The phone rings today. I see an unfamiliar Alberta number. “You’re not gonna get me you telemarketer, sorry sucker” I say.
I get an email shortly after. Turns out it is an artistic director! He makes me an offer for a three month acting role! It’s a real gem of a situation that I’m delighted about. Wonderful artists involved. I’ll give more details when all is confirmed. I am so surprised! I do a little jig all day while I finish cleaning up the wicked dirty apartment I’ve been griping about this week. I wipe glass. Grateful. Two hours more I clean. Then I put in half an hour of my own time, no charge. Last minute little touches. I arrange her teas. I make room for her family photos. I fold her laundry. I fluff her pillows and whisper, “There dear. Now you’re all fresh and clean.”
Tonight Nora complains, “You never play with me anymore, you’re always working! I’m going to grow up, you know, and then you’ll regret it!”.
Uh huh. So, we just made taco salad at your request, we sing, we dance, we talk with Bianca about Brazil, you show me tricks on the trampoline, we watch some movie about a Koala bear, we have toast and honey and read Anne of Green Gables, you have tea with ice cube igloos, you teach me a part on the piano to your song. What part of your childhood is harsh? Go to bed!” She whimpers. “Sorry Mommy.” I tuck her in and promptly fall asleep beside her. Exhausted.
I wake up. There’s bread to make and things to write. I click on my tv spec script for a Sci Fi series…I’m on Act Two to be exact. I am writing lines I’ve never written before. “Her father offers her a bite of cake. She takes a bite out of him instead.” and “Blood and brains spray across the double door” and “Shut up, dick face.”
I am researching zombie culture. How long do they have to be dead before they can rise? When I hit my fifth murder I say to myself, “why?” Then I write a little joke about a pie that is actually quite clever if I don’t say so myself. There. There it is. There is the integrity.
In one month I’ll be in Italy. Holy crow. I am supposed to be half fluent and 10lbs closer to bikini by now. Oh well. I’ll have to make do with a long diaphanous scarf and a phrase book.
And it will still be lovely.
Making do. Making do. Making a little magic while I make do.
