The Ugly Duckling

The Ugly Duckling

by Walter Edminster

Jim Mason was hungry. He’d been driving along what used to be route 66 on his way to L.A. He was tired of eating in the interstate restaurants where the food all tasted the same after the third meal. Jim decided it was time for some home cooked food. He pulled off the interstate and drove inland about five miles to a small Arizona town nobody ever heard of. He was sure there was at least one restaurant in town that served home cooked food.

Believe it or not, there was one restaurant in town and it had a sign in the window that said, “Home cooked food.” It looked clean enough, but that didn’t mean anything. He’d seen clean eating places that had kitchens filthier than the city dump. Jim sat down on a stool at the counter rather than a table or booth. The waitress looked pleasant and he was in need of a little pheasant conversation. Her name tag said Penny.

“What will you have mister?”

“What do you suggest?”

“I would suggest you go down to that greasy spoon in the next block but since that would loose business for me I’ll suggest you have the plate lunch. Three vegetables and a large serving of meat. The meat loaf is best. I made that.”

“Sounds good to me. I’ll take the meat loaf and you can select the vegetables.”

“Coming right up. You look like a coffee man to me so I’m going to just pour a cup for you without asking.”

The food was delicious. Jim almost ordered a second round but decided to try the pie. “Is that homemade Coconut pie over there?”

“Sure is. I made that myself, too. I’ve never seen you before. You must have come off the interstate.”

“That’s right. Wanted a good home cooked meal and a pleasant, good looking waitress to talk to. I’ve had both and now I’m going to have one more cup of coffee and hit the road.”

Penny was blushing. “You know when you came in here I thought you were a nice old man. Now I think you’re a dirty old man.”

“Right. Been one since I was 14 years old.”

“Speaking of old men, see the old fellow shuffling in? He’s a little retarded. He comes in every day and I give him a free coffee and a do-nut. He’s a nice old guy but everyone makes fun of him. Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

While Penny was over serving the old gent four tough looking cowboy types came through the door followed by a homely girl in her twenties. Penny came back over to Jim and said, “Oh boy, I smell trouble brewing. It might be a good idea if you left. These guys don’t like older people much. They’re going to give the old guy at the end of the counter a hard time then they’ll start on you.”

“Really? This sounds interesting. I think I’ll stick around for a while. What about that pathetic looking girl with them?”

“They make her follow them around like a dog so they can make fun of her in front of other people. Makes them feel macho or something. She’s not very attractive. Decent boys won’t have anything to do with he. They only keep her around to bolster their inflatable egos. They treat her like shit.”

“Maybe they need their ego deflated a little.”

“Don’t mess with them they’ll eat you up.”

Jim leaned over to whisper to her and his coat fell upon. For just an instant she saw a shoulder holster and a .32 caliber pistol. “Don’t worry about it. I’m not that easy to chew.”

“You aren’t going to use that thing are you?”

“With these guys? They wouldn’t be worth wasting a bullet on.”

“I don’t know who you are but I think things are going to get interesting around her in the next few minutes.”

Clyde, who appeared to be the ring leader of the bunch looked over at the homely girl and said, “Cherry, go sit up at the counter. You stink. We don’t want you at the table with us.” She looked hurt but looking like she was used to it she turned and walked toward the counter. Jim said, “Come over here and sit by me. You can’t smell much worse than the four who came in just ahead of you.”

Clyde and his followers turned and looked at Jim for the first time. Clyde pointed his finger at him and said, “You’re next.” Then he walked over to where the old fellow was eating his do-nut. They started in on him, pretending to be friendly at first but setting him up to destroy him later. “Hey Butthead, why don’t you come over to our house for dinner tonight. We’ll have a good time.” Clyde turned and winked at his followers.”After we eat we’ll have a few drinks then we’ll play a few games.” He winked again. The old fellow, not knowing any better, started to smile. “Sure, Clyde, I’d like to come over to your place for dinner. When Can I come?”

“We’ll let you know.” Clyde slapped him on the back much harder than was necessary. Jim was getting mad now but it didn’t show. He said, “Clyde, why don’t you invite me over to your place for dinner. I like to play games too.” Jim put his arm around Cherry who was now sitting beside him at the counter. “What’s your real name? I know it’s not Cherry.”

“No that’s just what they call me. My real name is Cheryl.”

To Clyde he said, “Is it ok if I bring Cheryl with me to your party?”

“Get your hands off of her!”

Jim took his arm away from her shoulder then reached for her hand. He lifted it to his lips and kissed it. “Clyde, you should learn to treat a lady like a lady. You have a lot to learn. Maybe I could teach you a few things.”

“You ain’t going to teach me a damned thing, you old bastard.” He pulled a six inch knife out of his pocket and slowly opened it. His puppets followed suit.

Jim turned his back on them and said, “I don’t have time to play with you kids now. Maybe later.” When Jim turned toward the counter he reached for the pepper shaker and removed the lid. Then suddenly he turned toward them and with a sweeping motion, gave them all a face full of pepper. Clyde was the nearest so jim grabbed his wrist and twisted his arm until it snapped. The next closest got a solid kick to the testicles. The other two dropped their knives and ran out the door before Jim could get to them. Jim threw the other two out the door then came back and gathered up the knives. “I’ll add these to my collection. I have quite a few now.”

Penny said, “ I’ll bet you do. You move fast for an old guy.”

“Had a lot of practice.”

“You know I wondered about that.”

“I’m on my way to L.A. I’ll be there for about three weeks then I’ll be back. Cheryl, how would you like to come with me. I’ll bring you back in one piece and still a virgin. What do you say?”

Penny said, “Now wait a minute.”

Cheryl said, “How did you know I was a virgin?”

“Just a wild guess. And a little logic.”

Penny was looking confused now. “What’s going on here?”

“Don’t look so protective Penny. I plan to do her no harm.”

“Do I look protective?”

“Sure you do. You’re probably one of the few people in town who cares about that old man down at the other end of the counter and about Cheryl. I’ll bet you collect stray cats too.”

“I have five.”

Cheryl said, “I have to go to the bath room then I’ll be ready to go to L.A. with you.” She slipped off the stool and walked toward the lady’s room.”

Jim turned to Penny and said, “Now let me tell you what I have planned for Cheryl and I think you’ll let her go with your blessings.”

At first Cheryl was quiet as the drove down the interstate. Jim let her sit there and think. When she was ready to talk she would. Finally she said, “I don’t have any clothes or any thing with me.”

“That’s ok. I’ll get you all the clothes you need.”

“Why are you taking me with you?”

“Why are you going with me?”

“I don’t know. You’re the first person who’s ever treated me with respect. I’m ugly, I’m dirty, and I’m not very smart. The boys who I want respect from won’t have any thing to do with me and the ones who have anything to do with me, I don’t want.”

“Well Cheryl, we are going to change that in the next three weeks.”

“How?”

“You aren’t nearly as dumb as you think you are. You aren’t as ugly as you think you are, either. The first thing we’re going to do is shave your legs. That turns men off faster than anything I know of.” They both laughed. Jim explained what he was planning for her.

“Do you think it will really work?”

“I know it will. I’m placing you in the hands of experts.”

When they got to L.A. Jim made a phone call to a friend. His friend ran a house of prostitution. “Amanda, I’m going to pay you $200 plus expenses to do me a big favor.”

“You know I don’t do that stuff any more. I let the girls do it.”

“That’s not what I want.”

“Ah, shucks.”

“I have a young girl here with me.”

“Well no wonder you don’t want me.”

“Will you stop interrupting? I have a girl here who is a wallflower. I want you to make her into a rose. You have three weeks to do it. And I don’t want you to make her into a rose like the ones you have working for you here. Not that there’s anything wrong with them. I just want this one to go back home still a virgin.”

“Still a virgin? How did that happen?”

“To make a long story short, the boys she would gladly give up her virginity for won’t have anything to do with her and she has no respect for the ones who will have anything to do with her. It’s rather complicated. You’ll see what I mean when you meet her. She’s a bit on the ugly side as is but can be turned into something beautiful in the hands of an expert. That’s why I’m paying you such a large sum of money.”

“Are you kidding?” I can make that much in half an hour here.”

“Ok, $300 and that’s my last offer. Will you take the job?”

“Of course I will. And I’m not going to charge you a dime.”

“Now you know why I’m in love with you Amanda.”

“You are? I didn’t know that. I think you’re putting me on, you dirty old man. But don’t stop. I like it.”

“I’ll bring her over this afternoon if that’s ok with you. I’ll give you some money to buy her any thing she needs.”

“Just bring her over. I’ll take care of her and I’ll send you a bill.”

As they were driving over Jim was explaining to Cheryl the situation she was about to step into. “This lady is a very good friend of mine and a wonderful person. She’s the madam of a house of prostitution. You’ll be living with her and her girls for three weeks. They are not going to turn you into a prostitute. They are going to turn you into a Rose and you will return to your home, your virginity still in tact, and you’ll be able to have any man in town. I could have turned you over to others I know who are in a more legitimate business than Amanda but she’ll do more for you in three weeks than anyone I know. They’re in the business of making themselves attractive and appealing to men. When we go in there I want you to meet all the girls who work there and If you decide you don’t want to stay, we’ll leave. So, what do you think?”

“If anyone but you had set this up I’d jump out of the car right now and run. But for some reason I trust you completely. I don’t know why, but I do. If you say these people are ok, then they’re ok.”

“Well, wait until you meet them then decide for yourself.

They hit it off right away. Amanda introduced her to all the girls. They’d been fore warned of the rejuvenation of Cheryl they were all about to take part in. The first step was to make her feel like a respected member of the human race. She had never had much respect in her lifetime. Her lack of confidence in herself showed in everything she did. She was an illegitimate child of a poor woman who had a brief affair with a salesman who came to the store where she worked. She became pregnant and was promptly fired from her job. She tried to raise her child properly but could only find jobs cleaning houses and such. She developed a lung disease and died when Cheryl was 16 years old. Cheryl lived by herself in her mother’s small house after that. The kids in school treated her pretty badly as kids can do but she managed to survive. She couldn’t afford to go to a dentist. A couple of her teeth up front had just rotted away. Some of the kids called her toothless. She made a garden in back of her house and she worked at odd jobs to make enough money to buy the food she couldn’t grow in her garden. Oddly enough she was a good cook. In fact a very good cook.

Amanda and the girls liked her and the respect they showed her was not faked. She reminded many of them of themselves when they were younger.

Amanda said, “The first thing we have to do is get rid of those baggy clothes and put you in a good hot bubble bath. You can soak there as long as you like and when you come out of the tub, the girls will have donated a few articles of clothing from their own wardrobe.

You’re tall and I believe there’s a nice looking body hiding beneath all those frumpy clothes. Your going to have to straighten up that back, though. You’re tall and you’ve slumped so you won’t be so much taller than other girls you’re age. You don’t have to feel ashamed of being tall. Most models are tall. Besides, you want people to look up to you. Straighten that back and hold your head high.

We’re going to have to cut off that long mat of hair and create a neat short hairdo that matches your face. Then we’ll work on your teeth. We have a dentist who comes here regularly who, with a little persuasion, will fix those teeth for you. Replace the missing ones in the front and put on a few caps and you’ll have a smile no one can resist. Now go get in that tub and relax for a while. We have a lot to do in three weeks.

A week later you wouldn’t know it was the same girl. The teeth looked great and now that she didn’t have any missing teeth in the front, she was smiling a lot. They’d taught her how to put on makeup in a way that it brought out her best features. She was beginning to have confidence in her self now, too.

They let her go into the lounge at night when the customers were coming in with the understanding that she was not for sale. She was introduced as Amanda’s younger sister. They were attracted to her like flies to honey. That was what Amanda had in mind. She wanted Cheryl to realize that she could attract men now. Men who respected her. This was part of the ego building phase of her make over. They didn’t leave her there for more than an hour each night. They didn’t want her to get ideas of going into business with the rest of the girls. To repay them, Cheryl took over as cook, which pleased everyone there. The other girls had special talents but theirs were meant for the bedroom, not the kitchen. One of the girls who had an English Major was teaching her proper English. They weren’t going to correct all her errors in grammar but they were smoothing out the rough edges.

When it came time for her to leave they didn’t want to let her go. They’d grown attached to her. She reminded them of what they could have been if they had stayed on the straight and narrow path. She was their little sister. They wanted to hire her as their full time cook so they could keep her around.

Jim said, “I promised I’d take her back home in one piece. I plan to do that. On the other hand, if you keep in touch with her you just might be able to talk her into coming back. She has more good friends right here than she’s had in her whole life.

They walked into Penny’s café and sat down at the counter. Penny had her back to them fixing a sandwich. When she turned around she froze. She looked at Jim then she stared at Cheryl. “Is that really you?”

Cheryl started to smile. “It’s me all right. What do you think?”

“I think you’re beautiful.” She looked at Jim. “Did you do this to her in just three weeks?”

“Not me. A team of experts did it. Did a heck of a job didn’t they?”

“They sure did. If she hadn’t been with you and I knew you to were coming in today, I would have never guessed.”

“Why don’t we just not tell anyone who she is and see if anyone figures it out?”

Penny said, “Good idea. There are two nice guys sitting over at that table who have been looking over this way and smiling. I’m going to call them over and introduce you as my uncle and Donna here as your daughter. OK?”

“Let’s try it and see.”

Cheryl had seen the two of them in the mirror behind the counter. They were two of the most popular boys in school. One was the Quarterback on the school football team and the other was a high scoring halfback. They had never given Cheryl a second glance before now. Penny said, “Bill, Gene, come over here for a minute. I want you to meet my uncle and my cousin.” They didn’t hesitate for a minute. They were there in a flash and panting like a hunting dog in the summer heat.

I’d like you to meet my uncle Jim and my cousin Donna. They’re in town for a few days. I haven’t seen them since Donna was a little girl in pigtails.”

Donna/Cheryl turned her head slowly and with a hint of a smile on her face, looked down her nose at the two boys as if she was wondering whether or not they were worthy of her attention. The girls in L.A. had taught her that. She’d practiced it on some of their customers until she had it perfected. Most men fear rejection from the woman they’re trying to impress. If the girl responds too quickly she’s immediately on the defensive but if she looks like she’s not sure whether he’s acceptable or not, the man is on the defensive. This puts the woman in control. At least that’s what they told her back in L. A. Evidently it works because the two boys were falling all over themselves trying to impress her.

Gene said, “How long are you going to be here?”

She said, “I haven’t decided yet. My father is going on to Dallas. I may stay here with my cousin Penny for a while. After that I may go back to L.A. We’ll see.”

“There’s going to be a dance tonight at the school gym. Could the two of us take you there tonight?”

She looked up at Jim. “Father, is it ok if I go with them?”

“They look like nice boys. I guess it would be ok. As long as you don’t stay out too late.”

“No Sir, we’ll have her home right after the dance.”

That night Penny and Jim were sitting in her living room waiting for Cheryl to come home. Penny said, “What you did was a marvelous thing. Cheryl is a wonderful girl who would have been beaten down for life if you hadn’t come along. I’ve never seen anyone with the confidence she now has . The people in town still don’t know who she is. What do you think will happen when she reveals her true identity?”

“I’m not sure she should. It might be best for her to sell her property here, move to another location and start a new life. The only smart thing her mother ever did was buy that piece of land with the house on it when she had a little extra money. She bought it as an investment rather than just throwing it all away. Cheryl said a real estate man here in town wanted to buy the place and was willing to pay a considerable amount of money for it. She has one skill that’s very much in demand. She’s an excellent cook. She could make it any where. Frankly, I think she has too many bad memories from this town to want to stay here any longer. We’ll see what she has to say about it when she gets home.

Well, this story has a happy ending. Cheryl had the time of her life at the dance that night. Nobody ever discovered who she was. She was the bell of the ball. Everybody thought she was not only beautiful but also very charming. But she didn’t want to stay here. Too many bad memories. She wanted to leave and never return. After a few days she tired of the charade and left for L. A. Penny arranged for the real estate man to buy her property by mail while she was in L. A. In the mean time she lived with the girls who had changed her life and cooked for them. When she married a very nice Naval Officer and left for Japan, his next duty station, they were sorry to see her go but at the same time they were happy that she’d found someone who would give her as much love as she was capable of giving him. Penny continued to run her restaurant and Jim went back to Dallas to await his next assignment. A happy ending for an ugly duckling.

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