Girl Blue by Alan Nayes

Author:Alan Nayes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2012-04-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Many months ago, long before the diagnosis, I might have been amused at the revelation—a witch doctor had once laid claim to my prize azul pegaso granite—but not that night. Nor, I would later discover, any night thereafter.

Since embarking on the translation, Elisa Marie’s expression had turned flat and impassive. I’d always admired her smile, the way the corners of her mouth matched almost the width between the lateral canthus of her eyes, and to this extent I regretted ever having showed her the parcel. As pretty as Elisa Marie was, she was even more so when she was animated. But tonight, at least for the moment, some of the vitality and verve in her demeanor had deserted her.

“Jeremy,” she said.

“Yes?”

“Do you have any liqueurs?”

My spirits cabinet was stocked with a variety of liqueurs and cordials—amaretto, peppermint schnapps, drambuie, crème de cacao, sambuca and Kahlua.

I poured two brandy glasses of amaretto. “Ice?” I asked.

“One cube,” she said.

I returned to the table with the glasses. Watching Elisa Marie imbibe reminded me of the young beautiful women I’d seen frequenting the bars and discos in Rio de Janeiro the several times I’d traveled south of the equator. Luscious tempting women, sexually graphic in their sultry appearance, and though Elisa Marie was more slender—Brazilian women are renowned for their wide hips and prominent bundas or derrieres—she encapsulated the female essence to such a degree I found myself visualizing her nude sculpted form perched on a stone pedestal.

She was studying the old photograph in close detail so I just sat and stared at her while the amaretto took some of the edge off the throbbing behind my eye. Again I made notes of the subtle changes in her conduct—less sanguine, more saturnine—that I’d first observed while she’d stood in the studio. Something was disturbing her. I read this in the contemplative yet sad expression on her face.

I hoped it had nothing to do with my reluctance to unveil Girl Blue.

She finished her amaretto, leaving a thin burnt-orange liquid film at the bottom of the glass. She indicated a refill and I obliged both of us. She’d finished the translation.

“I don’t know if you want to know,” she remarked as she dunked the ice cube several times with her index finger then licked the digit clean of liqueur.

“It’s only one article,” I said.

“Yes. I suppose.”

“Tell me.”

“It’s tragic.”

“I can take tragic.”

She gazed at me a long moment, in a way I’d never seen her look at me before. Though, I was sure it was the alcohol and Vicodin blurring my radar, I wanted to convince myself I was wrong. Each time she moved her head, the lambent light reflected softly off the moisture on her lips, the blue in her eyes, and the gold in her earrings. Her face had become a constellation of tiny twinkles, beautifully spaced. I felt myself falling under a spell I had no ability, nor desire to break.

“Can I ask how you found this particular granite?” Elisa Marie asked.

“The quarry foreman contacted me.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.