Are You Jealous (part ten)

Are You Jealous

(part ten)

“Other purposes by then, as I was saying. Is she coming back?”

Of an intern, or graduate student, making towards the couple. They sat smiling in the braced manner of those who have had enough of a person. Gabriel felt he would have to yield, socially; they were drawing him into their little drama.

The girl was intercepted by a hand on her arm.

“My dear,” Presby said, “will you be exceedingly kind?”

She stared as though a beam of light had fallen, making her squint. With a sweep of the eyeglasses, Presby showcased Eva and Henderson Young. Eva and Henderson held out their tiny celadon plates, their empty tumblers.

Getting the drift…blushing…then weighing advantage, the girl said, “Can I bring you anything, Mr. Presby?”

“Have you tried the Blood-Orange Shandy?”

“Oh, I’m not…” Really a guest, it might have been.

“I recommend highly that you do. And you may bring another for me.”

“My dear,” said the man who shared Gabriel’s bench. His companion elbowed him, and repeated, “My dear.”

He liked them for that, decided he might face the room.

“Glazes varied in composition,” the woman said. “Raw materials were more abundant during certain periods, or in certain regions. The chemists were jealous.”

A server brought dark bread disks, topped by truffles. The man took two. The woman declined. Gabriel accepted one. He had been admonished in childhood for “taking too much”; he had been self-conscious on such occasions ever since.

“Jealous of their formulas,” the man said, eating and sipping, imparting in increments. “Some factories kept meticulous records.”

“Uranium,” the woman said. Here she glanced at Gabriel.

“Difficult to come by,” he tried.

“Oh, not terribly, in those days,” the man said. “Manganese, also, fluoresces weakly.” They spoke as though memories of a profound shared experience had been stirred. “That will be our dénouement. Remorse, at last, for not treasuring the things while we had them. Time times insatiable consumption equals a century or two’s resources, and then we will be killing each other for a bowl with a hint of beryllium in the glaze.”

Gabriel, auditing this exchange, was startled when someone grabbed his hand.

“Why won’t you say hello?” Eva murmured hellos at the couple. She tugged Gabriel to his feet, tucked her arm through his and propelled him.

“You embarrass me,” she whispered.

10

Are You Jealous

Are You Jealous (part eleven)

(Stephanie Foster, 2016)