Face Read online

  “Liar.”

  Everything fits on his face, every plane. I watch his fingers press at the tell-tale tightness in his cheeks. His face is so generic, so easy on the eye. Trust me when I say that you will have seen a face just like it, on every billboard since the beginning of advertising. That lantern jaw, those bland good-looking features, it’s a face to disappear with. He fits; therefore he is free.

  “How long...?” I manage.

  “This is the face you held, when it was fresh from the box.”

  “But why? What made you decide to..?” I can’t even say the word.

  “‘Us-’ whatever that means.”

  I did this to him. Something brushes my hand and I realise he is trying to present me with the folded scarf. He opens my fist, presses the soft bundle into my palm and folds my fingers around it. I feel his warm breath on my face, when he speaks.

  “I played our ending over and over in my mind, but I always came back to the same conclusion: an Update was the only way. I couldn’t stand to bring your tight smile back at me, like we never met. I’ve seen your smiles change, I know what they mean. I needed things to stay the same between us...do you understand?”

  Cliff runs a thumb over my dimple- the place it would be, if I were smiling.

  “This is me...the ending is up to you, True.” He says.

  The lips I have pictured for so long. Straight whites follow; he’s giving it the famous Dollar gaze, trying to encourage something out of me, but I refuse to be rushed. His grey eyes continue to serve their purpose; a quiet decoy.

  “Reverse it.” I say suddenly. “I need to see your Original face.”

  Even as I hear myself say the words I know this is impossible. Cliff does not have My Face History; his Natural face was not a template to be purchased from, and stored by Ultiface.

  “I can’t. It’s gone.”

  It’s not the first time I’ve been shocked by a face and my eyes continue to circle his easy features, searching for something I can’t articulate until it finally hits me: Cliff is still hiding. Because nothing is advertised in this face, nothing shouts look at me: I’m direct and intense, but only if you’re up to the challenge; I’m funny; I’m protected by love and self-protected; but I get angry and I lie. His face is so familiar that it is has ceased to be an advert of any kind- and that’s the point. He knows I don’t need an advert; I want him already. My dent comes.

  “You’re cleverer than you look” I say.

  He laughs and I give him a flash of the Blocker, my hidden smile just for Cliff. (You don’t see that in the film because I’m wearing the fedora, so you only get to see Cliff.) Well, I’m telling you my face has just performed the perfect ending, but due to the hat situation, we couldn’t put it in. You only get to watch him crack a smile like Cliff at last, all cocky; because this is the smile he’s been waiting for, this is the ending he planned all along.

  Reviews of: ‘Beyond the Mask: Girl Meets Boy,’ a film by Cliff Mortimer and True O’Reilly.

  By focusing solely on True’s face in the presence of Cliff, we are immersed in Cliff’s world, the world of an Original, a teenager trapped in time. True’s face is a revelation, compelling throughout her often uncomfortable journey, yet we never lose sympathy for her. It is all too easy to identify with True’s struggle to trust a boy in hiding.

  Merlot, Maverick face of Ultiface.

  Click here for new range of Maverick dimples.

  I so knew Cliff was hiding something.

  Seven, classmate.

  One complaint: there was a girl, there was a boy, and the scarf was finally off. Where’s a green button when you need one? You and your bad decisions, kids!

  Dollar.

  The mask is finally removed, only to reveal another one underneath. I lost my son to a girl. It’s a tragedy of our times.

  Forest Mortimer, founder of Campaign for Original Face, and father of Cliff.

  Epilogue

  After our film ‘Beyond the Mask: Girl Meets Boy,’ was released, I was labelled ‘The Face of the Future’. Maybe you’ve heard already, maybe that’s why you’re reading this? Totally hilarious, isn’t it? Now you know the whole story.

  Cliff looks as much like Dollar as I look like Merlot, these days. After the initial publicity surge was over we decided to go Maverick together and we still turn heads. We like to turn heads- it won’t last for long. I never did see Cliff’s Original face. He deleted all photographic evidence of it before commencing the Update. Cliff tells me, all casual, that he gets an occasional reminder of it when he’s out- with all the new Maverick faces about. Sometimes I ask him to draw his Natural face for me, but he only ever gives me the look he reserves for me in this moment; curse those quiet eyes. And if I’m recognised on the streets, I still get questions about his face more than any other, and I always say this: Cliff’s face is one thing to strangers; but a different thing to me. Faces change. He showed me a different kind of perfection.

  ..........................................................................................................................................

  A plea from the new author:

  Thank you so much for taking the time to read this book, I hope you enjoyed it.

  If you did, I would be endlessly grateful if you could post a super-quick one-line review, or just a rating, on the Amazon website. My future lies in your hands!

  I can be contacted on: [email protected]