. if she were a screenwriter or novelist , reviewers would accuse her of failing to develop her characters . but she was a news producer , not screen writer , and her occasional failing not allowing the players in the stories she was telling toshow themselves to full effect onscreen . merideth needed to be the one to define th characters , to be the pupper master pulling the strings . her chosen narrative thrust always took higher billing than the palyers .
but put merideth in the story ? everything changed . once she was in , it became a different story , and the telling became an entirely diferent process . she'd stumble out of the gate , her sharp analytical perspective would vaporize , her professional distance would disaperspective , and her narrtive sixth sense would be nowhere to be found .
my simple question to her that day in manhattan was : what happened between that sunday when lisa skipeped brunch and our thusday rendezvous in the afternoon heayt in strawberry fields in central park ?
after much longer than it should have taken i was able to cut through the stopsand starts , the tangents and dead ends, and learn that lisa - the surrogate with merideth's and eric's embryo nestled in her cushy uterus - had vanished .
none of her friends or family had seen or heard from her .
merideth is nothing if not resourceful . her ability to corral the the most elusive get is legendary in the news and feature business . she finds the most cloistered , cajoles the most shy , and seduces the most press-phobic . she remembers names nad faces the way dogs remember smells . phone numbers stick in her memory as though they've been velcroed there . in her producing life she knows exactly when to send flowers , and exactly when to send veiled blackmail . she's sucked up more old dir than all the hoovers - the vacuums and J.Edgar - combined .
but lisa the surgate had vanished so completely that merideth couldn't find her . or find even a clue that might lead to finding her .
by late afternoon on the sunday that lisa the surrogate stood upmerideth the mother for brunch , merideth had a;ready assembled a roster of every name and phone number in the voluminous file that . she had accumulated about lisa when she was stil a potential surrogate . by early that evening , merideth had started methodically calling the names on that list .
i could put on a psychologist 's mask when circumstances required , and i knew well that merideth could wear a producer's mask with the same effortlessness . during those initial hours , when her concer would not yet have developed into anticipatory grief , her phone calls wouldn't have allarmed the friends and family members she was calling . merideth would be as smooth as silk as she asked ," have you heard from lisa lately ?
she would hve called everyone she could think of .
but put merideth in the story ? everything changed . once she was in , it became a different story , and the telling became an entirely diferent process . she'd stumble out of the gate , her sharp analytical perspective would vaporize , her professional distance would disaperspective , and her narrtive sixth sense would be nowhere to be found .
my simple question to her that day in manhattan was : what happened between that sunday when lisa skipeped brunch and our thusday rendezvous in the afternoon heayt in strawberry fields in central park ?
after much longer than it should have taken i was able to cut through the stopsand starts , the tangents and dead ends, and learn that lisa - the surrogate with merideth's and eric's embryo nestled in her cushy uterus - had vanished .
none of her friends or family had seen or heard from her .
merideth is nothing if not resourceful . her ability to corral the the most elusive get is legendary in the news and feature business . she finds the most cloistered , cajoles the most shy , and seduces the most press-phobic . she remembers names nad faces the way dogs remember smells . phone numbers stick in her memory as though they've been velcroed there . in her producing life she knows exactly when to send flowers , and exactly when to send veiled blackmail . she's sucked up more old dir than all the hoovers - the vacuums and J.Edgar - combined .
but lisa the surgate had vanished so completely that merideth couldn't find her . or find even a clue that might lead to finding her .
by late afternoon on the sunday that lisa the surrogate stood upmerideth the mother for brunch , merideth had a;ready assembled a roster of every name and phone number in the voluminous file that . she had accumulated about lisa when she was stil a potential surrogate . by early that evening , merideth had started methodically calling the names on that list .
i could put on a psychologist 's mask when circumstances required , and i knew well that merideth could wear a producer's mask with the same effortlessness . during those initial hours , when her concer would not yet have developed into anticipatory grief , her phone calls wouldn't have allarmed the friends and family members she was calling . merideth would be as smooth as silk as she asked ," have you heard from lisa lately ?
she would hve called everyone she could think of .
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