Waking Beauty (33 page)

“Yeah.”

“Then she becomes beautiful, and it allows her to be more confident and extroverted. She makes friends, advances through the ranks at work, gets the guy of her dreams….”

“Uh-huh.”

“Then the beauty vanishes almost as suddenly as it
appeared—she’s in a car accident or something, something that leaves her totally mangled and malformed….”

“And?”

“And she discovers that the boyfriend still wants her, the friends still appreciate her for who she is, et cetera, et cetera, and that all the beauty had done was allow her to come out of her shell and take a chance on life.”

“God, no,” I said, laughing. “Definitely not!”

“Why?”

“Because it’s bullshit. Totally unrealistic. For one thing, the boyfriend wouldn’t want her in her ugly state.”

“How do you know?”

“I just know.”

“But maybe they’re soul mates.” Nathan nudged my foot underwater.

“Maybe they are, but it doesn’t matter. He wouldn’t want her.”
No chemistry
. “If he stayed, it would be out of guilt, and as a friend.”

“But if you’re doing an ugly duckling tale, she has to somehow learn that it’s what’s inside that counts.”

“No. That’s the point. She learns the opposite. It’s not what’s inside that counts. It’s what’s outside. When she was ugly she had nothing. Nothing. Then she turns beautiful and gets everything. What she learns is that beauty is a tremendous power, and that its power is pervasive, more pervasive than even she realized. She learns that it’s much, much better to be beautiful, no matter how many clichés about skin deep and eye of the beholder. Being beautiful enables her to get whatever she wants.”

“But if she gets everything she wants, where’s the story, where’s the conflict?”

“I guess the conflict is in her figuring out what that is.”

“Hmm…Okay. So in the end, what does the beautiful girl really want?” said Nathan, nudging my foot again.

“First of all,” I said, nudging back, “she wants love from someone she admires and adores.”

Nathan smiled. “What else?”

“Well…she wants strong familial bonds and affection, work that she truly enjoys doing, a pleasant and peaceful place to live….”

“Is that all?”

“No. She wants the beauty to last, so that all those other things will last.”

“And in this movie of yours, the girl gets everything she wants?”

“Yes.”

“A happy ending?” he said.

“Hopefully.”

“Well, it’s an intriguing premise,” said Nathan. “I just don’t know if anyone would accept it.

“I know,” I said, smiling to myself. “That’s the thing.”

Nathan withdrew his legs from the pool and stood up. “So, what do you say we doff our duds and go for a swim?”

“I say yes.”

“After, we can get into bed and watch that Randall Cole movie.”

“Sounds good.”

“We still have ice cream, right?”

“Right.” I took off my clothes and slipped into the water. I swam briskly to the shallow end.

“How is it?” said Nathan when I surfaced.

He was standing at the edge of the diving board, his palms propped on his love handles, his freckled body gleaming pale and shimmery from the illuminated water below. Moonlight reflected off his curiously shaped head.

“It’s beautiful,” I said.

Nathan dived in.