Safe Subjects
Originally posted on May 31, 2009
Thanks to Clara for providing Andrea’s dialogue
Director: (from off) Okay folks, unscheduled afternoon off. We’ll get cameras number two AND four fixed and be back to work tomorrow morning. Be in early if at all possible.
Gideon: So…. how about lunch instead of that drink?
Andrea: I'd love to..... on one condition: no shop talk. I want to enjoy our break in a very relaxed atmosphere.
Gideon: Works for me.
Gideon: No more nasty little surprises in your dressing room, I hope?
Andrea: Nothing that I’ve found.
Gideon: Glad to hear it. Shall we?
Andrea: So Gideon, shall we talk about something "safe" to begin with?
Gideon: Like the weather, or the price of gasoline?
Andrea: *smiling* Of course not. Tell me something about your family.
Gideon: My mother and younger brother currently reside on the other side of the continent. My father is….deceased. And yours?
Andrea: Well..... my little brother and I still live with our parents. My Dad travels a lot in his work, so we didn't see a lot of him when we were growing up. We still don't, although he is hoping to retire in a year or so. I'm looking forward to that - I'm hoping it will give me an opportunity to really get to know him. He's a wonderful man. My Mom is a stay-at-home Mom - and always was as we were growing up. I never came home from school to an empty house, and I loved that.
Gideon: The ideal little nuclear family. So who do you get your “gorgeous” genes from, your mother or father?
Andrea: *smiling* Why, thank you for the sweet compliment, Gideon. Actually, I was adopted, so my genes did not come from either of my parents. My Mom and Dad tried for several years to have children of their own and then the opportunity to adopt me became available to them.
Gideon: Do you know anything about your biological parents?
Andrea: Well, they evidently didn't want to raise a child, as I was told that I was removed from the home of my biological mother.
Gideon: Probably for the best. How old were you at the time?
Andrea: I was just an infant. But then, surprise, surprise. A few years after I came to live with my parents, my Mom became pregnant and had my little brother.
Gideon: So we have that in common; both only children who later were “blessed” with the addition of a little brother. Do your parents favor him because he’s their biological child?
Andrea: Oh, no – not at all. They used to say all the time that adopted children are very special, and they always, always treated me as if that were true. I did have some issues with other children in the family - cousins that knew of my adoption – they used to say some pretty cruel things. Like, I wasn't really part of the family. And when I would argue with them that my parents had chosen me, which is what my Mom always used to tell me, they shot back even though I was chosen, I had to have been given away first. Still, I never have had any doubt that I was loved by both of my parents.
Gideon: Ever resent having to share them with your brother?
Andrea: No, never. There was always plenty of love and attention for both of us. Aside from some normal sibling bickering, my brother and I got along very well, and still do. You should have seen what he did when he caught our cousins saying those mean things to me. He knocked my boy cousin down and said if he ever heard anything like that from any of them again, he was going to knock them around the block for the fun of it. *laughing* You would never think that of my brother to see him now. He's a rather relaxed and laid back kind of guy.
Gideon: Very interesting.
Andrea: But what about you, Gideon? Here I am prattling on about my family and you haven't said much at all about yours. So I'll just shut up now and let you talk.
Gideon: Not much to say, except your family is apparently everything my family is not. We’re not at all close, and that’s just fine with me.
Andrea: How old were you… when your father passed away?
Gideon: I was seven, almost eight. *distantly* I hardly remember it, to be honest…