story: The Model's Downfall

The Model's Downfall
by John Colvin

     Julie is sitting at the table in Gertrude's kitchen, describing a TV movie about a girl who becomes a porn star and a drug addict. Gertrude is still wearing her McDonald's uniform and looking out the window at the house across the street. She takes a deep drag on her cigarette. She started smoking when she was in her thirties, trying to lose weight. It didn't work, but she kept smoking. She is watching the house across the street because she wants to see the man who lives there come home. She hopes he will spend some time outside this evening, maybe do a little yard work. She knows better than to wave or try to shout out the window at him. She just wants to see him.
     "They showed how it could really happen," Julie says, "It was very true to life. She started out as a model and one thing just led to another, you know. She got hard up for money and posed naked for this one magazine. Then she ended up in dirty movies, and she got on drugs and then she was a prostitute. It was so sad. It made you think. It really made you think about how it could happen to anybody. It was really true to life."
     Gertrude's feet ache from standing, but she keeps watching, shifting from one foot to the other. The man who lives across the street filed a restraining order against her after she broke into his house the third time. That last time, he walked in to find her in his kitchen, cooking him dinner. Now she thinks she may go someplace and call him from a payphone. She could act like she was someone else. She could act like she was from the phone company, disguise her voice. Maybe he will like how she sounds, and they will talk and flirt, and then they can arrange a meeting somewhere . . .
     Gertrude flicks her cigarette ash into the sink full of dirty dishes. "True to whose life?" she asks.