I've been working on Mathematicians in Love the last couple of weeks and it's going well.
I wrote a funny scene yesterday. The narrator Bela is meeting up with his girlfriend Alma and her parents outside the Greek Theater at UC Berkeley right after Alma's commencement ceremenony. Alma's parents are from Santa Cruz…
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“This is my friend Bela,” said Alma. “And these are my parents Gary and Sarah. Bela and his friend Paul have been letting me live in their apartment.”
“Yo,” said Gary Ziff. He had long curly hair hanging down like a welcome mat, a walrus mustache, and a Hawaiian shirt. I made him for a parrot head. Sure enough he lit up a joint, right there on the street.
“Gary,” said Alma. She called her parents by their first names. She looked very cute in her white graduation robe and mortar-board, which set off her dark eyes and intense features.
“Hey, we’re in Berkeley,” said Gary. “This is a party town. I used to come up here in high-school and freakin’ run wild. Want a hit, Bela?”
I waved him off. I was feeling buzzed enough from the wine, the emotions, and the weeks of over-mathing.
“I’ll shotgun you,” said Gary, rounding his lips and blowing a stream of smoke my way. “It’s my special Ziff-zone mix. I put termite powder in it.” I accidentally caught a pungent whiff and felt instantly dizzy. “Doin’ my job,” added Gary. “I’m an exterminator.”
“Make him stop, Sarah,” said Alma.
Sarah Ziff was a stocky woman with a short ponytail, her hair black with gray at the roots. She had a sweet doughy face behind her pointy black cats-eye shades. But now, hearing Alma’s distress, her mouth formed a fierce expression.
“Don’t. Ruin. The day,” she said to Gary, drawing back her lips to reveal teeth like corn kernels. She clamped her hand onto his shoulder and gave him a shake with each word.
“Whoah,” said Gary. He took a few steps back, did one more toke, then pinched out his joint and dropped the roach in his pocket. “Bring the band down behind me, boys.”
“I think it’s time to feed him,” said Sarah, folding her expression into sweetness again.