Page 41 of Art of Love
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The lights beamed downon me. That was my cue to move. Three steps forward with my arms outstretched to either side. Stop and look ahead at the crowd, then move another three steps to my right and stop.
It reminded me of the one and only play I did back in high school.
I was a terrible actress, and that day, I was pretty certain I showed everyone just that as I tried to play Kathy Bostock fromWhistle Down the Wind.
God, my acting was dreadful. I’d been fifteen years old and at that awkward age when everything was just ...awkward. It was a terrible night. I even saw Todd laughing at me, and Grams. God. Poor Mom did her best though and told me she knew I’d tried, and that one day, I was going to get my moment to shine.
That felt like tonight, right now, as Impasso opened its first show for the season and I walked out onto the floor asThe Woman in the Water.
That was what Hunter and I called our attraction. I had to say it was the best word for me because I looked like something that had just stepped out of a dark fantasy artwork come to life.
My stage was a platform he’d built just beyond the foyer, so as the guests came through to go into the exhibition, I was the first thing they would see.
Hunter had created the costume for me. A strapless silver dress made of silk with a sweetheart neck. It was fitted at the top and flowed down from my waist and around my legs so it flirted with my ankles as I moved.
He’d painted the rest of me silver, practically from head to toe, and even sprayed my hair silver too.
I was to look like water, and as the lights shone on me, he’d down the graphics to make it look like I was floating in a ball of water that rippled around me as I moved.
When I stopped, the lights would shimmer and ripple again when I started walking.
I’d been nervous earlier, but I wasn’t now. This was completely different from the play my fifteen-year-old self had performed in, and very different from anything I’d ever done in my life.
The whole display of me walking from one corner of the platform to the other and stopping so the water could shimmer around me took ten minutes. And all I had to do was walk and own the show.
That’s what I felt like. Like all the people before me came to see me. There must have been over a hundred people here, and they all looked on at me in amazement. Clapping and gasping at my vibrant presence.
Then at last, my final act was to lift my arms above my head and reach for the stars.
For this, the light turned gold and sparkled over me, bathing me in pure golden sunlight and starlight turning me the same color.
The people cheered around me, and more gasps sounded.
My whole being came alive with the energy and excitement in a way that it hadn’t before. It was as if I was one with the vision I’d seen in my head that day weeks ago, and here I was acting out what I’d envisioned.
As the last spark of starlight fluttered over me, my eyes landed on Hunter standing on the second floor. John was next to him, clapping and saying something to him, but his eyes were on me.
He was watching me the way he’d been for the last two weeks. Like the rippling of the light, the stars, and the energy that flickered through me my heart fluttered.
Our eyes locked, even though we were a great distance apart, and even when darkness fell over me, blocking out the crowd when my display ended, I could still feel his eyes on me.
I stood there for a second or two basking in it. I had about two minutes to walk back to where I’d come from to repeat my display another five times.
As I made my way back, I thought of how my creativity hadn’t sparked like it had in a very long time until that day at the park.
I almost felt like me again. Like the woman I was before I had the weight of the world on my shoulders.
Life was tough when I was growing up. It was really bad at times, but it was different when things were bad and you had someone to take care of you. Having no one and a friend who made things worse practically highlighted just how awful things could be, and one wrong move could change everything.
I took my position for the spotlight to shine on me again. Hunter would be gone to start his duties and the task of trying to find clues for the first project. Doing this little performance of mine was a sacrifice for me and trusting him to basically not screw me over, just in case I missed something.
Well, here goes. The lights came on, and I froze as I looked up to where Hunter was and saw that he was still there. No John this time. Just him, and as he looked at me, it felt like we were the only two people in the room.
He stayed for the whole hour, sacrificing the time too. I’d never wanted him to do that, but it was nice to feel like he was with me throughout the whole show.
We did the same thing for the next two nights. The same act of going through the motions of watching each other from a far, and I could feel something starting to change between us.
