It’s Been a While Since I’ve Seen Phoebe Cates in a Movie or My Youngest Son in Real Life

 Remember Phoebe Cates? She played Linda in Fast Times at Ridgemont High? She was Kate in the Gremlins movies? She was kind of big for a while there in the eighties. She was a very talented and attractive lady, even though her career petered out a bit after the first Gremlins. You know, it’s been a really long time since I’ve seen her in a movie. Whatever happened to her? Did she retire from acting? It’s like she just vanished at some point! And since we’re on the subject, you know who else vanished out of thin air? My son, twenty years ago!

I guess that just happens sometimes with people like Phoebe Cates in the movies or my youngest son Trevor in real life. They decide that the grind of auditioning and getting rejected is just too much for them, or they wander away in a crowded mall when my back is turned just for a moment. That’s life, I guess. I wonder how long it’s actually been since Phoebe Cates was in a film. Let me check IMDB here…Wow, she’s only done one movie in the last twenty years, and that movie was fourteen years ago. So basically, she retired from acting in 1994.  That’s so funny-that’s the same year my five year old son Trevor walked away from me in that mall, possibly into the arms of a stranger!

Hmm, it says here that she stopped acting to focus on raising her kids with…Kevin Kline! I didn’t know she was married to Kevin Kline! How about that! Well, I can understand that. I’m sure a lot of people, if they had enough money, would prefer to stop working to spend more time with their families. Not me, though. I’m actually pretty relieved that I don’t see my husband or our other son Adam that often. Trevor’s disappearance pretty much severed whatever bonds had sustained us. My husband and I divorced fifteen years ago, and Adam is twenty-eight now, so he’s in prison. So I just work as much as I can at the community college cafeteria, just like Phoebe Cates works hard at the boutique she owns in New York!

I wonder if sometimes, when she’s cleaning out her attic or basement, she finds a memento from one of her old movies, and starts reminiscing about her old career. I know what that’s like. About six months after Trevor left, I found one of his jump ropes sitting underneath a bush on the edge of our lawn. It was cut in half. I don’t know why. I held it in my hand for a moment. I didn’t feel anything. I was going to keep it in Trevor’s memory, but I ended up throwing it out. It was broken. His case is still open, but the police, to this day, have no leads.

Well, Phoebe Cates, if you happen to be reading this, you’ve still got a fan in me! And Trevor, if you’re still alive and reading this, I hope you still remember me, and you’re not left wondering who your real mother is—not unlike Phoebe Cates as Lili in the TV miniseries Lace!