The Faces of Strangers by Pia Padukone

Author:Pia Padukone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2016-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

NORA

New York City

March 2003

Nora had thought long and hard about how her best friend would view their friendship once she had made her decision. After hemming and mulling and hawing and stewing, Nora decided to attend Claire’s wedding as a regular guest instead of as a member of her wedding party. Claire had hugged Nora, and promised her that it didn’t change anything between them. Nora watched from an aisle seat as Claire’s sister stood at the altar, beaming in her promotion to maid of honor. Nora clutched her black notebook in her hand until it began to perspire and ink bled onto her palms. She put the notebook into her purse at that point; she couldn’t risk anything happening to it. She hadn’t allowed it out of her sight since Paavo had returned it to her. But as much of a disappointment as it had been to not participate in Claire’s wedding party, she had to admit that she’d come a long way. The support group had been great for her. She’d put her self-consciousness aside and asked her friends to start wearing things that might help her to identify them. She’d started to post some of her photo portraits online and had been receiving some positive feedback about her use of lighting and angles. And then she’d had a breakthrough.

Nora had been attending the group for six months when she and her father made a trip to the grocery store together. The two walked down Twenty-Sixth Street in silence until Nora stopped to point at a bus stop movie poster.

“Ugh,” she said. “He’s such a dirty old man, don’t you think?”

“Nora—” Arthur stopped walking “—you recognize that actor?” Arthur was unabashedly ignorant of celebrity faces, names and gossip. He’d pawed through an issue or two of People while waiting at the dentist, but tossed the magazines aside when he didn’t know anyone in the photos, and more importantly, when he didn’t care.

“Come on, Dad, you have to know Jack Nicholson.”

“That’s not the point. You know him, Nora. That’s all that matters.”

A quiet but fierce smile crept across Nora’s face as she recognized the importance of this potential truth, not allowing herself to fully believe it yet. Nora and Arthur picked up their pace as they neared the grocery store with its wide paneled windows plastered with neon posters for luminously colored fruit and triple-liter bottles of cola. Instead of grabbing a cart and consulting Stella’s list, they veered left toward the cashiers where Arthur grabbed a battered People magazine and flipped through its pages. He opened it at random and turned it around to face Nora, covering the type with his palm.

“Who is that?” he demanded.

“Ricky Martin.”

Arthur moved his hand and nodded, his eyes flitting from the page to Nora’s face like fireflies. “And this?”

“Britney Spears.”

“That.”

“Hillary Clinton.”

It appeared that celebrities hadn’t been spliced from the recesses of Nora’s mind.

“Nor, we can use this to help you,” Arthur said. His voice traveled up a scale as his excitement mounted.

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