The Fold (8 page)

“Huh?” Joyce said.

“Trust me.”

“Gina. Wait!” Joyce stumbled out from behind the display, trailing after her determined friend.

Gina plopped herself on one of the white terry-cloth-covered stools and motioned Joyce over to do the same. Joyce was too embarrassed to sit, so she stood next to the stool.

“Aren’t these for people who pay?” Joyce whispered.

“Stop being such a worrywart,” Gina scolded.

The Asian saleslady glanced in their direction and finished arranging her brochures before gliding over to them. Joyce noticed that even her walk resembled something she had seen on television. The perfect swivel in the hips, hands gracefully swinging along. Joyce made a note to herself to practice walking that way at home.

“Do you have a question, girls?”

Gina answered with a haughty voice. “My friend is looking for some eye makeup for her sister’s wedding.”

“Oh.” The saleswoman seemed surprised that they
had a legitimate reason for being there. “When is the date?”

Gina breezed through the answer. “It’s next week. We don’t have a lot of time because Joyce still has to go in for her final dress fitting, but I told her that you do the best Asian eyes in the business.”

The saleslady issued a charmed laugh. Gina joined in while grabbing Joyce by the back of her shirt. “She’s the maid of honor,” Gina said and forced Joyce to sit on the terry-cloth stool.

Joyce gulped. She hated when Gina did this. How many times had she gotten dragged into one of Gina’s schemes only to have the whole thing backfire? Please, please don’t ask me any questions, Joyce thought.

The saleslady carefully studied Joyce’s face, lightly touching Joyce’s chin when she wanted Joyce to turn her head to the left or right. She smiled at Joyce.

“Why don’t I do your entire face and that way we can really make your eyes shine. My name’s Arlene, by the way, if you have any questions.”

Gina nudged Joyce.

“I’m Joyce.”

Arlene smiled. “Well, Joyce, let’s get started with a concealer for the blemishes and then a light foundation.”

A sleepy feeling of well-being settled over Joyce as Arlene lightly powdered her face with a large fluffy brush. It was like the feeling she got while getting her hair washed before a haircut. It was nice having someone take care of you.

Joyce could feel Arlene’s breath on her forehead as she lightly dabbed a bit more foundation around the scab at her temple.

“You really shouldn’t pick,” Arlene admonished.

“You sound like my mom,” Joyce muttered, her eyes still closed.

“Sometimes mothers do know best. There, you can open your eyes.”

Joyce slowly opened her eyes and stared into the mirror that Arlene was holding up.

“See how smooth your skin looks?” Arlene said. “Now, when we do your eyes, they are just going to pop right out from that flawless palette.”

Joyce scanned the counter for Gina. “Where did my friend go?”

Arlene was rifling through her makeup drawer. “Oh, I think I saw her head over to the escalators.”

Joyce clenched her jaw. She couldn’t believe Gina had left her alone.

Arlene turned back to Joyce, wielding a black pencil. “Let’s get started on your eyes.”

Carefully, with quick, sure strokes, Arlene lined Joyce’s eyes with smoky black. “You don’t have a strong crease in your eyelids, so I’m going to keep the line fairly thin so that we can still get some color on your upper lids.”

“What do you mean?” Joyce whispered.

Arlene stood back to survey her work before nodding. She pointed up to her own eyes. “See this?” She blinked in slow motion. The same twin crescent moons that Gomo had shown her last night appeared and disappeared each time Arlene blinked.

“Some lucky few are born with the folds, but many Asian women have to surgically create them.”

“Oh.” Joyce noticed that Arlene didn’t say whether hers were natural or not.

Arlene came back with a small compact and showed her the colors of the eye shadow. “What colors did your sister pick for your bridesmaid gown?”

“Huh?” Joyce said.

Arlene smiled patiently. “The color theme. I thought maybe I could complement it with your eye shadow color.”

Joyce still had no idea what Arlene was talking about, but she picked two colors anyway. “Uhm, I think purple and green.”

Arlene looked surprised. “That’s kind of different.” She studied the eye shadow palette in her hands and pursed her lips. “Maybe this velvet brown might work.”

Joyce closed her eyes as she saw Arlene reaching forward with her small angled brush.

“Did your sister hire a wedding consultant?”

“Yeah,” Joyce said quickly.

Arlene spoke more to herself. “I wonder who she went with, because the colors are so unusual.” Arlene pulled back. “She didn’t go with someone from the Valley, did she?”

Joyce tried to look as horrified as Arlene. “Oh, no.”

“I suppose purple and green could look really sophisticated, depending on the shade.”

“Yeah,” Joyce quickly agreed and started to sneeze again.

Arlene handed her a tissue.

“I’m going to start with the darker colors near your eyes and lighten as we get closer to your eyebrows. Most Asians can’t wear more than two or three shades
because of the size of their fold.” Arlene stood back to check her work and then brought the brush for a final dusting on Joyce’s lids. Joyce wanted to ask Arlene about the surgery. Maybe she knew people who had come to her afterwards for some makeup tips. Maybe Arlene had undergone plastic surgery. Joyce crossed her legs, uncrossed them, and crossed them again. There was only one way to find out, and her makeup session was almost over.

“Now for your lip color,” Arlene said and reached back for a small rectangular tray that held an assortment of lipstick shades. “I would suggest going with something a little bolder than what you are probably used to. See this color?” Arlene pointed it out.

“Can I ask you a question, Arlene?” Joyce interrupted.

Arlene looked up.

Joyce stared at Arlene’s perfectly creased lids. “Have you ever had plastic surgery?”

A tiny line appeared between Arlene’s eyebrows. “Did someone put you up to this?” she asked.

“No!” Joyce frantically shook her head. “Oh, no. No, not at all.”

Arlene stepped back and evaluated Joyce, but
this time, she seemed to be looking at Joyce’s eyes as opposed to her entire face. Arlene’s eyes narrowed. “Did you hear something about me?”

Joyce could feel her face flaming up under all the makeup. Joyce’s hands began to flutter. “No, I didn’t even know you worked here until my friend Gina brought me over to your counter. I was just curious.”

“Well, maybe you should learn to mind your own business.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry. It’s just that. Oh, man.” Joyce’s face itched like crazy, but she knew she couldn’t damage all the work that Arlene had just done. Joyce reached up and scratched the top of her head. “I don’t know what I’m doing here. Well, I do know, but it’s kind of weird. It’s like this. My aunt offered to give me that eyelid surgery. You know, to get the folds put in.”

Arlene raised one eyebrow.

“Really,” Joyce continued. “And I’m not sure if I should get them, but my friend Gina thought that if I got a makeover I might see how good I could look. That, and I owed her money for a yearbook and I had to pay her back and she wanted—”

Arlene lightly touched Joyce’s shoulders. “Joyce, you are babbling. Plastic surgery isn’t something you
should jump into because you’re getting it as a gift.” Arlene stepped closer to Joyce and nodded in time to her lecture. “Accidents can happen. Painful, unforeseeable events that can change your whole life and the way you feel. Even the best doctors can’t always anticipate the way your skin will react or heal after the surgery.”

Joyce gulped. “Oh.”

Arlene stepped back. “Now, if you go with this color for your lips, your eyes will look even more luminous.” Without even waiting for an answer, Arlene lightly applied the lipstick to Joyce’s lips and then layered it with some gloss. “There,” Arlene said and swiveled Joyce around.

Joyce stared at herself in the large display mirror. It was her and not her. She could feel the layers of makeup like a film of plastic over her skin. Her lips were plump and shiny red as a new car. The smooth plateau of her cheeks, dewy and flawless, glowed with a pearlescent sheen. And her eyes! Joyce leaned in closer. Her eyes were lightly outlined in black with gradations of smoky browns on her upper lids. Joyce’s eyes definitely looked bigger. They smoldered with an intensity that Joyce couldn’t believe was coming from her. She scowled and found her image mimicking her.

“I can’t believe that’s me!” Joyce said.

Arlene crossed her arms. “All this without one cut or stitch. And there’s no recovery time.”

“Yeah,” Joyce said and shifted her weight on the stool, painfully aware of sitting still for all that time.

Arlene began arranging the products she had used on the counter. “Now, for the wedding, you’ll want to make sure to layer a little more gloss on your lips, especially if you are going to be taking pictures right after the ceremony.”

“Uhm, Arlene,” Joyce said, hopping off the stool.

Arlene turned around. She saw Joyce standing awkwardly by the stool.

“About my sister’s wedding.”

Arlene leaned her weight back and rested her elbows on the counter. “There isn’t a wedding.”

Joyce nodded.

“I thought purple and green sounded pretty suspicious, but then those are the kinds of colors people are picking these days. Always trying to be different and original. I thought I was getting old for a second.”

“Oh, no,” Joyce said. “You don’t look old at all.”

Arlene’s lips twitched. “Thanks, honey.”

Joyce slowly backed away. “I love what you did to my face. And if I had money I would buy all of it. Really, I would. But I just paid back my friend Gina,
the one who was here a minute ago. I just wanted to see what my eyes could look like.”

Arlene waved her away. “Just be careful and make sure to research your doctor. Get references and check them out.”

Joyce nodded.

“Remember, there’s always makeup!”

Joyce waved and headed over to the escalators. She was going to kill Gina. Right after Gina had finished admiring Joyce’s amazing makeover.

all
the way home, Joyce had to fight the inclination to touch her face. Gina, even while driving her mother’s car, could see Joyce’s hand go up and she would reach out and swat Joyce’s fingers away.

“Joyce, you’ll ruin it.”

“But it itches!” Joyce scratched her neck, which was as close to the real itch as she could get.

“You look fabulous. At least five years older. Don’t you want people to see?” Gina asked.

“I feel like I’m drowning.” Joyce checked her fingernails. “Gross, look at all that makeup.” She held out her hand for Gina to see the foundation caked under her nails.

Gina continued staring forward. She said three words. “John Ford Kang.”

Joyce stopped studying her nails and slouched back into her seat.

At a red light, Gina shifted around and faced Joyce. “Do you want him to mistake you for Lynn again next year?”

“No.”

“Then stop acting like a child.”

Joyce tried not to pout. “I’m just not used to wearing this much foundation.”

Gina rolled her eyes and sped up as the light turned green. Gina dropped Joyce off in front of her apartment complex.

“Promise you won’t wash it off and you’ll go to work with it on?” Gina asked.

Joyce groaned. “No way.”

“Come on, Joyce. You said it yourself, you have to get used to wearing the makeup. Everyone is going to say how great you look.”

“You think so?”

“Yes!”

Joyce sighed deeply to let Gina know how much it hurt. “Fine.”

Gina clapped. “Good. I’ll come by the restaurant later tonight.”

“Where are you going now?” Joyce asked.

“I have to go by the Korean market and then I’m just gonna take more SAT practice tests until I have to pick up my mom.”

“Everyone has a car,” Joyce said and pushed open her door.

“It’s not that glamorous, Joyce,” Gina called out as Joyce stepped out.

Joyce waved good-bye and headed into her apartment complex. As she walked up the stairs, Joyce assessed her wardrobe. What could she wear to work to go with her new makeover? She had it narrowed down to two shirts by the time she reached her front door. Joyce was just about to push her key into the lock when she realized the door was slightly ajar. Did she forgot to lock up before leaving the apartment? Had there been a break-in? Joyce slowly pushed open the front door, her breath shallow with fear.

Uhmma was sitting on the couch, her back to the door.

“Uhmma?” Joyce said, surprised to see her mother home.

Uhmma slowly turned her head at the sound of Joyce’s voice.

Joyce quickly covered her mouth, squelching the scream of horror.

Where Uhmma’s head should have been, there was an enormous balloon. Her eyes were replaced by two slight indentations, like tucks in a down ski jacket. Her bulging forehead, the skin shiny and taut from swelling, cast a shadow over her puffed-out cheeks. Two dark lines where her eyebrows used to be glowered back at Joyce, evil as a jack-o’-lantern. Joyce had never seen anything like it before. Uhmma looked like she had just walked off the set of a horror movie or, worse, a late-night comedy show. But instead of a conehead, she had a Nerf-ball head.

“Uhmma, are you okay? What happened?” Joyce asked, peering back and forth, searching for Uhmma’s eyes.

Two fat tears slid out from under the tucks.

“Don’t cry, Uhmma!” Joyce said, alarmed. She grabbed Uhmma’s hands, which were thankfully normal sized, and patted them.

Uhmma’s puffy lips parted. “Gomo.”

“They did this to you at the permanent makeup place?”

Uhmma shook her head no and pointed to the dark lines on her forehead. “They tattooed my eyebrows, and on the way home, my face blew up.”

Joyce stood up. “Ohmygod! We have to get you to the hospital.” Joyce wondered if they could just pop Uhmma’s head like deflating a balloon.