Are You Jealous (conclusion)

Are You Jealous

(part twelve)

They fetched up on the rim of a circle whose center was another Henderson, further elongated, alike pale-eyed and hawk-nosed. Gabriel knew of no famous Youngs. He could not place the man he assumed to be Henderson’s brother. He supposed it delightful to have a famous friend…

He had become attached to Henderson’s email by mistake. Maybe the error would propagate itself.

“Glass,” the famous Young said, “is a flowing liquid. It lives. It speaks to its environment; it wishes to be spoken to by its environment. An old window has a signature, a personality. It wants a space. The space should contain no distracting elements. There must be a dialogue. Why do we enter a space? We are there to have an experience. Our experience must be a whole experience.”

Ms. Bodmin-Hodges backed from the presence, rather than interrupt the flowing liquid by introducing Gabriel.

“This space.” Young made an arc with his empty glass, clinking ice. “Is not seen to its best advantage. My idea had been to have only one bench. My work does not ask for more than one observer. I design with an ideal of the Observer in mind. A scenario in which others are a superfluity.”

Young’s attention seemed to linger on Gabriel following this comment. A woman stood at his side. Her eyes pleaded, fixed on Gabriel’s with a desire to communicate. She wore a bulky cabled sweater…she had absurdly long hair, as though she had been kept in a room for many years.

“A doorknob, let’s say,” Young went on. “As I go about here and there, I am summoned by powerful connections, wrought by forgotten artisans, burnished by centuries of human touch, secreted in unworthy places. I am quite willing to obtain what my work demands. I will have a new door installed, where the owner feels agreeable. I am rarely denied. Why? Because, when we speak for art, we speak with the power of art. I envision each room a dialectic, a philosophical discourse, the old in its mastership mentoring the new…”

Again, the woman with the hostage eyes seemed to seek Gabriel’s help.

12

Are You Jealous

Are You Jealous (part one)

(Stephanie Foster, 2016)