1000 Memories

Chapter Seven

It’s Thursday and today is the day I start practising for the auditions. Maggie had already gotten me the script for the role that I am to audition for. I figure that this will be a really good start to my career as an actress since I’ve never taken classes. All I have is passion to do this and everybody has to start somewhere right?

Maggie already left for work before I woke up and so I have the house all to myself. I take a quick shower, put on some warm clothes and head over to the kitchen for breakfast.

I pick up my phone and call my mum because it’s been a few days since I spoke to her.

“Hey mom, how are you doing?” I start the conversation and from her voice I can already tell that she’s happy to hear from me.

The time back at home is 3 hours ahead of L.A so I knew she had already woken up. She tells me all about how they are all doing and how she is already turning my room into a home office. Well that was fast. I tell her all about L.A and how am having the time of my life and she seems to be very happy for me. We go on talking for about thirty minutes before I promise to call her again in a few days then hang up.

After finishing up my bowl of cereal, I do the dishes from the previous night and then start practising for the auditions. The script is not too long and so I go over it then start playing it out.

We are supposed to do ‘A raisin in the sun by Lorrain Hansberry’ play which is about an African-American family which is trying to move to a new neighbourhood to better their lives and I found it quite fitting seeing as I myself had just moved to a new city looking for greener pastures.

Lorrain Hansberry herself is going to be one of the judges in the auditions and this makes me anxious but excited nonetheless.

I feel so privileged that I get to do something that I love and with no delay whatsoever. I mean I know I have to look for a job or anything else to keep me busy after the auditions before I get a call back but am still glad that everything is working out perfectly.

I get to play the role of a woman in the family and although it is quite a short script, it takes me half the day to finish up but it doesn’t feel exhausting at all. My role is quite interesting actually.

It is almost 3.00pm in the afternoon when am done and Maggie gets back home. She is very lucky that she doesn’t get to stay at work until late in the evening. A lot of times she usually gets back home before 4.00 pm which is quite a  convenient work schedule if you ask me.

Maggie always talks about how nice their boss is and all the benefits she has working for that company. All the employees get massive bonuses at the end of the year. Many people would kill to get such kind of jobs especially with the current economy.

Unlike Maggie, I actually enjoy cooking very much. She’d rather just order in or go out to a restaurant. Ironically, her kitchen pantry and fridge are always fully stocked. I get into the kitchen and take out the ingredients I need from the fridge to make some chicken wraps for a late lunch.

I place them on the island and start chopping away as Maggie sits across me keenly observing the steps. One thing Maggie and I have always had in common is that we are both foodies. We experiment with anything and everything and love trying food from different cultures all over the world and it is just pure bliss.

As I start multitasking, Maggie gets up to give me a hand so we can finish faster and eat. It takes about twenty minutes to finish assembling everything and we carry the food to the living room.

I must say I do enjoy eating my food as I catch up on shows. It is somewhat therapeutic. My mom never allowed anybody to eat in the living room. I never understood why she was so skeptical about that. After all we were all adults and nobody was going to make a mess on the couch. “That’s what the dining table is for!” she loved to say.

We finish our food and continue watching a bunch of shows until late into the evening. With the many years we’ve been apart, we have a lot of stories to catch up on and with the endless talking and laughing, time flies by so fast and the only thing that makes us realise that we got caught up in time is the rumbling from our hungry stomachs.

That’s our cue for dinner and since it is already so late, we opt for pizza. Maggie dials the restaurant’s number and orders for a barbeque pizza and the delivery guy brings it over in less than 15 minutes. That is another thing that’s different from back home. There it would usually take much longer for the pizza to arrive which I always felt was an inconvenience because I love pizza so much and don’t always have the patience to wait for such a long time.

The pizza is hot just like I love it and the sauce, which is my favourite part of the pizza, is amazing and melts right into my mouth bringing my taste buds to life.

“I told you the pizza here is pretty good.” I turn to look at Maggie who is stuffing her mouth full and I nod in agreement.

We later sit at the huge glass windows and watch over the city as the lights start to go out one by one when people go to sleep and Oh it is such a beautiful sight.