Are You Jealous (part nine)

Are You Jealous

(part nine)

A second arrow pointed the opposite direction, indicating Parking!

Because with such people you had, of course, left your car wrong as well. He would give it up, he told himself…

But no.

Venturing past the pillar, Gabriel had noticed a flash of blue light. Quiet electronics were no doubt an improvement over iron gates. He could see Eva’s work friends gathered at the security monitor, exchanging quips while he dithered on their doorstone…

He abandoned his car, and walked along a line of yew. The yew ended at an enormous bust, a bald male head on a rusting pedestal, shoulders naked. A hill descended to a pond and glass building. Steely smoke-toned glass, and smoky steel-toned framing, a structure married by design to its water feature—

The studio cantilevered to touch, through the medium of 47 centimeters of negative space, defined by the shadow-play of sunlight on water, the first of a ring of boulders, arranged in a henge. The boulders emerged from a kidney-shaped perimeter of pond, algaecidally clear.

These designations: married, shadow-play, 47 centimeters, were not observable.

They were the structure’s storyline, per metal signs embossed with metal words.

forty-seven = the atomic number of silver

What, then, is silver to this crowd, beginning-stage alchemy?

Presby’s voice announced over an intercom: “If you’re having trouble finding the door, Gabe, you will locate it to your right.”

Sporadic applause. A girl, waiting, showed Gabriel a choice of cocktails.

“Does it need to be basil gin?” he asked.

“It’s lemon basil. So it’s almost just lemon gin.”

He edged the interior glass, avoiding faces. A woman in a brassy red jacket rose from a bench. The man beside her rose, and Gabriel seized the vacancy. He chose to study the water, turning his back to the room. In the mirror of tinted glass, he saw Eva, recognized Henderson Young. Young was much taller than his picture. McFadden Presby completed their circle. Presby’s voice could be heard everywhere.

Another voice said, “We have little to do with ephemera. But I will advise you to think of cross-disciplinary conceptual linking. A piece may gain currency, that is, greater significance, given context…”

Gabriel scooted forty-five degrees. As though he were part of the conversation, the speaker caught his eye. Gabriel nodded, accepting this too. The woman in the jacket came back, depressing the cushion beside him. She shifted in a companionable way, until the skirt of her jacket touched his knee, her perfume getting into his own jacket at once. She patted the empty space at her right, and the man―Gabriel’s new friend―joined them. She was large, willfully dressed for occasion; he was built on gnome lines, wearing jeans and a plaid shirt. They appeared to belong together, matrimonially or collegially.

9

Are You Jealous

Are You Jealous (part ten)

(Stephanie Foster, 2016)