Author: Cid Van Zwol
Date: 2009 - 05 - 28
Title: Ruby Tuesday
Word count: 976


I totally, and without a doubt am in love with this story.  The silver screen starlets from the 1940's to the mid 1960's were some of the most interesting, classy women (as were a lot of famous women of the time).  There was so much style to them, and layers beyond the red lips and curled hair.

So many rich and powerful men fell in love with these women, and this is a story about one of those.



Ruby Tuesday


“There are two ways for a star to die,” she told me.  “They can either burn out, or fade away.”  She put the long, brown cigarette to her lips and inhaled deeply.  “Me,” she said, a specter of smoke curling teasingly from her lips, “I’m gonna burn out.  A big, bright and beautiful light-show.  Something the whole world’s gonna see.”  The corners of her mouth curled up in a smile, her green eyes wistful, “that’s the way a star is meant to die.”

Her name was Ruby Wills, and she was a golden age Hollywood starlet.  Along with ample cleavage she was known for her full, pouting lips and jet black hair.  Ruby was a seductive kind of classy, with come-get me energy, but a hands-off chill that drove men to their knees.

In her glory she’d been the lover of; Gary Cooper, James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, as well as two governors, a foreign ambassador, and at least one member of the British royal family.

For a few years, she had the world and her star glowed so bright a blind man in the pitch-black could have seen it.  But, nothing can be forever, and life changed -- Hollywood took a different direction, full of young girls, innocent, virginal -- the kind of girls that didn’t fool around with British royals and foreign ambassadors.  It was only a phase, of course, but by the time it was over, the lines around Ruby’s eyes had started to show, and her cleavage had taken a turn in the southern direction.

After that, there were a few small rolls here and there, but a star can’t fall from so high and not lose a little of it’s sparkle.  Ruby didn’t glitter, at least the way she liked, so she painted on shine with cocaine and pills, and everything that had been was the only thing that mattered.

“I want to be dead by forty,” Ruby told me.  “Before I get old and world has to see it.  I want them to remember me bright!”  Then, Ruby told me about the two ways for a star to die, laying there on her chez lounge in head to toe Christian Dior, glittering like her namesake.  She would have burned out beautifully.

Instead, Ruby faded away on a Tuesday in a small hotel in west LA, dead from a drug over dose at fifty-one. 

I heard it on the radio in a convenience store -- they ruled the death as accidental.  I hopped they were wrong and it had been a suicide.  Then I could imagine Ruby giving one last attempt to burn out, instead of simply fading into nothingness. 

I wished, as I stood there in that store, holding a soda and a Twix bar, that I’d asked her to stay with me that night.  I thought back to myself, watching her smoke that cigarette while I puffed on my own.  She’d been radiant, and I found myself getting caught up in watching her eyes sparkle.

Let me keep you, I’d said it in my head, and I meant it.  Let me keep you with me, young and beautiful.  We’ll watch the world, you and I.  Then I stopped.  How could I ask her to give up everything and come with me to live away from the glow of Hollywood?  How could I ask the woman who wanted to burn out in a blaze of glory if she wanted to live forever?

I couldn’t.  And I left shortly after, heading back to Argentina, seeing her only in films and the occasional late movie on television. 

There were so many times I could have come back for her, but not once did I.  Life became as it was, and I always assumed it was the same for her, and that she was, if not happy, at least getting by well enough that I hadn’t heard anything on the news. 

I sighed, paying for my soda and chocolate bar, taking them outside to the limo.  “They didn’t have any Crunch bars,” I said quietly, sliding into the leather seat, and setting the items next to me.

She smiled, “Twix will work -- I just want something sweet.”

I shrugged, and she took the chocolate bar from the seat, unwrapping it slowly as she studied me, her blue eyes concerned.  “What’s wrong?”  She asked after a moment.

Regret.  I had wanted Ruby to burn out, just as she said.  It would have been exactly what she wanted, a bright, beautiful supernova, and I was sad she never had the chance.  I’d loved her then, and I missed her now -- dying old and alone as she had, I hated that I had never asked her.

There had been others before Ruby -- others that I loved but had never asked, the death of each one was an ache, but this one was special pain.  Ruby had been a special woman.  And it was the rare specialty that I missed.

“What is it?“

There was so much concern as she sat there next to me in the limo, watching me think.  Emily was stunning in a different way then Ruby.  She had less curve, and was taller and younger, with longer legs, and honey-colored hair.  She wasn‘t a starlet or a seductress; instead; charming, sweet and witty.  She was special.  I loved her.

Sliding forward in my seat, I took the chocolate bar from Emily’s hands, tossing it to the side and holding her fingers in mine.  “Can I keep you?”  I asked.

She smiled, soft, pink and beautiful.  It was enchanting. “Keep me where?”

“Let me keep you with me,” I pulled her closer, wrapping her in my arms, needing to feel the weight of her body next to me.  “You’ll be young and beautiful forever.  We’ll watch the world, you and I.”