By Emmy Cai

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After spending the past year becoming a rising star, Daisy comes home plastered on the front page of The Times. Her parents disapprove of Daisy’s lifestyle, forcing her to choose between them and her fame.

“On late Friday night, Miss. Sirene sported a backless Dior designed just for her. Yves Saint Laurent hinted the rising socialite could be his latest muse for the new season,” Mama slapped The Times next to Daisy’s plate. “What do you have to say for yourself, Daisy? What’s all this?”

“Mama, please, it was just an article,” she said goodheartedly, poking at her waffles. “Y’know, they really loved the movie. Mr. Leonard said it could be nominated in three categories for the next round of Oscars,” Daisy boasted, reaching for her mother’s hand. “Yeah, he said he’s never directed anything like it!” Mama swiped her hand away. She reached for her coffee, now cold, and shakily took a sip.

“Sweetheart,” Father tried to reason from across the table. “It just is not the way we raise you. With Joleen grown and gone in New York, we were hoping you’d live close to home after you finished college. We just… baby girl, the world is a dangerous place now and Ma’s only looking out for you.”

Mama sniffled and raked her fingers through her graying hair. 

Maybe coming back home for Thanksgiving was a mistake. Daisy would’ve been fine staying in California alone for the holiday, even though she hadn’t been back in Georgia for almost a year.

“This is all I’ve worked for and you both know this!” Daisy began again. “What do you want me to do then? I didn’t take all those choir lessons to sing a lullaby for a husband. The traditional lifestyle you guys always talk about; staying home, raising children, living in a picket fence house… it’s not me. It’s not what I want. I was working on something, something big like this!” Daisy stabbed at the newspaper with her finger right where there was a smiling picture of her entering the Annual Chairman’s Gala, her brown hair tossed in the wind and her green eyes vibrant. “I always wanted to be on the big screen!”

“Those choir lessons were to keep you close to God, Daisy!” Mama was beginning to cry. “Never in a million years did we expect this to come out of you,” gesturing to the newspaper.

“Hon’, let’s finish this later,” Father was growing impatient.

He had long awaited a peaceful Thanksgiving weekend, especially after Daisy and Joleen had moved out of the house this year, but it was evidently not going as planned.

“No!” Mama slapped her hand on the table. “I see the news, I see the films; all the violence on the streets, everything in the films these days is more graphic, more nude… more tramp-y!”

“Well, I am not a tramp, Ma!” Daisy shouted back with disbelief.

“You are if you’re on a big screen half naked, musing around showing off the latest fashion line, and kissing any man that gives you a leg up. Cause that’s what you’re doing Daisy!”

“I work for everything I got! I made the front page myself, not anyone else but me,” Daisy put her hand to her chest, desperate to get Mama to realize how wrong she was. “I am the one who’s making the numbers at the box office go up. I’m the one–”

“That’s enough,” Father said, deadly serious and at the end of his rope. “The solution is simple. We will eat this meal together, so help me God. Daisy, you will wear that blue dress of yours upstairs after washing up and we will go to church. You will atone for your irrational behavior. It just isn’t like you!”

Daisy’s mouth gaped. It was like her words held no weight to them. She knew of so many people who would have clawed their way up to where she was right now. And here her parents were, trying to bring her down.

“I’d rather starve than sit here and listen to all this crap,” Daisy replied with all the venom in her voice she could muster.

“If you’d rather starve, then do it on the street. If you aren’t going to be a righteous child of God,” Father took in a heavy breath as if to create a dam for his tears, “you aren’t a child of ours.”

At this, Mama fully turned and left the table, but not before letting out a loud sob.

“Daddy,” Daisy resolved sadly, almost pathetically. “You don’t mean such a thing. How can you say that to me?”

Father couldn’t look into her eyes. “Make a decision. I’ll either be driving you to the airport or to church. The choice is yours, Daisy. But I’m really begging you to make the right one.”

He left the table for the kitchen, taking his pancakes with him. As he walked out of Daisy’s sight, tears cascaded freely down his face at the thought of practically losing a daughter. After everything the family had been through together and everything he and Margaret had given, it didn’t make sense why their little girls chose to run away from the family they had built together.

Process

I took inspiration from the story, “Nothing Ever Happens Here” by Otessa Moshfegh. The idea that the mother was extremely critical of the protagonist’s move to Los Angeles was surprising to me. It would typically be expected for parents to show support and understanding. At the end of this story, we can deduce the protagonist is a failed actor and perhaps should have taken heed of his mother’s weariness around the idea of chasing fame. I wanted to take this idea of surprisingly unsupportive parents into my own story, with the twist that Daisy is a successful actress and socialite. Regardless, her parents still condemn her for her choice of career. My story is set in 1960, a time when social change has arisen in Georgia, where Daisy’s parents live. Along with this, Hollywood had taken a turn at the beginning of the decade, becoming more gruesome, and showing more nudity. Both factors are relevant to Daisy’s parents’ argument of how they simply want to protect their daughter from the dangers of the world, regardless of her wishes.

To adequately write this piece, I worked closely with my mentor on shaping the voices of the characters and making my story reflect the time and place they lived in. I watched The Apartment, a famous movie set in the ‘60s, researched socialites within that era, and read up on political events happening in Georgia during that time. I am extremely proud of my process and I believe it helped me create stronger motivations for each of my characters.