3. Laurel Decides to Fight
Laurel lay on her bed in the darkness with no desire to sleep. She encouraged the thoughts she would need to fight society's pull on her in the form of Stuart, her cousin. Stuart thought she was fat; OK then she deliberately would not try to lose weight or do the "tummy tightening exercises" that appeared in every monthly edition of the teenage magazines she looked at.
But does it mean I should try to gain weight just to prove a point, she asked herself? Ugh, what an awful thought. No, she reasoned with herself, the thing to do is stay on an even path. Get up every morning, look at yourself in the mirror, and decide you like what you see. Her heart quieted at the thought, settled down to sleep, and with that, Laurel's body and soul slept too.
The next morning, Laurel tried to think of a really nasty insult to hurl at Stuart when they passed each other in the hall. This was going to be the hard part. She said to herself as she walked to school: "Takes one to know one" might work. If he calls me Laurel lard ass, I could say that." But she remembered Stuart's loyal crowd of admirers, his much talked-about artistic and musical talent, his small, hard body. Why even try? It would have to be much better, much stronger.
The year was 1962, John F. Kennedy had been president for two years, and Laurel was always ready to put personal issues aside to look at the larger world. Laurel adored President Kennedy and his wife; Jackie Kennedy was her role model. When Jackie went with the President to foreign countries, the crowds went wild with adoration for her. Once she went to Spain with her husband and addressed the crowd in perfect Spanish. Laurel was studying Spanish and she was still learning to conjugate verbs and learn lists of Spanish words. She had never actually heard Spanish spoken. When Laurel listened to Jackie speak Spanish she, Laurel, went dumb with amazement. It sounded like some kind of operatic singing. And was the President jealous or annoyed because his wife was so beautiful, poised, well-educated, and elegant? Oh no. Many times Laurel watched him give press conferences and he would say: "Hello. I'm Jack Kennedy. Jackie Kennedy's husband." That made Laurel love him even more.
The Kennedys invited Pablo Cassals to the White House to play music. This wasn't televised, but Laurel combed the Pittsburgh Press and Time and Life Magazines to see pictures and read the descriptions of this historic and sophisticated event. The nation now had a Poet Laureate--Robert Frost. Did Ike and Mamie have a Poet Laureate? Laurel didn't think so. And then Nikita Kruschev, our nemesis and arch enemy, came to visit us here and what happens? He was just as charmed by Jackie as we all were. It made the echoes of "We will bury you!!" fade away, if just for the moment.
I'll be like Jackie, Laurel decided. I will rise above it all--Stuart, Seventeen Magazine, tummy-tightening exercises. If she can charm the world, I can conquer Stuart.
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