Jam and Tattoos

A few days ago Melanie invited me to tea. I haven’t seen her in quite awhile for more than a blink because she’s been performing in back to back plays; huge amazing plays all over Los Angeles with fantastic fellow actors She is living her creative dream. This next weekend she opens in George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Misalliance’ and as this of course is E-n-g-l-i-s-h, she is conjuring up opening night gifts for her cast-mates…..English gifts….home made peach-rosemary jam, fig lavandar jam, and ginger scones! Can you believe it? And no short cuts. I know that I’ve mentioned Nanny in blogs past. Melanie’s middle name, Lucy, was Nanny’s real name. Nanny is sipping brandy and muttering from up above with delight (as she was QUEEN of jam) at the sight of Melanie and her boiling jam jars and apron and sweet sticky brew. I, from down here, watch in wonder.

I sat on her kitchen stool and watched her blond curls escaping from their barrette while she stirred and poured the jammy mixtures. As we were not having a serious tete-a-tete with all of this going on I shared my musings on my earlier errand.

I had been standing in line at the post office behind a beautifully muscled, soft skinned, young woman who had tattoos galore all over her back and arms. As we stood I looked and let my mind sail. It took me to “Wow, those roses and thorns are interesting and the colors very strong, I wonder if these tattoos are fresh” to “Her skin is so plump and perfect. Was mine ever like that? Of course it was.” to “Yikes! I wonder what will happen to these roses and thorns as time shapeshifts the colors and flesh! Will they wither and widen and droop and bleed? What will happen?” to “I remember, oh, twenty years ago in Charleston when I used to do massage and tattoos were new, there was a woman who came in with a fabulously detailed red vintage car across her plump rump and I thought ‘woooooooo, that’s a surprise!’ and I wonder now, after twenty years, how is that red car  looking?” to “What happens to the tattoos as the skin looses its oomph?”

 Musings and life. I’m sure the images are  just as amazing but different. Maybe even better!

Ahhhhhhh, yes, just like everything.

And so, Melanie and I shared her jam and my musings. A perfectly simple girlie afternoon which now becomes a treasured memory.