Speakeasy 138 – A Twin Again

The instructions for Speakeasy 138:

Your piece must include the following sentence as your FIRST line: “The bowl lay overturned on the floor, a rough crack running down one side.”

Also reference the picture below:

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The bowl lay overturned on the floor, a rough crack running down one side. Macy Grey stood in shock staring at the television screen. All the time, the work, the expensive treatments and exorbitant bills amounted to nothing. She wondered if this was someone’s idea of a cruel joke. Like something her former agent might have put together.

For a few moments she pondered on the possibility. It was definitely his style, ostentatious and the kind of action guaranteed to deliver dedicated coverage from the paparazzi and the gossip rags. There was only one problem with this theory and it was a humongous one. Gus Pelley had been dead eight years. There was no way he had any part in this.

For two decades she had lived a life of anonymity, choosing to shun the celebrity she had once embraced. A hard few years in the searing spotlight forever altered her concept of a normal life. Sure, she was celebrated as one half of the hottest sister combination on television, a situation comedy about identical twin girls that wreaked havoc over two doting and sometimes clueless parents. America, and in turn the countries receiving syndicated packages loved her, for a while. Then she grew up and out of the cuteness as all child stars did.

Gracie fought to hold on to her fame, taking roles that caused her to compromise the wholesome image their parents tried so hard to keep front and center. There was an all too public falling out and the gossip rags had their heyday with this family struggle. Gracie had to move to a small town in the mountains of North Carolina to have a chance at a normal life.

The campaign to draw her back for an interview on the Today show had been underway for three years now. Geist, Roper, Guthrie, Morales and others had tried unsuccessfully to coax her to the set. Former star Anne Curry finally had the right touch and got Gracie to agree to speak with her.

Then came all the work to make herself presentable to the cameras. She hadn’t tried to maintain an image, so the little age marks and wrinkles needed attention. All this work was worthless to her now. Why had she agreed to this? Why couldn’t she just be left alone?

Twenty years of peace was forever gone now. She had worked so hard to differentiate herself from “her evil twin” as she called Gracie. Now she stared at the face on the screen, a mug shot of her sister who was caught at a Paris airport trying to smuggle a suitcase packed with cocaine back home.

The thing that made her gut ache was not the trouble her sister was in, that was no surprise. It was how she looked. The hair color, cut and style were identical copies of hers. The makeup shades, coloring and style identical. After a twenty year effort to become a different person, here she was looking like a grown up version of those cute twins.

 

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 Check it out here:Speakeasy #138