-Stefan Zweig
"The Post-Office Girl"
Twenty five years ago today:
September 27, 1985
Friday
Leonard Perillo left my house at 6AM. He had a 10AM meeting in Fremont, CA about a short-term loan negotiation. I kept thinking about how he explained his almost marriage to a woman named “Mae”.
Leonard said, “I love going out with special girls.”
I felt the same way. We seem so alike in many ways. I really believe that we have a connection.
Leonard did state that he has a close friend of the ‘same gender’ that he’d never go out on. This led me to believe that we’d be nothing more than friends. There was no way he was referring to me. In any case, Leonard left.
And silly me, as I recall I made an 11AM appointment with FACES INTERNATIONAL. So I kept the appointment for the fun of it. I met with Cindy Bishop. Cindy had intentions of recruiting me. Gullible me…I went for it. I figured, “Hell, I’ll get some professional photographs out of it.”
I listened to her spiel and said, “I will call you with my VISA card number later today.”
And yes, I did call her with my VISA number.
During my drive home I kind of got excited about the whole idea of it.
I thought, “What the hell.”
The plan is for me to meet with Cindy Bishop on Monday nights to discuss my wardrobe and what I will wear for my photo shoot. She sure gave me some nice compliments that I didn’t take too seriously.
She said, “I’d say you’d fit in the ‘Rob Lowe’ category as a preppy-type.”
She went on about all of this other stuff.
She said, “I can see you in film, too. The photo you brought in reminds me of Miami Vice.”
I laughed.
Leonard predicted that by noon today I would be feeling really great. That wasn’t actually the case. I felt better but not “great”.
I stopped at mom’s house and told her all about the FACES INTERNATIONAL experience.
I insisted, “Let’s keep this hush-hush. I’m only telling you about it. If something comes of it then maybe we’ll tell…depending, okay?”
“Okay,” mom said.
I was at my place by 4PM and finally called Greg Manachevitz.
“No, I’m sorry, Greg. You can’t move-in because Russ is moving in.”
It was a white lie because I knew full well that Russ was not moving in with me. I simply did not want Greg living with me because of his chewing tobacco habit and other obnoxious ways.
I broke down and gave Leonard a call to see what he was up to on this Friday night.
“Oh, I have plans to go to dinner at about seven o’clock out in Menlo Park. Then there’s Santa Cruz tomorrow,” Leonard said quickly.
“You sure do make the rounds, don’t you?”
I hung up not long after the brief post get-acquainted chat.
I boldly went to the gym until 8pm. I felt so out of energy, realizing I hadn’t eaten very much all day.
I stopped to visit Dad and stayed there until around 9:30PM. We had a pretty good talk. Dad was being ‘Mr. Nice Guy’. I went home after spending the evening with Dad and watched some of the DALLAS TV series. After DALLAS I showered up and ‘hit the hay’.
One can learn from the most unexpected sources, and you sometimes find knowledge aslant, with a detour through reality.
-Christopher Bram
"Mapping The Territory",
Selected Non-Fiction
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