Skin Deep

“How do I look?” she said, looking at herself in her mirror

“Gorgeous, as usual,” he replied.

“That’s what you always say,”

‘That’s because it’s always true!” He turned away from his own mirror to look at her. After 18 years of marriage, he had to admit that she was still as beautiful as the day they first met…well, almost anyway.

He turned back to his mirror and flipped his tie over itself to make a knot, but the material unraveled. “Can you help me with this? he asked, “my thumbs just don’t seem to work anymore.”

The reception was to begin with a cocktail hour at 6:00 p.m. followed by dinner and dancing in the ballroom at 7:00. It was now 4:30 and their taxi was scheduled to pick them up in an hour, so they still had plenty of time to dress and get ready.

They had gone to their tenth high school reunion as one of the first married couples among their friends, and now it amazed them how quickly the next 15 years had passed to bring them to this, their twenty-fifth. At their tenth all their friends remarked and praised them for what a beautiful and loving couple they made—happier and more beautiful than the bride and groom statuettes on their wedding cake, said those who were there and had also attended their wedding. They were dubbed the ”cake couple,” and lots of their friends still used that nickname for them.

Cathy had just about finished doing her makeup and was fixing something in her hair.

“What’s that?” said Jack to his wife.

“It’s an “extension” she replied. “Looks like my own hair, doesn’t it. I think it’s sexy and makes me look 10 years younger. You should get something like it for yourself, Jack. I think your bald spot is growing faster than your waistline.”

Jack didn’t like the remark. Cathy had taken to offering criticism of Jack’s appearance more and more lately—his wardrobe, color choices, style, accessories. shoes and other things. He often felt like hitting back—after all, she was 43 years old, just like him, and now it was beginning to take a bit more makeup, hair color and undergarment adjustments than it used to for her to cover up the effects of the passage of time since their marriage. He had tried to do so a few times, but it always ended in harsh words and tension between them; so, it was better, he thought, to praise her beauty, which was still easy to do, rather than play tit-for-tat.

That said, he sometimes wondered how she would look today if they had had children, as they had once planned to do. Although they tried hard the first few years, Cathy only conceived once and that ended in an early miscarriage. After that, they tried less often and eventually it came to be accepted by them that it was not going to happen, and they found other ways to be happy. He had his pals and golf; she had her gals, her clubs, and their charities. They vacationed often, and it still made him proud to see the envy of him, and the jealousy of her, in the eyes of men and women strangers seeing Cathy in her bikinis.

“Come down, Cathy,” Jack yelled up from the front door. “The cab is here.

· * *

The Palais de Crystal was a venue usually booked solid on weekends for weddings or other grand affairs, but a late cancellation three months ago created an opening for a Friday date (at a healthy discount, as the cancelling couple had to leave behind a big cancellation fee,) and the Reunion Committee pounced on the deal. With the discount, the Committee was able to splurge on impressive floral centerpieces more fitting to the venue, and live music (a five-piece all-girl cover band) and still keep the ticket price about the same as guests were asked to pay when the last reunion was held at a Holiday Inn 10 years ago.

And the Palais de Crystal was no Holiday Inn. Massive crystal chandeliers hung from the ballroom ceiling and large mirrors with crystal frames lined the room and surrounded the guest tables. The centerpiece vases, tableware, candlesticks, stemware--even the napkin rings--all had a crystal motif, and when the chandeliers and candles were lit the room glowed and looked like a suburban Versailles; at least to those who had never seen the real one.

Jack and Cathy mingled among the cocktail hour crowd, munching on watercress sandwiches, pigs in a blanket, shrimp with cocktail sauce and, if there were still any left on the servicers’ trays, little rib lamb chops the size of lollipops and beef wellington bites on crackers. Jack was convinced that, after being loaded on the server’s trays, most of the lamb chops and beef wellington never made it to the guest tables.

There were bar stands everywhere and Jack, with Cathy in hand, got a vodka for himself and a white wine for Cathy. “I want to catch up,” she said, and sauntered toward a group of her old girlfriends, her wine glass lifted high, her other arm spread wide in welcome, a laugh in her voice and a smile on her face while her girlfriends rushed forward and greeted her the same way.

A hand slapped Jack’s shoulder.

“Just like old times, eh, buddy?” It was Roger Blaisdell, Jack’s teammate on the high school baseball team and, back then, a good friend. “Some things never change!” said Roger with a chuckle, “Cathy is still the pick of the litter and makes everyone light up when she’s around. Look at Frances over there!”

Jack looked over at Cathy’s group, and Cathy, Frances and another women Jack didn’t know, were swaying to the piped in music, laughing and lip-synching the song being played, their drinks raised high.

“I can’t get Frances off the couch to dust the furniture or make dinner when we’re at home; but look at her now; she has energy to burn with Cathy around.”

“I’m sorry, Duke,” said Jack, using Roger’s high school nickname.” Are you and Frances married? I didn’t know.”

“Well, you know we didn’t take out an ad in the newspaper. I was in the first year of college and she was just starting nursing school, and we met up at Flannagan’s—you remember the Irish saloon we drank in underage—on St. Paddy’s Day. I always liked Frances and I guess she liked me. We had a few beers too many and later went up the hill behind the Scout Camp. She called me six weeks later to tell me. I knew she was a good girl and that it had to be me. Her parents were furious, but what could any of us do? So we got married right away so it wouldn’t look wrong when Mary came along eight months later. Frances’ parents came around after Josh was born two years later, and we’re all doing ok now.”

“You got kids?” asked Roger.

“No. Dogs,” Jack replied. “Two”

“Me, too,” said Duke. “Two kids and two dogs. I don’t know which two are the worst; but I love them all.”

“Want another drink?’ Jack ordered another beer for Duke and a vodka for himself. Jack could see Cathy still swaying to the music, joined now by two or three guys who obviously belonged to some of the other women in the group. All of them were drinking and laughing.

“I didn’t see you at the last Reunion,” Jack said to Roger, “or was I too drunk to remember?’

“No, I wasn’t there,” said Duke. “We were living then in St. Paul, the kids were small and Frances was a stay-at-home mom. After the military and finishing college at night I couldn’t afford the trip here or being away from Frances and the kids. But things are settled now, my career is on track and I’m making a living, so here I am.”

“What do you do,” asked Jack.

“I wanted to study law, you know,” said Duke “but that wasn’t going to happen, so I joined the school system in St. Paul, taught school for a while, then moved up to administration. I made Principal three years ago and I have a good shot at being superintendent in the District. If I make that, I’ll stay the duration, take my pension, and Frances and I will ride off into the sunset.”

“I’m really lucky,” he continued, “maybe Fran and I started off on the wrong foot, but we’ve come along together through some tough times and we’re happier than ever.”

“You studied law, didn’t you Jack?” asked Roger.

Jack not only studied law; he graduated law school cum laude and was pursued by prominent law firms in the country, including prestigious firms from New York City, who wined and dined Jack and Cathy with all expense paid trips to the city and the best hotels, restaurants and Broadway shows. Jack was confident he would get an offer, but Cathy was chilly on the deal. The pace in New York City was fast and his hours were expected to be long and pressure filled. It was more important how you worked than how you looked. Besides, she would be away from her friends and her family.

“So, I turned down their offers and we came back here to Shreveport,” Jack explained. “Cathy’s family had friends in the oil business and helped get me started. I’ve been General Counsel at Nichols Oil & Gas the last six years, and we’re doing fine.”

“Do you ever wonder what it would have been like if you had gone to New York?” asked Duke.

“Sometimes,” said Jack. “But the North is so different from here in the South. Here, if you burp at the dinner table everyone looks at you funny; in New York, you can get fined for spitting in the subway, but if you throw up it’s free and no one seems to notice.”

Cathy danced over with a full glass in her hand. “Hi Roger,” she said, and kissed him lightly on the cheek; then; “Come on Jack, there’s something I want to show you.”

Cathy led Jack across the dance floor to a collection of easels under the banner, “Then and Now.” There were photos of guests from days gone by next to more recent ones. “See anything?’ asked Cathy.

Jack looked and spotted a picture of him and Cathy from their wedding, and another he didn’t recognize but obviously recent. “Where did that come from?” he asked.

“I had it made special at the Clarke studio, for tonight.”

“What about me?” Jack grumped in mock anger.

“I wanted to surprise you, and I couldn’t do that if I took you along.”

Jack looked at the other photos. You could tell the difference between the “Thens” and the “Nows.” The “Nows” were generally greyer and heavier than the “Thens” with less sparkle in their eyes and smiles. Except for Cathy, who was radiant in both photos.

Dinner was served and after coffee, dessert, speeches, testimonials and memorials, the girl cover band, all dressed in form-fitting white sequined dresses, came on. Most guests ordered another round, and many went to the dance floor as the band rocked. “Wanna dance?” Cathy motioned to Jack, but he just smiled and tilted his vodka glass toward her in salute, and she went off to her friends already on the floor.

Jack circled the tables and stopped every few steps to chat with someone. He was surprised and disappointed in himself for no longer remembering peoples’ faces, and having to look at their name tags to remember their names. The crowd was getting rowdy and the din of voices was only interrupted by the increasing tinkling of wine and shot glasses. The hour was getting late, and Jack’s head was pounding.

Jack spotted Cathy across the dance floor, sitting on the arm of an upholstered club chair occupied by a fellow Jack didn’t know, and in her stocking feet. Her spiked heels were on the table next to her filled glass of wine.

“I’d like to go, Cathy,” he said. “I have a splitting headache.”

“That’s usually my line,” said Cathy, and her crowd laughed. “Can’t we stay?”

“No, Cat,” said Jack. “I’m pretty done.”

“Party pooper,” she sneered, but as she started to get up her panty hose feet slipped on the dance floor. She reached for the table to try and break her fall, but instead pulled down the table cloth and brought all the stemware, vases, and candlesticks crashing to the floor.

The hall manager rushed up with busboys in tow. “Everyone alright,” he asked nervously.

Cathy was getting up. “I’m fine,” she mumbled with a slight slur.

“I’m sorry for the damage,” Jack said to the manager. ”I’ll pay for the crystal.”

“Don’t worry about it,” the manager replied, “it’s just glass, not crystal. Guests break or take them all the time. We’d be out of business if they were real.”

Jack helped Cathy upstairs after they returned home, helped her with her night clothes and waited on her bed while she brushed her teeth. He turned down the covers and she wearily slid into bed. “I have to walk the dogs,” he said. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Jack opened the back door and let out the dogs into the fenced rear yard. He sat on his porch chair and watched them run. He thought about the party and all the guests reflected in the hall mirrors, eating, drinking, laughing and dancing. It reminded him of the hall of mirrors tent at the County Fair when he was a kid, when he was inside and couldn’t find his way out and all he could see was himself in the mirrors. Tomorrow, Cathy wouldn’t remember everything from tonight, and will ask him how it all was. He will tell her she was beautiful, and that they had a great time, that everyone had a swell time, and that everyone he didn’t know was happy.