Rafferty Street by Lee Lynch

Author:Lee Lynch [Lynch, Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781602828544
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2012-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

That Sunday afternoon Annie scooted the Saab into the last parking space behind Rafferty Center where the art exhibit was being held. A mass of grey clouds had been haunting the day. She didn’t notice Peg and Paris until they’d come up beside her.

“Penny for your thoughts,” said Paris.

Annie jumped. “Hi. I was thinking.”

Peg laughed, settling three fingers in her vest pocket. “I thought you gave that up.”

“Philosophy? Like you gave up three-piece suits,” teased Annie.

“Philosophy,” Paris teased, “is only institutionalized worrying.”

“Disciplined worrying—it trains the mind,” Annie defended herself. “Look at you two. If you aren’t a dyke fashion statement.”

Paris glanced lovingly at Peg. Peg examined Annie.

“Hey,” Annie said. “This happens to be my best blue button-down and these are my newest chinos.”

Paris laughed. “A tweed jacket and elbow patches and Turkey could get you a job teaching philosophy in New York.”

“My ultimate dream,” she jabbed.

Once, when Annie and Paris had been waxing nostalgic about the unsettled nature of their otherwise very different younger years, Paris had explained why she had finally put down roots in Morton River Valley. “Missing that freedom is not quite the same as wanting it. And the periods of wanting it, are getting briefer.” Her words had encouraged Annie to move in with Gussie.

Above them, the sun peered through clouds as if mulling over a grand entrance.

“What’s all this?” Paris asked.

Several people with signs circled in front of the steps, looking angry in dark suits or pastel dresses.

“The Rush Limbaugh Fan Club,” Peg grumbled.

Annie pulled her cap over her eyes, but she’d seen a sign that depicted a circle and slash around the word pornography. Others read, Save Our Children and Out of the Army/Out of the Schools. She felt cold with fury.

“They’ve gotten wind of Elly’s lesbian drawings,” Peg explained, stopping to watch.

Paris added, “They pulled Verne Prinz out of the junior high. The parents objected when she showed some slides of sixteenth century nudes.”

“Is there a back way in?” Annie asked, talking to the sidewalk.

“Why?” asked Peg. “They’re just a bunch of no-brain reactionaries.”

“I don’t want to run into anybody from Medipak,” she muttered.

“Whoa,” said Paris. “Once burned, twice shy?”

Peg said, “As long as we’re doing clichés, lightning never strikes twice.”

“Better safe than sorry,” countered Annie.

“Come on, then,” Paris said. “I can get us in the back way, though I hate for them to run us off like this.”

Annie balked. “You’re right. I shouldn’t give in to them. That’s just what they want, isn’t it?”

“Art becomes pornography if we let them call it that,” Peg agreed. “Let’s go.” She dashed through the picketers, head down.

“Hey, you!” called a man’s voice.

Annie made the mistake of looking up. Lorelei’s father had hailed her.

“Where’s your friends?” he hissed. Then he turned to the person behind him and said loudly. “All the sickos will show up for this, wait and see.”

She stopped to shut him up, but froze with a groan. Behind Mr. Simski was Mrs. Kurt. The woman, plump with bouncy blond curls and little makeup, squinted suspiciously at her.

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