The Woman With Two Expressions: A Halloween Portrait

I once knew a woman named Frankie. Now, that sounds like the opening line of a limerick. So before I tell my story I must first get that out of the way:

I once knew a woman called Frankie

who would smile when she gave you a spanky

For the tears that you’ld shed, she’ld just shake her head

and not even offer a hanky

The real and not the literal Frankie was someone I knew decades ago as an ex-patriot. She had a peculiar habit of paying a compliment, then she would immediately follow the compliment with a second observation that would completely nullify the previous positive remarks. It would go something like this:

Compliment: "You know, I think that you are an exquisitely beautiful person, both physically and intellectually."

The Downer: "But I’m often told that I have bad taste and am a poor judge of character."

But Frankie would not leave it at that. She would follow this antithetical couplet with a look - a look that I would not have thought humanly possible had I not seen it with my own eyes. After delivering this dual observation, she would look you right in the eye and smile, but with only one side of her face. The other side would sport a grimace. Seeing both sides at once was confusing to process. Who could tell which side was for you? Both perhaps. Today I tried to immortalize that look with this little portrait that seems appropriate for Halloween. Scary, yes?

In order to see the two expressions clearly, cover one half of the face at a time with a piece of paper.