After a very long night, she left her award
on the table beside her bed once she had gotten to her home. It wasn’t really
home but it was the place she was staying for the moment and that was good
enough. Her brother had said goodbye some moments ago and now she was alone,
late at night, removing everything from her earrings to the very expensive
dress she had been offered. The shoes stayed besides a chair all night, the
first thing she had removed, not a surprise.
For a long time, she contemplated the award
and she was glad that no one else but her was there too watch because she would
have been too embarrassed. But alone, she had the time and opportunity to
really look at her prize, the crowning achievement of her career after only
having been working for ten years. She knew she was a very lucky girl, so
contemplating the prize made it all so much more real, something even more
thrilling. She smiled and then she heard someone at the door.
It was one of her assistants who announced
that the people of the jewelry company had come to collect their things. She
didn’t quite get why they would come to her so late, but it was better that way
because she had been very worried all night, trying to protect her ears and
neck from every possible accident, which was very difficult with all the people
around and all of the moving and talking and waving. She removed it all, handed
it to her assistant and told her to give it to them.
She would have given them their things in
person, but she was very tired to do so. Hoping that the people that gave her
the dress wouldn’t appear out of nowhere, she walked barefoot to the bathroom
and took the dress off there. She hung it on the closet and then brushed her
teeth and washed her face. She had the feeling of having been running through a
coal mine or something like that, maybe because the make-up was now running
down her face after so many pictures and poses.
The pajama she had brought was made of two
pieces: blouse and pants. They were both filled with teddy bears, which made
her laugh. She put it on and quickly after she was already in bed, looking
again at the little man that was standing on the table beside her. She couldn’t
stop watching him and she knew it would be difficult to look at anything else
for the days to come. But she had to make an effort because life was still
going and not everything stopped because she had received a prestigious award.
It was difficult as it was so beautiful.
The actress stared at the statue and slowly
fell into a deep slumber. In her dream, she was not in a fancy dress or even in
her pajama, but dressed as a waiter in a restaurant she felt she knew but
didn’t quite know where to put it. It felt strange but then someone asked for
her and she ran to offer her services. The man that was ordering looked exactly
like the actor who had won that night, just before her. But the expression on
his face was the one of someone who didn’t know her.
He wanted some apple pie and coffee. She wrote
on her notepad and then left for what she thought was the kitchen. But once she
pushed the door, she was the character in the movie that had made her a winner
that night. She had the same dress she had put on for so many days, several
months to be exact. It was bright yellow and had no real features besides its
color. The fabric and even the smell felt just like she remembered them. It
felt it had all happened a long time ago.
She then realized she was inside the movie and
it was her moment to perform. As she had done several times for the last few
months, she did her dance number, the big one everyone in the world had been
talking about. Almost at the end, a man would lift her up and then put her down
again. But this time her partner during the dance number was no other than her
actual father. It wouldn’t have been very shocking if it weren’t for the fact
he had died a couple of years back.
She was glad to see him again. He didn’t smile
or talk to her at all; he just danced in the most beautiful and gracious way
possible. When the time came for him to lift her, he did the most amazing job
at it. She cried and hugged him but it seemed she was the only one doing the
hug. Maybe it was because she was imagining him but he wasn’t putting any type
of pressure on the hugging, he seemed to be there only for the sake of having
someone standing in for the real dancer of the movie.
It didn’t matter to the young actress. She
hugged very tight and wanted that moment that wasn’t real to last an eternity.
But as dreams often do, they end in the most sudden way. She soon found herself
awake, still sitting on her bed, with her neck hurting because she had fallen
asleep in the most uncomfortable position ever. She gave her a soft massage but
didn’t leave bed, instead she looked at her award again and, only for a moment,
she imagined it to be a smaller version of her father. That made her smile just
before adopting a better position to sleep.
Someone came for the dress when she was
sleeping. She thought it was a very good idea not to wake her up, maybe
everyone thought she deserve everything that day because se had achieved
something not many people had been able to. And she was rather young and that
even more uncommon. When she finally woke up, it was already late but no one
had come to bother her. Again, she sat down at the edge of the bed and stared
at the prize, which seemed to be waiting for her to wake up.
It had lost some of its brightness, maybe
because so many people had touched it. She could actually see fingerprints all
over the statue. The woman stood up and looked around for her purse, where she
thought she had the special cream they had given her to clean the award. But
then again, she realized it was not something that had to be done on that very
moment. Actually, there was something even better she could do right there,
before anyone knew that she had woken up.
She grabbed the award and felt it: its weight,
its shape and height. It was not cold or warm. Then, she acted as she had just
received and acted surprised and bewildered for a moment, not in front of a
mirror but in the middle of her room. She was suddenly interrupted by her
assistant who talked through the door: she had a long day of interviews for
magazines and TV shows, so it was time for her to head to the shower and then
running around the city to get all of her commitments done.
As she entered the bathroom, she left the
award on the counter, by the sink. She removed her pajamas and underwear and
then stepped into the shower. There, she used hot water to relieve herself of
everything that felt like a layer on her skin, things that were not really
there but only on her mind. She had finally made it; she had finally become the
person she had always wanted to be. And now, the path to be walked was new and
amazing, painted with the most beautiful colors.
In the shower, she smiled. She stared at it
again, just to know it was there, and then smiled once more. She felt so damn
lucky.
