“The Faux Monde” from “Remembering Eternity”

“Corey, handsome as a male model, with backswept chestnut hair and robust frame, held on his arm, like a gardenia nosegay scenting the atmosphere about her with the hot redolence of a tropical night’s blooms, exotic Sophia, sinuosity made flesh, bodily as lithe and colorful as a serpent, but with the face of a tawny fairy. To us these people came directly from the red carpet in Hollywood, exuding glamour and charm, beauty and poise. But we never saw the scene that night after the party at which both had drunk too much. We never heard the screamed obscenities and jealous accusations, never watched the shoving and grabbing and near violence at their home overlooking the Bay, never saw the blood dripping from Corey’s nostrils out of arteries weakened by overindulgence in cocaine, and never witnessed the ugliness that rage and hatred bring to beautiful faces when the souls that lighten them grow dark.”