Newspaper Page Text
Page 20
" Flagpole Magazine
July 11, 199
The Diamond Thief
Part Twenty-One: The Bull Ring
Taped to Erin’s dressing mirror was the
invitation taped to everyone’s lips.
In blue Old English lettering, enlarged
and dripping, CRUELTY predominated.
Along the bottom ran the Doriohoe Gallery’s
name, the date and the time of the compe
tition. Taylor smudged the invitation with his
newsprint thumb and giggled.
“If you ask me, and which you probably
won’t because I have this distinct feeling
you don’t like me, I think this competition is
a bloody joke. How fucking preposterous!
The judging committee has made a horrible
mistake by accepting Erin and Dexter’s
works. Smack in the middle that leaves
yours truly. The brother of one and the lover
of the otner. What am I to do when one of
them loses to the other? Writers always get
the shaft,’’ Taylor said, pacing about Erin’s
bedroom, throwing his hands out as if he
were releasing poor, landlocked fish.
“You think I don’t like you?”
“What?” Taylor asked and stopped
completely. Fixing his eyes on me, he
slapped his cheek and stammered. Yes
tripped out of his mouth like a five-conso
nant word.
“That’s preposterous,” I said and
smiled. “If I didn’t like you, I wouldn't be
here. Eh? And don’t get yourself in such an
uproar. What about this? What if neither
Dexter nor Erin win?”
I saw the curve of his mind in the win
dows of his head. Taylor hoisted the lamp
shade, sending the lamp to the floor, and
struck me perfectly, harmlessly on the
head.
“Curses! Watch that tongue of yours,
Adger!"
Knowing Taylor was a puppet for hys
terical fits, I wasn’t surprised in the least
when I saw the tears burst from his eyes.
When his sighing had passed, after I had
reassembled Erin’s lamp, he told me I
sucked. I told him I’d heard that one before.
For an instant I thought I was looking at
Dexter. The cosmos of the Laughing house
resemblance wasn’t particularly eerie, but
the blood and bones of the matter spooked
me.
A cupola of blue glass was the crown
ing point of the Donahoe Gallery. Dexter
and I realized the lights were dimming in
side as the brightness of the blue faded. Wg
were late.
Cooper, with his overtly heterosexual
Truman Capote style, stood by the fountain
chatting with Lillian. I heard a requiem in the
back of my head as I watched Lillian smile
and wave to us. Was Cooper involved with
her? No, I reasoned. Cooper didn’t care for
Dexter. He certainly didn’t care enough
about Dexter to dislike him so much as to be
in a league of spies.
My eyes bounced from one head to the
next on the chance that Mason was spar
kling with the glamorous clothes and tail l
champagne flutes. I was beginning tc
understand that mouth watering cham- j
pagne and breathtaking clothes were the
highlights of living dangerously in Galillee.
Not so bad.
While looking for Mason, I saw the I
lovely blonde leading Duncan by the hand,
swaying and laughing at so many of the j
paintings. I gave Erin her credit; she had the
balls of a matador and the diamonds of a
bull. No one could stop her. I knew she was
far from indestructible, but she was blessed
with the extraordinary power of grace - even
when it was lacking.
“Come with me. I want you to see
something,” Dexter said. We made our way
through the other artists and guests with nc
great effort and arrived in front of Erin’s
painting.
Kindling was the name Erin had given
the painting of Chelsey speeding a country v
road on the emerald bicycle. He pedaled j
standing. In the wire basket, wrapped with
red rope, was an overflow of wood and
sticks. Chelsey and the bike looked utterly
motionless, lost in time, as the trees behinc
the road blurred from never stopping. 1
Across Chelsey’s face was a terrified,
crooked smile.
No one had to ask what fire the work
depicted. Perhaps this was the reason
Erin’s painting did not win. Sometimes a
reminder of the past can work wonders.
Often it evokes what would rather be forgot
ten. When the philosophies of the two don’t
meSt, the committee gets rattled and the
neurons say no. No matter how they said it,
the negative hurt.
“It’s remarkable, isn’t it,” Dexter said. I
looked again to find Erin. She and Ducan
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