"Sunset Blvd", PG-13 -The Man Who Came Back
Title: The Man Who Came Back
Author: eightiswild
Character/pairing: Norma Desmond, mentions of Norma/Joe
Author's Note: Prompt from galindaxxxx
Why? Why? Why? All her mind ever rang with was “why”. Everything had been established. Everything had been comfortable. There was a rhythm to her life. She knew what she wanted and she was devout in pursuing it. Single-minded. No distractions.
Then one day a distraction drove into her garage and never left.
Norma loved Joe. From the moment she saw him a feeling rose up inside her. It was the same feeling that titillated her when an audition came her way. She had to have him.
Norma hated Joe from the moment he opened his mouth. He thought he was superior. He placated her and patronized her and thought she never noticed. He looked everyone. He proved that the moment Betty walked through the door. Love her or hate her, he treated her no better than he treated Norma. Her only consolation was that fact.
There were moments. He came back when she tried to kill herself. Why would an uncaring man do such a thing? Some days for half a moment at a time she could even believe he loved her. Yet then there were the other times. The boredom. In her life Norma Desmond had raised many emotions in the hearts of men.
Some loved her. Some hated her. In her youth some wanted a part of her. But boredom? Even in her worst reviews that word had never come up.
Each look of boredom hurt her worse than a knife across the wrist ever could. Every look of boredom sent her to new heights. She poured luxuries on him. She poured attention on him. She offered him every worldly thing a man could desire.
Norma held to the man she believed he was, the man who came back. He was that man. He had to be. And it was the memory of that one moment that tormented her.
“Norma?” Max said, knocking on her door and softly pushing it open. She lay across her bed wallowing in painful meditation, barely stirring as he entered and stood watching her. Max could see the struggles of her mind written in every wrinkle, her face a script for the film in her mind.
He was her first husband. Joe had scuffed that she had reduced him to slave, but how far from the truth that was. Theirs was a marriage of innocence.
“When I say I do, I want it to be real,” a young Norma had said. Then she was starry eyed. Then she was unknown. Then she was stable. She held his hand. “I don’t want to be like the other Hollywood couples. We’re going to make it Maxy. I know it.”
They had divorced at the height of her career. The lights and camera had seeped inside her head. Film was her religion, and fame her god.
“You understand don’t you Max?” she asked him. She never stopped applying her mascara through the whole conversation and her eyes looked like the rims of a chimney stack. “Really, you are just holding me back. You wouldn’t want to do that would you Max? With all that I can become? With all that I already am?” Max found it hard to have that conversation while only meeting her eyes in a mirror.
And he believed her. His studio could no longer find original places for Norma Desmond. It was the same with so many stars. Recycled vehicles continued to be thrown at them because there was safety in the familiar. If people watched the first addition they would watch the next. There was no growth for an actress in that environment and Max had no doubt that Norma would grow. He had never seen talent like hers. He had never loved a woman so much as her. So, he let her go.
But he never stopped watching her.
Here next two husbands were far from gems. One an athlete, one a fellow actor and both far from gentlemen. Scandal hit paper when it was announced her husband was abusive. The next was a mean drunk. Why she allowed people to push her around Max could never be sure. Why anyone would ever hurt her he did not even want to consider.
And so it was as her third marriage declined so did her career. She clung to every part, fought for every lead and railed against every minor role. And like a falling star, she was beautiful and radiant one moment, buried and forgotten the next.
There was a constant change of staff at the house on Sunset. The strange and nightmarish way Norma Desmond lived scared off more than a few weak minded nurses but it was one position that interested Max.
“I am here for the position of Butler.”
Norma looked at him with so widely opened it was as if she were crushing her eyelids into her skull. “And what are your qualifications?” Her tone, her expression. Everything seemed so manic yet unchanged from a moment before. It was only her next question that made him realize…
“And you’re name?”
…she didn’t know him.
“Mrs. Desmond,” Max said, “Would you like some tea?”
The gun was cold, the night was hat and her body was numb. There was no pain. For one moment as she leveled the gun at Joe her mind was clear. For the first time in years she saw past her obsession to the things that were true.
Her second husband made her feel worthless.
Her third husband made her feel unwanted.
Joe made her feel all of that and more.
The other two weren’t there in that moment, only Joe. Yet when she looked at him she saw the faces of her husbands. The faces of all the men who wanted more than she wanted to give. The face of her father, the first man to tell her she would never make it. She had proved them all wrong. She had. One by one she hat shut them all up.
Except Joe.
The gun fired. Then it fired again.
Author: eightiswild
Character/pairing: Norma Desmond, mentions of Norma/Joe
Author's Note: Prompt from galindaxxxx
Why? Why? Why? All her mind ever rang with was “why”. Everything had been established. Everything had been comfortable. There was a rhythm to her life. She knew what she wanted and she was devout in pursuing it. Single-minded. No distractions.
Then one day a distraction drove into her garage and never left.
Norma loved Joe. From the moment she saw him a feeling rose up inside her. It was the same feeling that titillated her when an audition came her way. She had to have him.
Norma hated Joe from the moment he opened his mouth. He thought he was superior. He placated her and patronized her and thought she never noticed. He looked everyone. He proved that the moment Betty walked through the door. Love her or hate her, he treated her no better than he treated Norma. Her only consolation was that fact.
There were moments. He came back when she tried to kill herself. Why would an uncaring man do such a thing? Some days for half a moment at a time she could even believe he loved her. Yet then there were the other times. The boredom. In her life Norma Desmond had raised many emotions in the hearts of men.
Some loved her. Some hated her. In her youth some wanted a part of her. But boredom? Even in her worst reviews that word had never come up.
Each look of boredom hurt her worse than a knife across the wrist ever could. Every look of boredom sent her to new heights. She poured luxuries on him. She poured attention on him. She offered him every worldly thing a man could desire.
Norma held to the man she believed he was, the man who came back. He was that man. He had to be. And it was the memory of that one moment that tormented her.
“Norma?” Max said, knocking on her door and softly pushing it open. She lay across her bed wallowing in painful meditation, barely stirring as he entered and stood watching her. Max could see the struggles of her mind written in every wrinkle, her face a script for the film in her mind.
He was her first husband. Joe had scuffed that she had reduced him to slave, but how far from the truth that was. Theirs was a marriage of innocence.
“When I say I do, I want it to be real,” a young Norma had said. Then she was starry eyed. Then she was unknown. Then she was stable. She held his hand. “I don’t want to be like the other Hollywood couples. We’re going to make it Maxy. I know it.”
They had divorced at the height of her career. The lights and camera had seeped inside her head. Film was her religion, and fame her god.
“You understand don’t you Max?” she asked him. She never stopped applying her mascara through the whole conversation and her eyes looked like the rims of a chimney stack. “Really, you are just holding me back. You wouldn’t want to do that would you Max? With all that I can become? With all that I already am?” Max found it hard to have that conversation while only meeting her eyes in a mirror.
And he believed her. His studio could no longer find original places for Norma Desmond. It was the same with so many stars. Recycled vehicles continued to be thrown at them because there was safety in the familiar. If people watched the first addition they would watch the next. There was no growth for an actress in that environment and Max had no doubt that Norma would grow. He had never seen talent like hers. He had never loved a woman so much as her. So, he let her go.
But he never stopped watching her.
Here next two husbands were far from gems. One an athlete, one a fellow actor and both far from gentlemen. Scandal hit paper when it was announced her husband was abusive. The next was a mean drunk. Why she allowed people to push her around Max could never be sure. Why anyone would ever hurt her he did not even want to consider.
And so it was as her third marriage declined so did her career. She clung to every part, fought for every lead and railed against every minor role. And like a falling star, she was beautiful and radiant one moment, buried and forgotten the next.
There was a constant change of staff at the house on Sunset. The strange and nightmarish way Norma Desmond lived scared off more than a few weak minded nurses but it was one position that interested Max.
“I am here for the position of Butler.”
Norma looked at him with so widely opened it was as if she were crushing her eyelids into her skull. “And what are your qualifications?” Her tone, her expression. Everything seemed so manic yet unchanged from a moment before. It was only her next question that made him realize…
“And you’re name?”
…she didn’t know him.
“Mrs. Desmond,” Max said, “Would you like some tea?”
The gun was cold, the night was hat and her body was numb. There was no pain. For one moment as she leveled the gun at Joe her mind was clear. For the first time in years she saw past her obsession to the things that were true.
Her second husband made her feel worthless.
Her third husband made her feel unwanted.
Joe made her feel all of that and more.
The other two weren’t there in that moment, only Joe. Yet when she looked at him she saw the faces of her husbands. The faces of all the men who wanted more than she wanted to give. The face of her father, the first man to tell her she would never make it. She had proved them all wrong. She had. One by one she hat shut them all up.
Except Joe.
The gun fired. Then it fired again.