Lovely Summer Smoke Deluged by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Chapter 8

Posie cajoled; “Let’s not split yet. I know a movie theatre five miles away that plays old films. Let’s go sit in the dark for a while.”

“Anywhere with you is great with me. I like old movies anyway. I might fall asleep, though.”

They took the family, “woody,” station wagon and she drove silently to the appointed spot. They parked in the small dirt lot, which looked as if it had not been maintained or repaired for some time. It contained no other cars. They saw the plastic lettered marquee indicating that “All That Heaven Allows” was playing. Neither of them knew the film. As they walked to the ticket booth they noticed that the stills were in black and white.

Kale said; “The title suggests that this is going to be a long one.”

Posie looked at him, with a bit of an incredulous posture and deadpanned; “Not if it had a good editor.”

The ticket booth was empty when they got there, so they walked right inside. They shuffled around the lobby looking at the stills on the wall, keeping an eye out for help. When none came in a few minutes, they decided to walk right in. As he was opening the door a woman of about sixty entered the lobby from

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another door, trailed by a man of similar age. She had long gray hair and dressed younger than her years. His countenance was more of a disheveled acquiescence to his time, wearing proper attire that was maintained as well as the parking lot.

He also had long gray hair, though much of the middle was now missing. He seemed somber. The old woman smiled at the venturesome couple and said; “It’s already started, so go right in and enjoy it.”

Posie said; “We really should pay you something, shouldn’t we?”

The older woman replied; “No. It’s already playing and it’s too much trouble for me to start handling money right now.

We’ve got other things to do.” She looked at her companion and smiled. He silently followed her out through the same door previously used as the entry.

Kale and Posie simultaneously said “Thanks” and continued through the door which led to the screening room. No one else seemed to be there, though they couldn’t be sure in the dark.

He followed her down the center aisle to furry seats about ten rows from the screen, right in the middle of it. Kale loved the soft, brushy feel as did Posie.

The movie was at a point where the actions and dialogue made no sense to them. All that seemed to be was worry, combat,

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disaster and randomness. They leaned heads and shoulders against each other and quickly fell asleep.

They woke up to a crescendo of classical music, apparently the end. Still half asleep they watched the two lovers on the screen hold each other. As it was early in their awakening, they could have been wrong, but visually, it seemed that the two screen characters merged. He became her and she him. Posie and Kale both had the same thought. The merger could be an illusion caused by their dreary state, but they would have bet their lives, that at the very least, her eyes became his and vice-versa.

The movie did end right there and the two stood up to leave. Each knew the thoughts of the other, so they exchanged questioning and knowing looks as they walked. Neither knew the right thing to say and didn’t want to ruin the mood. They slowly walked back to her car, the bright sun shocking them back to the reality of the moment.

Kale said; “That old boy can really wake you.”

She nodded yes in a subdued, but confident manner, her mind still partially in the theatre. She silently drove, slowly regaining 100% focus. When she pulled into the driveway, he leaned over and kissed her on the mouth. For some reason he was concerned about her and gently said, “Are you all right?”

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She said; “I’m good. This hasn’t been a bad day, even after the rocky start.”

He touched her hand gently and said; “I don’t want to leave you. Let’s go to Sal’s again. My room needs more work.”

She drove back down the driveway and onto the road.

Sal sat in front of his shop, saw them coming and when they got close he said; “Greetings to my best customers.”

Posie answered; “Working hard, Sal?”

“Hardly working. I got some stuff from Saddle River in yesterday. It’ll probably pay the rent for two years. Take a look. Very chic and modern.”

Kale and Posie made controlled, but slightly contorted faces which suggested; “Yuck.”

Sal saw and said; “Gotta get with it. The world is changing.”

Kale retorted; “I accept the changes I find appealing.” He looked at Posie’s derriere.

“Cool, but check it out. Some of it might surprise you.”

The couple walked in to see that the new arrivals were in front.

Posie derisively said; “Boxes of glass and chrome. I hate to be around these kinds of things. If you touch them it’s like touching ice cubes. Anything made of glass and chrome should contain fish and small turtles.”

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Kale was more magnanimous and light-hearted saying; “It does. Suits some perfectly. Look, there’s some leather over the twisted metal on the couches and some of the chairs.”

Posie took him to be seriously devoid of any sense and responded; “Sticks to bare skin. Bad for the one on their back or sitting.”

“Hey, look at that. Serious plasticity.” He pointed to stacked tables of different sizes, colored black or white, each succeeding one large enough to encompass its predecessors.

“Evidence of the fact that people acclimate to anything and learn to like it.”

“Us?”

“Hasn’t yet been tested.”

They left the area. Posie had her hands in the air as she danced away, careful to avoid arctic contamination. Kale bugged his eyes, raised his hands and wiggled his fingers like a campy Bela Lugosi. He chased her into the Victoriana.

She ignored the huge combination pieces of furniture, looked to the walls and cried out; “Neo and post-impressionism.”

“Manet’s ‘Olympia!’” He head motioned toward the lithograph; a woman reclining on a flowered shawl and bedding, wearing only a slipper, a neck ribbon tightly tied and a pink bow in her hair, being served by a black maid. A tiny black cat

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shared the bed. “Rather tame today but outrageously scandalous (vulgar) in its time.” (1869.)

No comments were made on the other wall lithographs; Bonnard’s “Dining Room in the Country,” Seurat’s “The Watering Can,” Gauguin’s “The Beach at Dieppe” and Cassatt’s “The Daughter of Alexander Cassatt,” though the latter made Kale think; “Rich and homely.”

“My eye was more drawn to Monet’s ‘Waterlily Pool.’ The horizon line highlighting the sun’s reflection; the effect of day and night on the water lilies.”

Kale said; “Degas’ ‘Woman on the Terrace of a Café.’”

They paid little attention to Morisot’s “Young Woman in a Party Dress,” Sisley’s “Boat Races at Molesey,” Degas’

“L’Etoile,” and Guillaumin’s “Sunset at Ivry,” though Posie thought that Ivry was in a smokestack swamp somewhere in New Jersey.

Posie feigned a ridiculously proper stance and said;

“Renoir’s ‘La Loge;’ the amber tones giving this feminine specimen a mother-of-pearl countenance.”

Kale said; “How about ‘The Bather?’ I adore those hips and thighs. (An adequately proportioned nude woman painted by Renoir in 1902.) I find it strange and backward that this painting was accepted at the turn of the century, yet when I saw ads for photographers today, they all specified; ‘No nudes.’”

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“That was in Europe, baby. We’re in the good old US of A; more in tune with John Clymer’s commercial ‘nature’

illustration. Oh, wow. Van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night,’ a swirling, insane night sky of golden stars, pierced by cypresses. It is said that it contains the mystery of all creation.”

Kale affected a nasal tone and said; “And it still remains a mystery to me.”

Posie shrugged and sighed.

Kale lifted her from her feet and kissed her lips. He said;

“I like it. I just fail to understand. I see creation in you.”

They tested the resilience of the Egyptian Revival settee, gazed upon by numerous combinations of human and animal figures. One of them carried the moniker of Salvatore. Posie had the best vantage point and upon seeing him jumped up, as Sal pretended to not have noticed, going the other way.

She muttered; “Shit.”

Kale corrected; “Merde.”

They stood and commenced perusing the furniture.

She said; “Two in one.”

He responded; “Three in one. Maybe four.”

They were in a grove of Rococo Revival pieces of furniture.

Some of the pieces on display were made during the period when some manufacturers combined things; a mirrored chest of drawers

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had an attached coat rack and one particularly ambitious loveseat was fronted by a coffee table and had a lamp table on each side.

They looked to each other and commenced laughter. Posie said; “They don’t know what they want to be.”

“Do they reflect society or does society reflect them?”

“That’s the age old question. I think society goes both ways, afraid it might miss something.”

“Invariably it does anyway because all it can do is look, categorize and criticize. Arthur is on course to be a pillar.”

“Of salt.”

“I find his type to be akin to buzzards. It’s the injured and the predators that one has to be careful with.”

“Crazies too.”

“Mmnnn.”

Posie’s eyes popped and she thundered; “See that kas.”

(Sometimes called a wardrobe.)

Glancing in the wrong direction, Kale said; “Sure do. Great piece.”

Posie opened the double doors and showed Kale the spacious interior. The plain space was only disturbed by a top shelf and a pole for hanging clothes. She said; "You can remove the pole, put in more shelves and store a stereo system and records. And it’s pretty.”

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“What style is it?”

“Technically, it’s Queen Anne. However they were made the same way for 200 years after the Queen was passé. And now they’ve had resurgence as people want a place to hide their ugly entertainment systems.”

The oldest American houses were built without large clothes closets. Later, when people acquired more apparel, they needed a place to store their outfits. Earliest settlers kept all their things in a two by three chest; essentially a box with a lid.

Kale said; “I like the simplicity and the golden handles.”

“That’s brass.”

Kale laughed and Posie said; “What’s so funny?”

“I can’t explain it. It might have something to do with that tab.”

“Come on. Let’s get it.”

“Excellent. How about a few of the lithographs? Say four; one for each wall.”

Posie grimaced and said; “No texture.”

“We’ve got enough texture to fill the room.”

“All right. Then ’The Starry Night’ and ‘Waterlilly Pool’

for sure.”

“Those are trips. I like. How about ‘Olympia’ and ‘The Bather?’”

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Posie’s eyes shot to the sky and she said; “I might have guessed.”

“Problem?”

“No. I like where your head’s at.”

Kale’s eyes shot to the sky and he said; “I won’t say it.

Let’s find Sal and get out of here.”

Posie nodded. They got Sal and business was done. Sal drove behind them to deliver the items before they could change their minds.

They reclined on the unmade bed, evaluating the lithographs on the walls. Quality was not a consideration; they focused on placement and the consequent play of light. The door rumbled almost imperceptibly. If not for the complete silence they would have heard nothing. They sat up and Kale said; “Come in?”

The door creaked slowly open and they saw Marian Meridonald grinning sheepishly. She said; “Come at a good time?”

Posie replied; “There’s never a bad one.”

Kale said; “Here, here.”

Marian sauntered in and sat on the bed between them. She said; “We were rudely interrupted last time. Would you like to know more of the underground worlds?”

Kale said an emphatic “Yes.”

Posie said; “Yes,” however in a more subdued manner.

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Marian said; “This is the oldest; Tierra de Hielo or Land of Ice. It goes back to the ages when men hunted animals and dragged women around by the hair. Their population has been declining with the malcontents finding their ways to one of the other worlds. Many men have found other work more rewarding and many women prefer other forms of persuasion. They have recently had an upsurge under Republican leadership in a Republican-caused declining economy.” She contemptuously laughed and added;

“I guess that makes sense to some. Then there is “Tierra de Homo.” I imagine you can correctly guess the cultural composition. Here the residents play the same games played in Tierra de Hielo, except that men pull men by the hair and women pull women. Frichton points out that it would be de classe to say that as they think they are doing something new. Apparently there is a dearth of Greek and Roman history books. There has been a bit of a population boom recently. While the male population grows minimally, many women have relocated from elsewhere, some preferring pulling and some preferring the pull of a female hand. This has effectively stopped the talks of

‘necessary recruitment.’ Do either of you find any of the places I’ve mentioned a candidate for a vacation site?”

Kale said; “The one you mentioned last time; Tierra del Fuego.”

Posie shook her head in agreement.

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Marian went on; “Tierra de Dominio is interesting.

Genitalia are almost irrelevant; practically surrealistic. Both sexes have masters and slaves interested in anyone with the opposite mindset; all are switches. The population is small, but exhibits a high growth rate. If continued they will need more land. Consequently they are viewed as potential aggressors by the other underground people.”

Kale interrupted, saying; “If Posie was my slave, would I also have to have one named William?”

Marian answered; “For simplicity’s sake I could say yes, but that wouldn’t be entirely true. It’s actually more complicated than that. Masters or mistresses of one are usually slaves to another and slaves to one are usually masters or mistresses to another. While one can temporarily be master, mistress or slave to one sex, to do so in the long term produces social ostracism.”

Posie wrinkled her nose and said; “Surface subterfuge freedom with underlying mandated conventions. Genitalia are indeed relevant, though they say it’s not. Politician double speak.”

Kale bobbed his head, nodding as if to say; “Yes, I wish I said that.”

Marian said; “I did say ‘almost irrelevant,’ but that is the joke of it. Very astute, little ones.

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Posie and Kale wondered if they had been triflingly insulted, but held their tongues in deference to their liking of Marian, who smiled and continued; “And then there is the well-known Atlantis, which includes all.”

Kale said; “Do you believe these places really exist?”

Marian reached out and gently slapped his and her thighs, shrugged and said; “I haven’t got the slightest idea. Frichton says so and she was bright enough to write a book.” The three shared a laugh. Marian got up to leave.

Posie said; “If these places did exist, where would you live?

Marian stopped and thought for a few seconds. She scrutinized the ceiling, the said; “I’m a traveler. How about you?”

Posie said; “Tierra Del Fuego or Atlantis.”

Kale added; “I’m always with you.”

As Marian exited, she smiled warmly and said; “Compatible babies.”

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