Lightspeed Magazine - November 2016 by John Joseph Adams

Author:John Joseph Adams [Ed.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction Magazine
Publisher: John Joseph Adams
Published: 2016-10-31T11:00:00+00:00

KUSTOM KARS AND KANVASES

VANCE VON JOLLY, ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

“HOUSE OF THE WINGED HEART”

1616 ROTHFINK BOULEVARD

Thurman checked his wallet. Not a lot of green. But hey—he had a job now!

In the cab, Thurman speculated on what he would find at the end of the ride.

Disembarking, he discovered the wan products of his imagination to be a pale shadow of reality.

He stood facing an old garage: four cinderblock bays flanked by an office space. The entire nondescript structure, however, had been studded with brightly colored glazed ceramic objects in bas-relief, executed in a zippy cartoon style. Animals, trees, people, cars, toys, musical notes.

Above the office door was the biggest piece of pottery, big as a sofa: an anatomically correct heart sprouting white-feathered angel wings.

Thurman entered the cluttered office. No one home. He moved into the bays.

The first three were occupied by exotic cars: hotrods in various stages of being gaudily decorated. The last bay was filled with easels and wall-leaning stacks of canvases, also in various stages of completion. The paintings exhibited the same daffy sensibility as the outdoor ceramics. A beat-up workbench held brushes, tubes of color, tins of thinner and crusty rags. A tatty couch with mussed blankets, a metal-topped kitchen table and a small refrigerator seemed to hint at regular overnight human occupancy.

A toilet flushed. Through an opening door—whose frosted glass bore the calligraphic legend INSPIRATION: TEN CENTS—walked a very pale muscular man with a trendy arrangement of dark facial hair offset by a thinning on top. One earlobe, his left, was studded with segments of a severed silver snake, like the colonial DON’T TREAD ON ME. He was concentrating on tucking his paint-splattered green mechanic’s shirt into his Swiss Army-surplus wool pants, and so did not immediately notice Thurman. Lacking sleeves, his abbreviated shirt revealed several tattoos, including a winged heart.

“Er, Vance?”

The guy stopped and looked up with neither welcome nor discouragement. “Who’re you?”

Thurman, growing more and more doubtful, volunteered his name. Then: “I was sent by Shenda Moore. She said you’d have a regular job for me . . . ?”

“You know kandy-flake? Or striping? I could use some help striping. How about bodywork? Can you do bodywork?”

“Well, I’m good with tools, and I picked up a lot of special skills in the Army.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

“Well, basically I was a demolition expert. But I can learn new things quick.”

Vance von Jolly had gotten his shirt stuck in the zipper of his pants, and was now struggling mightily to restore his apparel to its proper functioning. Thurman wondered if he should offer to help.

“Jesus! That Shenda! She drives me nuts! All right, I suppose you can start by washing brushes. Any thumb-fingered idiot can wash brushes.”

Thurman was hurt. “Wait just a minute now—”

“Oh, did I mention I can’t work with anyone who gets pissed off at my dumb mouth?”

“No. Unless that was the warning just now.”

Unable to free his shirt from the toothy tangle, Vance ceased struggling and moved to the workbench. Buttoning his waistband, he found an alligator clip and pinched shut the upper open portion of his fly.

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.