Theresa – Chapter 53 & 54!

Our second night of marriage was celebrated in a somewhat glitzy but still comfortable Los Angeles hotel. This was followed by seven glorious days and nights in a marvelous hotel on the beautiful island of Maui. I became fluent in the Hawaiian language there. Well, I learned to say Maui no ka oi (Maui is the best), but I was much too busy to learn more just then. Eddie and I decided we’d have to come back to Hawaii at our first opportunity and see what the other islands had to say for themselves.

Time passed much too quickly, and we suddenly found ourselves back in Los Angeles. Eddie carried me across the threshold into his – our! – apartment. He and his friends had moved his furniture and other things in from his old apartment, and we were ready to begin the next phase of our lives

***

After we’d had a month to get used to the idea of being married, Mr. & Mrs. Norris flew out to visit us, bringing Jessie with them. They stayed for a week and I became the family tour guide, even though I knew little more than they did about the local tourist attractions. Jessie seemed to know more than anyone, and she suggested a number of things that we all enjoyed. Mrs. Norris and I found a pre-school near the apartment, and we signed Jessie up for three days per week, giving me some time for grocery shopping, laundering, and job-hunting.

Our wedding seemed to have touched off a small wave of nuptials. Chris called to tell me that she and Jim were marrying in the fall (no decision yet on who would be the bride, but my money was on Chris), and I was directed to put the date on my calendar and prepare to serve as matron of honor. Chris was delighted that I’d be a doddering old matron, whereas she’d been a sweet young maid, and she mentioned this fact several times.

A day or two later, Dad called to announce that he and Ivy were also going to marry in the fall. He knew about Chris and Jim and said that he and Ivy would schedule their wedding to take place a few days after Chris and Jim’s, so I could attend two weddings on one air fare. Ivy wanted me to be matron of honor, too. What was going on with all these crazy kids?

And then there was my phone call from Josie, who just wanted to thank us for inviting her and Bernie to our wedding. They’d had a wonderful time and now, floating about on clouds of romance, they sort of wished they could get married, too. “But it’s against the law, dearie, unless you’ve had that little something removed, and I’m a bit too old for that kind of thing now.”

“You’ll never be too old for anything, Josie,” I said. “But you know there are people in New York who make a living by providing other people with legal documents that they always should have had, but don’t. I’ll bet you could find several people like that within three or four blocks of La Chevalier – not too pricey, either. And, Josie, no one’s going to track you down and throw you in jail. You wouldn’t be doing any harm to anyone.”

Two months later, Eddie and I received a wedding announcement in the mail from Bernard and Josephine Oakes.

***

Eddie proved to have been right – Hollywood offered many opportunities for me. I had written to several directors I’d worked for – Dad (of course), John Tulley, Rudy Fletcher, and three others who’d directed me in various Avon West productions, asking them for theatrical contacts in Los Angeles. With their letters of recommendation in hand, I’d visited their contacts. I was pleasantly surprised to find a thriving theatre scene 3,000 miles off-Broadway. I should have known, of course, that there were thousands of budding performers and backstage people looking for opportunities to display their skills, and more thousands of movie and TV people scouting the theatres for actors and technicians whose abilities and capabilities could be utilized on screens both large and small.

I’m happy to say that I found work quite quickly, first on the stage and before long in motion pictures. In 1976, to my surprise, I was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar – a wonderful honor. The competition, which included Jane Alexander and Jodie Foster, was too much for me, but I was pleased when the award went to Beatrice Straight, who was primarily a stage actress. In 1977 I was one of the nominees for best leading actress. Once again, the competition was incredible, but I realized from the beginning that I wasn’t going to beat out Diane Keaton in Annie Hall! The nominations were good for me, though, as I got more and more offers of movie roles, to say nothing of more Broadway stage appearances, so I suddenly found myself with successful careers going on both coasts.

Eddie was doing remarkably well professionally, too. I could tell that he was highly regarded by his colleagues the first time I visited him at his office. He was made a junior partner at his architectural firm in 1975. Three years later, he became a full partner and was sent to New York to open an East Coast office for his firm.

I found that I enjoyed Hollywood and the film industry in many ways, and I made at least one movie each year, but the stage was my real love and I was happy to be Broadway-based once again.

***

Necessity, the proverb says, is the mother of Invention. I can believe that. I’d had to invent three different daughters for old Mom Necessity (not counting my few days as Elizabeth Furst or my brief career as Terri Terrific), and I was still only in my twenties. Fortunately, life was finally becoming more settled. I still had to invent my way through the development of my stage and screen characters, but I got more than enough help from my directors!

***

About a year after our wedding, Eddie and I began to talk seriously about having children. We thought Jessie should have a sibling before she spent too much longer as an only child.

Despite Eddie’s Herculean efforts to prove medical science wrong, I was improperly equipped for pregnancy. We could adopt, of course, but Eddie and his parents wanted at least one child who was genetically half-Roberts.

We were a little too early for the miracle of in vitro fertilization, but we had my sister Barbara the Baby Machine. One day when I was bemoaning our lack of options to her, my wacko sister told me that she was missing that old preggers feeling and would be willing to undergo artificial insemination, if that would help us. Eddie and I promptly made an appointment for ourselves and Barbara with a leading gynecologist who was experienced in artificial insemination techniques and had an excellent success ratio. After several months of lab tests and the use of a device that our gynecologist called a “turkey baster,” Barbara was impregnated with Eddie’s sperm. Our daughter Juliet (who else?) came into the world on August 17, 1976.

Julie was a happy and lovable child. Although Jessie looked more like Sandy than me, Julie resembled me much more than Eddie. Of course, Barbara and I did come from the same gene pool and I’d always had a strong resemblance to her. Eddie wanted to try one more time for someone who looked like a Roberts, but Barbara’s doctor warned her that another pregnancy could very well be detrimental to her well being. By then, fortunately, Louise Brown – the famous “test-tube baby” – had come along in good health and our gynecologist was eager to get himself out on the leading edge of biotechnology. We found a woman who was willing to be a surrogate mother for a reasonable fee. Lawyers conferred and drew up agreements. Each of my sisters then donated an egg, the doctor selected one of the eggs at random and introduced it to Eddie’s sperm, and little Henry Edward Roberts rambled into our lives on October 20, 1979. Fortunately, he looked very much like Eddie.

–Chapter 54–

One day in late 1985, my son (now six) came running up to me in tears. When I got him calmed enough to talk coherently, I learned that Julie, his frequent tormentor, had been teasing him again. They’d then gone to Jessie for arbitration, and she – addicted to facts much more than to teasing – had taken Julie’s position. The thought of all this injustice brought little Henry to tears again. “But Mom,” he sobbed, “they said I have to be a boy when I grow up, but I want to be a girl, just like you and Jessie and Julie.”

“OH

EM

GEE!

:>(”

I murmured thoughtfully.

And we all lived interestingly ever after.

The End

Category: Fiction