Thirteen: 13 Tales of Horror by 13 Masters of Horror by T. Pines

Author:T. Pines [Pines, T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror tales, American
ISBN: 9780590452564
Amazon: 0590452568
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
Published: 2004-09-01T18:30:00+00:00

THE

GUICCIOU

MINIATURE

Jay Bennett

It was past midnight, and the orchestra had stopped playing. He got up from his seat at the table in the caf6 and walked across the huge Piazza San Marco. He turned and went past the fagade of the cathedral, past the Doge's Palace, which gleamed white with all its tracery, and then down between the two high pillars to the water^s edge. He stopped and looked out at the canals. With his eyes he followed the gliding of a gondola, and then he saw an empty vaporetto, ghostUke and fast-moving, far out in the center of the channel. And he was looking out across St. Mark's Canal to the dim outlines of San Giorgio Island when a shadow fell across the pavement and he heard a man's voice.

"You American?"

Jerry nodded silently.

"Just come to Venice?"

The stranger was a tall, lean man with a haunted look in his eyes. Even though the night was damp and hot, he wore a coat and an old hat with the brim turned down. His hands trembled as if he had a fever.

Out in the channel the vaporetto vanished into the darkness.

"Been here a few days," Jerry said.

The sleeves of the man's long coat were frayed, and his lean face had a stubble of beard on it.

He's down and out in Venice, Jerry thought. And so he wasn't surprised when he heard the man say, "Maybe you can help a fellow American?"

Jerry waited.

Then he saw the man put his long hand into his coat pocket and draw out a small object that glistened in the half-darkness.

"Give me ten for it and it's yours, kid."

"What is it?"

"A miniature. I painted it myself. It's worth a good hundred. Two hundred. More. But give me ten dollars and you'll have something to take home to your girl."

He put the miniature into Jerry's hand, and it was cold, almost icy to the touch.

"Ten dollars. You're about eighteen, right? You have a girl, right? Bring her something from Venice." Then he asked, "How long are you going to be here, kid?"

"Till tomorrow afternoon."

"Then you're going home?"

"Yes."

"Home," the man said -- and was silent.

And all the time they were talking the icy miniature lay between Jerry's closed fingers. Suddenly the man spoke again.

"Give me ten dollars. It'll be the best buy you'll ever make."

His hand grabbed Jerry and pulled him to a little pool of light. "Take a good look at it."

Jerry lifted the miniature into the spill of light. He saw that it was beautiful.

"The Guiccioli miniature," the man said in a hushed voice, "a copy of the Guiccioli miniature. The original is in the Pitti Palace in Florence. I stood there and copied it, day after day until they wanted to throw me out. The Guiccioli miniature."

It was the face of a very beautiful woman with brown, liquid eyes and auburn hair. Her features were small and perfectly shaped. But it was the eyes that haunted Jerry -- the amazing eyes.

He looked up slowly.

And now the eyes of the man were glittering.

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