Creative Story

Her breath caught as she saw him standing there, sun dancing in his eyes.

Harriet Self was not expecting more in live expect to be a star. Since her young age of four, she knew deep in her heart that she was going to become the next Marilyn Monroe. She always believed that the camera longed for her, that without her on the a-list in the future the world would be boring or dull. She did everything in her power to meet this goal, that why when her father came down with lung cancer on the day of her first audition, she threw most of her life away.

Harriet’s parent had a different last name than herself. Her mother had been remarried twice, Harriet’s real father had heart problems, and died when he had a heart attack. John Less, her step father, tried his best to make Harriet feel like he was there. He tried his best, to not take the place of her father, but let her know that when she needed him he was there. He was selfless. Harriet could remember push him away whenever he tried to help, he always smelt like cigarettes, it was John’s only problem. He always attempted to help others out, so there was never any time for him to try quitting. Thus, when he had discovered his lung cancer, Harriet blamed no one but him. Harriet didn’t rush to the doctor’s office when she found out about the cancer like her mother did. She also didn’t go home and cry, like her parents did, when they had found out her step-father only had a month left. She stayed at the audition, and got the lead in an upcoming musical.

The remainder of John’s life was spent helping Harriet out. He volunteered at the musical, he helped her memorize lines, he put her out there, spoke to four different directors, three different modeling agencies, all in attemptation to make her famous, to help her discover her dream, and it worked. Harriet was found by one of the directors John had spoken to, and the rest is history. Harriet missed John’s funeral, she moved to Hollywood the day he died, and never looked back.

That was forever ago, now, Harriet Self is Harriet Ish. She’s twenty and married to Alex Ish. She barely sees him, they don’t even live in the same house. Neither of them could give up their multimillion dollar homes, so they both kept them. The buzz of an old alarm clock went off, and Harriet smacked it with force.

She inhaled deeply as she slid on her favorite pair of slippers, Her breathing was not what it used to be. Her heart wasn’t the greatest, much like her fathers, then with her smoking, things just aren’t as they should be. She stepped into her oversized closet and put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She was expected at a commercial shooting today, so no matter what she had choosen to wear they would make her change into a costume anyway.

She made her way down her stairs, a light coat over the tee and slipped her shoes on. She looked in the mail, there it was again. Harriet was to sign divorce papers, her husband had caught her cheating. Since they didn’t truly live anywhere near each other, he would usually send her the papers. Normally any sane person would sign the papers and move on, but Harriet knew deep down that she couldn’t do that. She would end up like her mother, four different husbands, and in Harriet’s eyes, all useless.

Now in her car, she was driving down the road to the studio. Her hood on her deep red corvette was down. Tourists pointed at her and she cruised down Hollywood Avenue. She smiled to herself, these people were her fans, and some idolized her like she once idolized Marilyn Monroe. This was the first time in her life that she had realized how far she had come. Turning to into the Fox Networks, she was preparing to shoot a commercial for a retro makeup brand. Retro was her style she had this in the bag.

Her high heels clanked as she stepped into the studio’s cold hard concrete floor. The place where she would be shooting a commercial was the popular scene in New York City. Her smile widened from ear to ear, giddy with excitement she waltzed over to her agent.

“Darling!” The older woman began. “I know this commercial will do some pretty great things for you. It’s a retro make-up brand titled Monroe. By the look on your face I think I know that you know who you’ll be poising as in this ad” She took a pause to inhale. “Your makeup and hair artist are in the dressing room on the left, the third door down. Your costume will be there too, we’ll start shooting soon after you’re ready. Your lines are simple, there’s no script, just some cue cards, so I’m sure this will be easy.”

Harriet nodded. Easy was good. She stepped into the dressing room to be greeted by hair curlers and make-up brushes. Soon after her make-up was completed she was left in the room alone. The dress was like no other, Marilyn Monroe’s signature white dress. It was no hassle to slide it on. She put on the matching white heels and began to step out of the room when something caught her eye. She could have sworn there was a man sitting in the chair. Shrugging it off, she walked out to the set. No one was around.

She began to feel odd. You know the feeling you get when something bad is about to happen? Yeah, that’s how she felt. She could hear her cell phone ring from the dressing room, but didn’t bother to go look. She was technically working, although no one was around she had to focus on her job.
“Hello?”her rich voice called out. “Hello?”
Taking a few steps to the other side of the room, her call we answered.

“Hello.” A Man called out. Harriet turned around to be greeted by a face she shouldn’t be seeing. The feeling like lighting hit her had run its course through her body. Her left arm went numb, she clenched her heart, and collapsed to the ground. He body began to shiver and she screamed. It didn’t help, no one was around. When the violent shakes finished and sight began to flood with bright light, she looked over to the man.

She inhaled deeply, her lungs hurt as she did this. Her breath caught as she saw him standing there, sun dancing in his eyes. John Less was not dead and was not rotting in a hole somewhere, stood right in front of her. She couldn’t exhale; her eyelids began to feel heavy. John smiled and she finally gave in, and let her eyes close.