Lucy by Laurence Gonzales

Author:Laurence Gonzales [Gonzales, Laurence]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
ISBN: 978-0-307-59366-5
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2010-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

23

AMANDA HAD TAKEN CHARGE of Lucy’s wardrobe. “Let’s go sixties. What do you think?”

“What does sixties mean?”

“I mean the fashion of that time period. The 1960s.”

“You’re asking me about fashion?”

They’d had just enough time to make it to a vintage clothing store that Amanda knew in the East Village. Jenny let the girls go on their own, out into Manhattan. New York. Who could have dreamed up such a place? The throb of noise, the dazzling colors and the lights of Times Square, steam rising from the street in white columns as if the heart of the city smoldered with eternal fire—it all left Lucy breathless. She had to force herself to stop paying such close attention.

At the vintage store, Amanda clawed through the racks and came up with one she liked. “There,” she said, holding it up against Lucy’s shoulders. “A nice A-line patterned dress with bell sleeves. That and a little pendant. I have just the thing.”

Lucy had not known what Amanda was talking about, but she wore the clothes. And early the next morning, in a dark and cavernous space like a warehouse, she tottered uncertainly on heels as a woman led her through a clutter of equipment manned by shadowy figures. Cables snaked underfoot everywhere across the floor. “Watch your step,” the woman said. The darkened forms of technicians hunched at their stations, peering at dim red and green lights.

They emerged into a cauterizing light, where a pretty, blond woman sat in what appeared to be a disembodied living room, torn free from its house and set inexplicably down here for no apparent reason. The woman sat in a beige easy chair, beaming as if she’d lost her mind. So this was the illusion, Lucy thought. All this mess led to that clean picture on the little screen.

The blond woman leapt up and embraced her. “Oh, my dear darling girl, I am so honored to meet you. Welcome. Welcome. I’m Diane.” She sat once more, smirking and saying apologetically, “I can’t go too far. My microphone.”

“Thank you,” Lucy said, as she sat in the other beige chair before a great television screen that said “Good Morning America” on it. A technician approached and attached Lucy’s microphone.

A rumpled man wearing headphones, his jeans falling down, came forward and said, “And ten seconds, Diane.” She smiled at Lucy and held up a finger, as if to say: Wait.

Lucy watched as the man counted silently with his fingers: five, four, three, two, one—and then pointed at the woman, who clasped her hands together and beamed at someone who wasn’t there.

“We are so lucky today to have with us our incredibly special guest, Lucy Lowe. I’m sure you’ve all heard already, but just in case you haven’t, Lucy is a hybrid human. Astounding as it might seem, her mother was a great anthropoid ape. Lucy, welcome.”

“Thank you.” Lucy saw several television screens before her, and was trying to figure out where to look. “Sorry, I’ve never been on this side of the television screen before.

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