All That Was Happy Read Online Free PDF

native, where are you
from originally?”
    “ Believe it or not,” Beckie said, “I’m
a native Tennessean. We came out here in the early ‘60’s when I was
ten years old--my dad was looking for work. He drove us out in a
‘62 Buick Special. I thought L.A. was going to be this little berg
by the ocean--boy was I in for a shock.”
    “ You don’t have an accent,” Scotia
said.
    “ The accent is something you lose when
you find yourself the butt of all the hayseed jokes,” Beckie said.
“I guess you could say my childhood entry into the multicultural
world of the Los Angeles school playground was nothing short of
brutal--the kids out here were a lot more sophisticated than I
was--they showed me no mercy. For the first year, my only friend
was a little girl from Guatemala--an orphan who spoke only broken
English. To make things worse, I developed early--by the fifth
grade I had pretty much the same body I do now--minus about twenty
pounds--and went through pure hell from all the nasty little boys
all the way to my Senior year at Van Nuys High School. I’m still
not over it. It’s probably part of the reason I married Bernie when
I was only 20--just to take myself completely off the market and
get the whole thing over with.”
    “ How’d you meet Bernie?”
    “ Believe it or not,” Beckie said,
“Bernie was the step-brother of my best friend Leah’s husband. Leah
married her boyfriend right out of high school. I got to know
Bernie through her--I think Leah did a little matchmaking in that
regard. Every time there was a family event, Leah invited me.
Bernie and I had our first kiss inside the pool cabana in
somebody’s backyard in Encino while attending a Bar-Mitzvah for one
of his cousins.”
    “ Are you Jewish?”
    “ No, it’s worse than you think--I’m
Catholic. His parents hated me. I was Bernie’s blonde shiksa.
Bernie’s mother was an ultra-orthodox Jew, and Bernie’s dad did
time in a concentration camp--he had the number tattooed on his
wrist and everything. I don’t have to tell you how my own Catholic
parents reacted to the news of me dating somebody Jewish. Both sets
of parents tried to break us up, so we ran off to Vegas and tied
the knot. Needless to say, we totally alienated our parents when we
showed up married. My mother never did get completely over it. But
enough about my sorry life--how about you?”
    “ The short version? I’m single,” Scotia
said. “I’m likewise not a native, being a transplant from upstate
New York who also went into total cultural shock when I arrived a
few years ago. I came out here ready to conquer all, armed with my
AA degree in Physical Therapy and my Certified Massage Therapist
license. My plan was to use my skills to support me while I tried
to get into the movie business somehow, but I wound up working at a
day spa in Beverly Hills and I’ve left it at that.”
    “ That’s one thing I’ve never gotten
used to about this town,” Beckie said. “Everybody you meet isn’t
really what they seem--every guy who serves you a hot dog is an
aspiring musician or actor--me, I was just a wife who worked for
her husband’s tool import business.”
    “ What about kids?” Scotia
said.
    “ We tried,” Beckie said. “Two
miscarriages later, at our doctor’s advice, we quit trying--which
is probably why I’m where I’m at today--Bernie left me to father a
child, because we believed I couldn’t give him one.”
    “ You gave him two,” Scotia said. “They
just didn’t live very long. But they’re just as real--they still
have their role in the universe.”
    “ That sounds very Catholic to me,”
Beckie said.
    “ It’s also very Hindu,” Scotia said. “I
was raised Methodist, but I’m exploring something with wider
margins at the moment.”
    “ Dr. Black was right,” Beckie said.
“You are a little firebrand. What you just said about my babies
being just as real as the ones who make it all the way to term
knocked the wind right out of me.