Modelland (57 page)

The door opened and Ray Faye stood before them, a baby cradled in his arms. He looked back and forth from girl to girl, stunned at their aged faces. “Don’t look at me,” Ladonna blurted out, covering her face with her hands. “I know I’m hideous, but I’ll change back as soon as I go back to Modelland.”

Ray Faye lowered his shoulders. “Ladonna, I don’t care what you look like. I’ve always told you that I love your voice more than your face anyway. Now come inside where it’s cooler. Our baby is missin’ Mama.”

Ladonna slipped through the door. Cremalatta moved to go inside too, but Ray Faye gave her a sharp look and slammed the door in her face.

Some time later the sun rose. Ladonna drifted out of the house. “Ray honey, I’m going to run out and get some formula. I’ll be back in a sec.” She groped her way out the door, seemingly having trouble with her eyesight. “Damn age barrier,” she muttered. “I think it gave me temporary cataracts!”

Moments later, just as Ladonna slipped out of sight, the wrinkly-faced Cremalatta tiptoed up the steps and silently turned the doorknob. The door was unlocked.

“Uh-oh,” Ci~L whispered.

Cremalatta crept through Ray’s modest home, stepping over baby toys and books. She stopped when she got to the kitchen, hopped up on the counter, hiked up the bottom of her skirt to show some extra leg, and waited.

“Ladonna?” Ray Faye called from the bedroom. “You back so soon?”

“Yes, I’m in the kitchen!” Cremalatta called in a disguised, high-pitched voice.

Ray’s footsteps rang out in the hall. He entered the room holding the baby. As soon as he saw Cremalatta on the counter, he stopped short and placed the baby in a small cushioned basket. Cremalatta shot across the room, grabbed him by the collar, and threw him onto the kitchen table. She climbed on top of him, and start to moan. “I saw you looking at my body at that fashion show. You know you want this. A real girl, not some stiff royal one!”

“Get off of me, you nasty-ass, sick girl!” Ray screamed. He struggled to escape from Cremalatta’s grasp, but Cremalatta was surprisingly strong. He wriggled out from underneath her, but she kneed him in his groin. He howled in pain, and the baby started to wail.

Cremalatta planted her lips on Ray’s neck. Her hands worked the buttons of his shirt until he was bare-chested. “Tell me you love me, please, please, please …,” she murmured, the sagging skin on her face looking jaundiced under the harsh kitchen lamp. “Tell me I’m more beautiful than Ladonna.”

The front door slammed. “They didn’t have any more formula, so I bought milk instead,” Ladonna’s happy trill sang out from the front room. “I hope that’s okay!”

“Get
off
me,” Ray murmured quietly. He tried to push Cremalatta away.

“Ray-Ray, honey?” Ladonna called out, still oblivious. “Where are you?” Her footsteps came closer and closer to the kitchen. Suddenly, she was in the doorway.

“Ray?”
she screeched, squinting hard at the figures on the table. The glass milk jug slipped out of her hands and exploded on the floor, which made the baby scream even louder.

Ray struggled beneath Cremalatta, but he still couldn’t budge her. “Ladonna sweetie, it’s not what it looks like! She has me in some sort of death lock!”

“What?” Cremalatta screeched, suddenly letting her limbs go slack and rolling so that
she
was beneath him. “You get off me!”

Ray scooted from beneath her, raising his hands in surrender. “She’s crazy, Ladonna! I don’t know what she’s talking about!”

“Oh,
sure
you don’t!” Cremalatta screeched. “Your girlfriend leaves for two minutes and you’re all over someone else! What are you like when she’s at Modelland?”

Ladonna moved very close to the two of them, trying to understand what was happening. She shook her head at Ray. “How.
Could
. You? And to my
best
friend! Cremalatta, I’m so sorry. You were right about him. I should have listened!”

Suddenly, there was a loud knock on the front door. “Modelland security!” a voice boomed. “Open up!”

Everyone froze. Ladonna’s eyes widened. Wheeling around, she grabbed and shushed the baby and ducked into the bathroom. Seconds later, the guards broke down Ray Faye’s flimsy door. One guard strode straight to the bathroom and dragged Ladonna and the baby out of the shower stall. The other pinned Cremalatta’s arms behind her back.

“You two left Modelland without permission,” the head guard said gruffly to the women. “Usually, we just leave your decrepit, wrinkled faces to rot, but since you’re of royal descent, Ladonna, you must return to Modelland right now. All of you must. That means you too, sir.” He glanced at Ray Faye, who was still shirtless in the middle of the room. “You know it is forbidden for civilians to be involved with Bellas. A sick and punishable offense.”

“What about our faces?” Cremalatta touched her puckered skin. “What about turning them back, Ladonna?”

“I promised you I’d get us turned back, and I will,” she assured her friend.

Once again the group felt a pulling sensation, and Tookie, Ci~L, Creamy, the BellaDonna, and Persimmon were whipped into another flashback. This time, Ladonna and Cremalatta stood in the grand crystal hall of the Bored at Modelland. The Queen BellaDonna, Ladonna’s mother, stood and gravely shook her head. “You broke one rule too many, Ladonna,” she said. “And this time, it was the
ultimate
rule. This is unacceptable. But because of your royal blood, you have a choice. You can leave Modelland and be with Mr. Faye and your child, where you can live together as a loving family. But you will have to relinquish all Modelland privileges. Never become an Intoxibella. And never see me again. And your face will remain aged.”

Ladonna held her child tightly in her arms, her bottom lip trembling. Ray Faye shifted his weight behind her. He reached out to hold her hand, but Ladonna smacked him away. “Don’t you dare touch me!”

Ray threw up his hands. “Ladonna, sweetie, please give me a chance to expl—”

“Or,” the Queen BellaDonna went on, interrupting him, “you
can stay here in Modelland, have your youth restored, and become one of the 7Seven tomorrow, an Intoxibella. But you will never see your Ray again. You also can never admit that this baby is yours. And you will never see the child again.”

“Never see my baby again?” Ladonna repeated, horrified. “Why can’t I have both?” she asked her mother. “Why can’t I have both my baby
and
my beauty?”

Her mother shook her head. “Those are the rules. Make. Your. Choice.”

Ladonna looked from the baby to Ray to her mother to Cremalatta. All sorts of conflicting emotions washed across her face. Finally, she sighed. “I’ve made my choice.” She slowly moved forward and handed the baby to her mother.

Tookie and Ci~L gasped. Ladonna’s face instantly returned to its youthful splendor. She looked even more striking than before, as if her choice to relinquish her baby was a sacrifice that enhanced her loveliness.

“I have one request,” Ladonna said, her eyes lowered. “I don’t want
him
to raise my baby.” She pointed at Ray. “If he does, he’ll raise a heartless child. Please, Mother. Please. Please.
Please!
”

“Very well then,” the Queen BellaDonna said. She turned to the guards. “Get him far away from here.”

Security guards rushed in and grabbed Ray. He struggled against them. “Get off of me! This is my child too! Please! Please! Don’t do this to me, Ladonna! My life will be over!”

The Queen BellaDonna just shrugged. “You heard Ladonna, the
love
of your life. The child does not belong to you anymore.”

Ray’s face crumpled. He planted his feet and fought to reach the tiny baby, but the guards dragged him away before he could
give the child one last caress. His screams could be heard down the crystal corridor.

“What about me?” Cremalatta piped up.

The Queen BellaDonna gave her a cold, dark gaze. “What
about
you? Go away. And never come back here again. You are an awful influence on my daughter.”

Cremalatta blinked so hard that her eyes disappeared into a bevy of wrinkles. “But what about my youth? Ladonna, you promised you’d restore everything! That’s why I agreed to go down the mountain with you!”

“It’s true,” Ladonna said. She looked at her mother. “Please, Mother? Can you return her to—”

“No,” the Queen BellaDonna decreed. “And that is final.” She waved her hand, and security grabbed Cremalatta.

Cremalatta glowered at Ladonna. “You lying, selfish, royal bitch! You promised!” Then her face turned eerily calm. “Well, in that case, guess what, Princess? Ray
didn’t
wrong you—you wronged him. I jumped
him
. I have no idea how he could resist me, but he did. He was fighting me off … the
whole time.
”

Ladonna’s jaw dropped. Her eyes searched Cremalatta’s face. “But Cremalatta, you’re my
best friend
!”

Cremalatta shrugged. “I am. And best friends share … 
everything.
”

Ladonna wheeled desperately toward the door of the grand hall. “Ray?” she screamed, her voice echoing. “Ray, baby! Are you still there?” There was no answer. Ladonna turned to her mother. “I’ve changed my mind! I want to be with him and my baby! I don’t care about being an Intoxibella or about my face!”

“You’ve already made your choice,” the Queen BellaDonna
said stonily. “You should have had better judgment in choosing your friends.” She rose and handed the baby to a dead-eyed young Mannecant. “Seems the loyal one was the one you overlooked.”

Tookie looked at the Mannecant, suddenly recognizing her. Ladonna let out a gasp too. The Mannecant was a transformed Percy
—Persimmon
. The surface of her once-soft skin was now hardened plastic. Dark creases lined every joint of her body. Her energetic bright blue eyes had been replaced with black voids. Present-day Creamy shouted out to older Mannecant Persimmon, “Lord have mercy, Percy. That Queen bitch sure did curse thee!”

Ladonna sank to her knees in front of Percy. “Percy, please! Give my baby to me! You and I are best friends, remember?”

Percy just stared at Ladonna, her face betraying nothing.

“Oh, so
now
she’s your best friend?” the Queen BellaDonna said icily. “You should have stood up for her when you had the chance. It’s too late. Persimmon’s loyalty is to the BellaDonna throne now, Ladonna.”

Ladonna made a pained noise at the back of her throat and rushed for the baby, but her mother thrust out her arm to stop her. “You have made your choice, my dear. You will go on to be a famous Intoxibella. And one day, you will rule this Land and be feared and adored by everyone in the world. You will uphold the principles of Modelland and redefine the face of beauty every five years. You chose correctly, Ladonna. And I know I will not
see
it, but I look forward to the day when you will be called BellaDonna.”

“What about my eyesight?” Ladonna asked. “I can hardly see a thing!”

The Queen BellaDonna thought for a moment. “I think I’ll leave your sight as is, so you always remember what you’ve done.
Your face as a future Intoxibella is for
others
to see and enjoy, after all—not you.”

“And what about my baby?” Ladonna screamed, pointing at her pale child. “What will happen?”

“Your baby will be safe,” her mother said vaguely. “But gone forever. You will never lay eyes on the child again.”

“Please!” Ladonna cried as Percy took the baby away. “Let me hold my baby one last time! Just one more kiss!”

“Oh, Ladonna, stop being so dramatic,” the Queen BellaDonna scolded.

Ladonna sank to her knees as Percy vanished down the long hallway with her child in her arms. “Give her back to me! Give me my … Ci~L!”

Ci~L stared at the BellaDonna, the expression on her face a mixture of shock and terror. Her breath quickened into sharp, hyperventilating blasts.
In, out. In, out
. Her chest collapsed with each exhale as though an invisible assailant was stabbing her with a dagger.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” Creamy gave Ci~L a predatory smile. “Ladonna—now the BellaDonna—is your
mama
. And she gave you up. Traded you like a baseball card. For
face
value. Listen to this: Ladonna sacrificed you, a tiny baby, for her own face, even though she can hardly
see
herself because of those nasty cataracts. Ya gotta love the irony.”

“But I have green eyes. That baby in the flashback had gray eyes,” Ci~L said dazedly.

“Your eyes turned green later,” the BellaDonna said in monotone, her gaze lowered to the floor. “A common occurrence with babies born with blue or gray eyes. Though I wasn’t there to see it happen.”

Ci~L’s nostrils flared. “Because you threw me away.”

The BellaDonna waved her hands helplessly. “Because
Cremalatta
tricked me!”

Creamy rolled her eyes. “Excuse me? What about how
you
ruined
me, Ladonna?
If it wasn’t for you, I would have never trekked down that damn mountain!”

“Oh really?” The BellaDonna whirled around to face her. “Even though you were my best friend, I always knew you were jealous. But now I know just
how
jealous. It wasn’t just that I was a royal, oh no. You couldn’t stand that I had something else you didn’t—
love
. But that’s because no one could
ever
love you, Cremalatta. Your heart is black inside. It’s a wonder you ever married—how did you convince someone to spend the rest of his life with you, with that nasty-ass face of yours? Is that why you carry around this pathetic doll? So you have total control over something, anything? So you have something to love you?” Then she snatched Bellissima from Creamy’s hands.

“Give her back!” Creamy screeched. She grabbed the BellaDonna’s shoulders, trying to shake Bellissima from her grasp. Clumps of dirt fell from Creamy and the doll to the pristine floor. When the BellaDonna shoved her away, Creamy kicked her in the chest with the soiled sole of her hiking boot. The BellaDonna staggered back, knocking over the Flashback Females.