Constellations of Eve by Abbigail Nguyen Rosewood

Author:Abbigail Nguyen Rosewood
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
Published: 2022-01-03T22:16:16+00:00

Eve’s skin was joyously sunburned that summer. She and Pari were content being in the backyard of her parents’ home, squinting up at the drifting clouds, raising their legs and watching sun rays spill through the gaps between their painted toes. Sometimes they rode the metal horses on Pari’s rusting carousel—a childhood relic and absurd present from her father when she was five, its inner wheels groaning as they revolved in never-ending circles.

Eve now openly drew and sketched Pari in front of her. She could tell that her friend relished the attention, at her repetitive looking and unlooking, memorizing and returning to the page. She also started to include others whose gazes lingered on her friend: Pari’s stepfather standing at the second-floor bedroom window, the pianist, the butcher, a little girl at the bus stop. This double vision magnified her, and Pari began to behave like a portrait in a painting. A stillness descended on her. She would suddenly stop moving and stand for several minutes without appearing to swallow or blink, as though waiting to be captured, memorialized. At night they studied Eve’s day’s work together.

“This guy wasn’t staring at my breasts, was he?” Pari said as she eagerly looked at one drawing. “I thought we were having a nice conversation.”

“He looked,” Eve said.

“How about him?” She pointed at another figure.

“He looked too.”

Pari rolled onto her back. She sighed, pretended to be offended. They carried on like that for hours.

Eve began to realize the power the images had over her friend, their ability to shape her reality. One day, she was sketching Pari as she was taking a deep dive in the lake, and Eve stopped, putting her pad and pencil aside. Pari got out and stood over Eve, the water on her skin dripping on Eve’s face.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Napping.”

“But the drawing—Will you be able to do it from memory? I can jump back in.”

“That’s not necessary,” Eve said. “I’m going to stop drawing for a while.”

Pari stood like a statue, as hushed as the lake behind her. After a little while, she said, “What does that mean?”

“I’m just sick of it. That’s all.”

“You know you can’t just stop now. You’ve gotten so much better and in just a few weeks of practice.”

The truth was that Eve didn’t really want to stop, but she needed to know if Pari needed her to keep going. She wanted more than to depict their daily scenes. She wanted to merge them with her own inventions. But Eve shook her head, a little pleased at seeing Pari’s frustration.

“I wanted it to be a surprise, but maybe I should just tell you now: I entered your drawings in a contest,” Pari said. “If you win, your work will be exhibited for three days in Florence.”

“What?” Their roles were now reversed. Just when Eve thought she had control.

“Eve, when we go back to school, you need to switch your major.”

Eve should have known it wouldn’t be enough for Pari to have pictures of herself drawn and sealed in a notebook, kept folded and tucked away.

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