The Rise And Rise Of Annie Clark

Annie Clark is a modern woman. Its 1950, smack in the middle of the century, and she knows that the Second Great War is over and women were the real winners. Everywhere, women are taking charge of their lives. But Annie is Catholic, so she has to go slow.

- John L'Heureux

Today, for instance, she is being ex­tra patient with this young waitress— Patsy P.—who is stout and clumsy and may be new to the job. Annie is wait­ ing for dessert, apple pie with cheese, and she figures they must be baking the pie fresh, because it’s taking forever. Fi­nally, the girl brings the pie and shoves it in front of Annie and heads off with­ out a word. Annie looks at the speck of cheese on her plate and immediately says, “Miss,” but the girl keeps going, so Annie raises her napkin in the air and says loudly, “Miss!” Everybody turns to look at Annie except the waitress. She’s gone. After several minutes, she comes back from wherever she’s been hiding.

“Miss,” Annie says, the voice of en­ durance. “What is this, please?”

“It’s what you ordered.”

“No. I ordered apple pie with cheese.”

“That’s what you’ve got,” the girl says, staring beyond Annie at a future without people like this.

Annie is about to say, “Bring me a slice of cheese big enough for me to see !,” when suddenly she is struck by how much the girl resembles her as she was at twenty. Patsy P. is unattractive, with bad skin, and she is running to fat already, so no­ body notices her now and nobody ever will, except to take advantage of her. It was that way for Annie, too. In her teens, she used to joke that she was Cinderella, but without the fairy godmother. She’s been taken advantage of always. Even in the convent. Faced now with Patsy P. in all her unloveliness, Annie is moved nearly to tears at her own life.

She manages, nonetheless, to ask for—and get—a larger piece of cheese.

Annie eats her dessert slowly, med­itating.