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makeup would it change who you are or just how other people see you?"

    "Both."

    Holly then asked me to get a pad of paper, which I did. She got a pencil out of a big case in her purse. She turned to the side, looked at Maggie with a smile, and started drawing. Everyone hovered behind and beside her, totally amazed as she brought Maggie from the far side of the room onto the paper. In a span of time that seemed shorter than it would have taken me to sign my name legibly, she finished and turned the paper toward Maggie. “Is that you?” she asked.

    "It looks like me, yes,” she answered, cautiously intrigued.

    "Then come sit by Charles and me,” she instructed as she pulled a stool closer to her.

    Maggie reluctantly did so. She seemed relieved to discover that all eyes were on Holly and not her.

    Holly took some the various eyeshadow shades and gave the drawing eye and hair color. “Okay, Charles,” she finally said. “You're the pro here, so help me out."

    "Hmm, I think I'd go with a light lip color against her pure skin. This one,” he said, grabbing the stick of his choice.

    Rather than applying it directly to the paper, she matched its shade to an eyeshadow, ran her finger over the compressed powder, and gently worked it into the lip area. She used her pencil to make sure that the shading remained in tact. They went through the same process repeatedly, deciding: light on the mascara, a face powder that matched her skin tone “just to make the picture look realistic,” two tones of peach on her eyes lids, and a little darker shade on her “amazing cheekbones."

    Holly penciled in a few finishing touches. She held it up for Maggie to see, and then she asked again, “Is that you?"

    "No,” Maggie answered.

    I wanted to hit myself up side the head. I don't think I did. Maybe I did. After all of that, a no? I expected an epiphany.

    Apparently, Holly hadn't expected the same, as she very nicely asked, “What did I get wrong? What should I fix?"

    Maggie shrugged.

    "Did I erase part of your nose and make it wider?"

    Maggie shook her head.

    "Did I pencil in a second chin while you weren't looking?"

    Maggie shook her head again.

    "Did I make your eyes smaller? Did I move them closer together? Erase your ears? Must be the lips then,” she said, turning the paper in every direction and pretending to examine it. “No, the lips are still there."

    Maggie smiled.

    "So you're telling me one minute this looks like you, and because I merely add a little bit of color to what was already there, it just doesn't look like you anymore. Is that right?"

    Maggie didn't answer.

    "What color is your car, Maggie?"

    "Blue,” she said.

    "Would it still be a car if it wasn't?” she asked but did not wait for a reply. “How about your shirt? What color is your shirt?"

    She had to look down to answer that one. I found that funny, but I knew I would have had to do the same.
    “White,” she said.

    "Would it still cover you if it were purple?"

    "I hope so,” she said, and everyone giggled.

    "But what? There's something so totally different—orwrong —with you that we add a little color, andpoof, you're just not Maggie anymore?"

    "The Department of Defense might be interested in that. Put a little blush on a terrorist and they become Mother Teresa,” Charles whispered.

    "Colors can't change something into something it's not, Maggie,” Holly said. “Colors only change how light is reflected by something ... but it's still the same something, whether it's blue or purple."

    Holly put down the picture, which Claudia quickly confiscated, gawked at, averted from my grasp, and then passed to the next person until it made the complete rounds ... ending with Susan.Wasn't that just divine intervention, Claudia!

    Susan stared at it, her eyes growing wider with each second. “Oh my God,” she finally said. “I honestly didn't think you could be any more beautiful than you already are."

    Maggie's face turned red,