More of a Death in Paris

With a guest non-appearance by Diana Ross as the Unseen Neighbor.
The funeral activities for my brother, Gary, are almost immediate since Jews are supposed to be buried within days after death. I am worried this might make it perfectly clear to the director of the show I'm rehearsing, "Winnie the Pooh," in which I am The Pooh, that I have not, in fact, been in Paris - which is the lie I tell to get the weekend off. I tell everyone at the show that when we get the news of his death while in Paris we fly back on the red eye - a story no one has any reason to dispute and so did not. I learn several years later that because of the way the Earth spins on its axis and the whole east to west thing, there is, in fact, no such thing as a red eye from Paris.

I am in San Antonio with Gary the day before he dies.

It is an escape from working so hard on the play and on my various jobs. Gary encourages the idea. He is gorgeous. Everyone wants to sleep with him. Eighteen, blonde, tanned, muscular like a swimmer, and a natural leader. At fourteen I don't know how much I love him or will miss him once he is gone, but I am always drawn to him, especially since we don't live together very often. My move to Mom and David's is followed by a confusing series of relocations by my two brothers.

Aaron originally comes with me but later goes back to the Naked Dad, Adam, and step-mother, Laura. Then he comes back to Mom and David, and then goes back to Adam and Laura. Meanwhile, Gary's self-proclaimed mission is to somehow reach inside our father and change him. He believes there is good in him and that he will be the one to find it and help it grow. You know, just like a battered wife. I don't know if this is evidence of some deep empathy on Gary's part or just the normal sort of teenage narcissism that makes you believe you have superpowers.

For much of my two years in junior high Gary and Aaron live with Adam and Laura in Beverly Hills, in a house I'm told they rent from Paul Mazursky, on Alpine Drive, reputedly next door to Diana Ross, though they never see her. That is when my father is trying to break into movies with a man named Jay Weston whose credits include, coincidentally enough, "Lady Sings the Blues," starring their next door neighbor. Adam's quest proves largely unsuccessful from what I know, and he never makes a completed film.

When Adam and crew leave for South Africa to try to make the movie that reminds me of "Imitation of Life," middle brother Aaron comes back to Texas to live with Mom and David again. Gary decides to go with Adam and make his last stand or whatever at trying to help him. Whatever happens there between them doesn't go well, and before long Gary is back in Texas, and all three of us brothers are under the same roof again. Gary swears he will never go back to our father. Never. Then he dies.