Four Families
Paul Telles
Something I say prompts my brother-in-law to cock his eyebrow just like Mr. Spock. I want to ask, “Did you stand for hours before the mirror practicing that gesture when you were 12, too? Did you think you could become a creature of Pure Logic?” Then I remember that Mr. Spock’s eyebrows were cosmetic, products of shaving and penciling, just like the eyebrows of the transvestite dancers my Mom saw when she was a waitress at the Terrace Hilton. (Why did she tell me this? I don’t know.) And I remember that Mr. Spock’s Mom was Jane Wyatt. Before moving to Vulcan, she was married to an agent for the General Insurance Company. They had three precious children who respected all their elders. I imagine my brother-in-law liked them. I wish that Leonard Nimoy had answered my fan letter and sent me two of his used ears. I could put them on my brother-in-law now and see if they looked cool.
