of divination, there was something so pure about this man Joe, he was so pure, she didn’t know how to express it, she blurted it out, “Joe please take me home with you, please.”

Joe looked around the people at the dinner, they were all staring, and finally one scraggy old man alerted him to his situation, “oh take her home for god sakes, she needs you.” And so the old man sipped his coffee as if he had just given some kind of destined command.

Joe wrapped her in her white Rabbit Coat, underneath a flashy red dress subdued, he left a ten dollar bill on the table some how figuring that would cover all the coffee consumed and also the disturbance, and walked out with the flamed and fallen starlet.

The sunshine arouse the next morning as it had everyday since the beginning of time.

RC