The Other Adonis by Frank Deford

The Other Adonis by Frank Deford

Author:Frank Deford
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2011-10-30T16:00:00+00:00


24

Nina escorted Bucky up to Constance’s room. “I’ll give you two minutes,” she barked at him like a schoolmarm. Normally, he would have had some wiseass comeback, but now he was ashen and nervous and without repartee. Certainly, without smirking.

Constance opened the door, and Nina stared at the two of them staring at each other. Constance was lovely, far more simply dressed than ever—probably because she had dressed to undress. A plain dress of brown and white, buttoned all the way down the front. She was without jewelry, and barefoot—and altogether, Nina thought, presented some rare combination of sensuality and innocence. Anyway, without a word, Nina closed the door in her own face, leaving them inside the room together.

Immediately, Bucky took Constance in his arms. It was, really, the first time they had ever touched, and they kissed with such power that they seemed to all but suck the breath from one another. But they needed to affirm their love, too, and so at once they exchanged vows, for forever and always. Then Constance fell upon his chest and pleaded with him to hold her, tighter. He did, too, only after a while, Bucky knew he must say, “We have to let Nina in.”

And so she entered, as coldly professional as she could be, with a blank expression purposely plastered upon her face. Nina put two chairs next to each other (separating them just enough to keep Constance and Bucky out of actual physical contact), bade them take their seats, and then sat down on the side of the bed herself, facing them. Then straightaway, without ado, Nina began:

“I do not understand what is going on—only that something incredible has happened between you two, and that somehow, somehow, it relates to pictures painted by Peter Paul Rubens in the year 1635 in his studio in Antwerp. For now, I’ll leave it to you to decide whether we’re dealing with reincarnation or some other phenomenon or”—Nina threw up her hands—“God knows what. But let’s not speculate on that for now. Let me only tell you what I know. Okay?”

Bucky and Constance looked over at each other with excitement, then nodded enthusiastically. So, Nina took out her notes, even though most of what she’d learned was emblazoned on her mind. Quickly, she recapped the past of their lives—their current lives—acknowledging to them that under hypnosis, they’d both vividly recalled the same incidents from Philadelphia, almost verbatim. “You also both expressed—in talking to me and under hypnosis—the same sort of instant physical—or metaphysical—attraction for one another.”

Bucky smiled shyly, Constance more triumphantly.

Then Nina moved onto a discussion of their similar extreme reactions to the Rubens’s paintings in gallery twenty-seven. Bucky gasped. Constance ducked her head, losing her usual bold assurance. “Yes,” Nina started to explain to Bucky. “I took Constance up there yesterday.”

“I completely lost it,” Constance admitted. “I’m afraid I kinda hit a guard, didn’t I?”

Bucky’s mouth flew open. Nina threw back her elbow in imitation of Constance’s action. “Well, I’d say you just kind of jolted him.



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