Hennessy's Face
by George Held

Hennessy looked hard at his face in the mirror. It was an ordinary mirror, and an ordinary face for a 60-year-old. But he found that face hard to believe. It had pouches under the eyes and crow's feet beside them. The forehead was higher, the hair grayer than he'd ever imagined they could get. The cheeks were puffy, the thin lips drooped at the corners, and a fold of flesh fell under the chin. His hand rubbed that grizzled unshaven chin. "Shit, man," he said, "I'm old. No wonder my wife left me."

Every morning he looked at his face in the mirror and said, "Baby, you're so cool. You're gonna' sell a lot of Sugar Flakes today."

It's true that Hennessy looked at his face in the mirror daily, but today was different: it was New Year's Day, 2000, and Hennessy recalled that Henry James, looking in the mirror on January 1st, 1900, decided to begin the new century by shaving off his decades-old beard.

Hennessy had worn a beard in the Sixties and early Seventies, when he was a rock guitarist for The Inebriates. But after the Vietnam War had ended, he shaved off his beard. It had become grizzled, making him look prematurely old. After he'd shaved, people said he looked younger.

Clean-shaven, Hennessy got out of the marginal music business and became a copy writer at a big ad agency in Manhattan. He had more success writing ad slogans for cereals than he'd ever had with his songs for The Inebriates. Every morning he looked at his face in the mirror and said, "Baby, you're so cool. You're gonna' sell a lot of Sugar Flakes today."

And he did. He rose rapidly at Shanker Rigby till he became a vice-president, in charge of all its food accounts. Unlike most of his colleagues, who drank and smoked more as they met more pressure at work, Hennessy cut back. He continued to be pleased with the look of his face in the mirror, congratulating himself on his moderation as the key to his continually youthful looks.

That is, until this particular New Year's morning. Hennessy had drunk more than usual last night and had stayed at his neighbor's party until 3 AM. It was almost noon when he took his usual look at the face in the mirror.

"Shit, man, I am old," he said.