Colum McCann - Dancer

the first time he came to the Dakota, years ago, the doormen in their uniforms and epaulets directed him to the service entrance and Victor caused a fuss, until Rudi got on the intercom and shouted at the doormen to let his guest up immediately, but the next day, when Victor visited a second time, the doormen nodded austerely and allowed him to pass, so he went straight to the service entrance, his head hanging low, baffling the doormen, part of Victor’s style, for, as Rudi says, remaining unknowable is the only true way to be known

and when he arrives upstairs in Rudi’s apartment the preparations are under way, this is the first night of Rudi’s run in Lucifer and a surprise party will be given in the seven-room spread, the last place Rudi would expect it, and Victor has offered his services free of charge, to choreograph the evening, to bend the flowers so they bow from their vases, to place the bowl of caviar at the just-reachable centerspot, to change the wattage in the lightbulbs, to scatter the chairs so there’ll be no bunching, to smooth the creases in the velvet sofas, to adjust the drapes for the view to Central Park, to fold the napkins near the scented candles in the bathroom, to illuminate subtly the hand-painted Chinese wallpaper, all the etiquette of the evening, so the party will run like a drug or a dream or both, and Victor casts a quick look over the hired crew dressed in formal wear, then makes his way towards another group, the organizers, all society women, bejeweled, middle-aged, wealthy, powerful, reminiscent of beauty, skin tanned to tobacco color — oh what a row of elegant Lucky Strikes — and they are huddled, gravely going over arrangements, and when Victor breaks their ranks their faces change, both dislike and relief, the women are concerned, deeply so, since reputations are on the line, and it is exactly Victor’s insouciance they can never achieve, although they try to draw it from him, while he shouts to nobody in particular, Somebody please direct these beauties to the Valium! and the women laugh, but Victor knows they are not just laughing, their laughter has another intelligence, the women have just relinquished control, and they lean in to Victor, having become his foot soldiers — he must use them like royalty and pieces of shit at the very same time — so he directs them to the kitchen, where the fridge has been liberally stocked with champagne, bids them to make a pyramid of glasses for him, fills the glasses with a flourish, says, Let the bacchanalia begin! and the women are forced to clink glasses, to forget all the crimes of the past, who threw a bigger party, who sat closest to the orchestra pit, whose hand got kissed by Oscar de la Renta, none of it matters now that Victor is in charge and, using his power, he tells them how wonderful they look in their Halston dresses, their sparkling Tiffany jewelry, their perfect maquillage, I’d burn a thousand ships just to be around you! and then he instructs them to watch the hired help, keep an eye on the waiters, be vigilant with the silverware, and — leaning so close now that they can see the dark outline of Victor’s pupils — he seems as if he is about to reveal some fabulous secret, but pauses and says, Ladies! the banquet table is in serious need of a face-lift!

when Victor first moved in Rudi’s circle he was surprised at the older women who crowded around, willing to do everything and anything, some of them even sporting boyish haircuts in the vague hope that Rudi would find them attractive, which he never did, but they continued to hope, although now that age is spoiling their bodies they are in search of a son to spoil instead, which makes Victor think of his own late mother, his one regret being that he wasn’t with her when she succumbed, in the depths of the Bronx, to a strange liver disease, Victor at the time being so broke that he was unable to take her back to Venezuela, until years later he was on a trip with Rudi and they stopped off in Caracas for an afternoon, took a taxi to the hills, and spread her ashes at the foot of Mount Avila, watched her dust scatter, and it was one of the few times Victor cried publicly, he sat on the ground, put his head to his knees, wept quietly, then let out a howl, stood up and bid her good-bye, and it had shocked Rudi — this brute intimacy of grief — and the following night Rudi dedicated his dance in Caracas to her memory, stumbling once, but rising again in an elegant rage, which Victor, at the back of the opera house, thought a beautiful replica of his mother’s life, the dance, the stumble, the anger, the applause, the encore, the curtain falling before she could limp to the wings

and Victor steps mock-angrily out of the kitchen, clicking his fingers at the hired help in their bad tuxedos, ordering them to assemble, it is a thin line he walks, for although he likes them, empathizes with them, respects them even, he knows what he must say, and soon the help are assembled in the kitchen, all twelve of them, high hair and bracelets, tattoos hidden beneath their sleeves, and Victor doesn’t lean close but draws back for authority, speaking of the ladies, saying, Those bitches have us over a barrel, not a hint of a Venezuelan accent but still a sort of barrio bravado in his voice, as if this is the most important job they will ever do, and if they don’t do it properly he will fire them even before Rudi comes back, since he knows what they want, everyone wants it, just to be near Rudi, just to say they touched him, but for good measure Victor turns up the heat a few notches, takes a deep breath, looks them each in the eye, says that if the work is not done well he will take every last man and string him up from the ceiling by his puny little cock and beat him like a fat white piñata— you doubt me? — and then he’ll take every woman and thread the sleeve of his orange shirt through her orifices and swing her mercilessly over the trees into Central Park, where there’ll be a dozen black boys waiting to gang-bang her, and the hired help are suddenly wide-eyed, until Victor breaks the tension with a long laugh, which becomes gentle, kind, full of tenderness, and he says if they do well there’s an extra twenty-five bucks each, maybe even some nose candy, and now Victor is aware they are so thoroughly confused that he has them under his thumb, that the evening has firmly settled into place like a good carpentry job, the pegs snug, the legs squared off, thinking in fact that he has performed such a great job he might have time to dash into the park for fifteen minutes or so, make his way up towards the Rambles

oh the Rambles! all the scraddlelegged boys strung out in silhouette! all the tramping of weeds! all the faces shoved into brambles! all the bandannas in back pockets! all the drugs fermenting in all the bodies! what a human candy store! all the horsewhips and cockrings and lubricants and other chewable delights! all the winding paths! the soil indented with the patterns of knees! the moon out behind a dozen different trees! Johnnie Ramon with his shadow long on the grass and oh so tautly bowed! yes! Victor and the Rambles know each other well, and not just for nature walks, once or twice he has even accompanied Rudi there, because Rudi sometimes likes the tough boys, the raucous ones, the hot tamales who come down from the Bronx and Harlem

but instead of the Rambles Victor opts for an alternative dose of resurrection, ducks into the bathroom, cleans the top of the tank with pieces of wet tissue, chops out a line, snorts with great gusto, shakes his head and stomps one foot, and he is out once more, answering a sharp buzz from the intercom, saying, Send them up! and within moments the caterers are at the door with dozens of trays of food, some of which he guides to the kitchen and the rest he has lined up on the banquet table, all manner of delicacies, much of it Russian, sliced sturgeon, beluga caviar in chilled bowls, horsemeat pâté, krendeli, pirozhki, Black Sea oysters, meat salads, Stroganoff, the women beside him fussing and fretting, he calms them by taking just a tiny taste of the caviar on the tip of his finger, Good enough for a Queen! then spends the next hour checking on the work of his charges, the women watching the hired help, the hired help watching the women, coordinated now like a song, so that Victor can do the things he needs to do, tilting the paintings in the living room just the tiniest bit off angle, especially the Meynier, his own little joke, Wisdom Defending Youth Against Love, and he turns the divan from the window so that it will not be commandeered by some sad slouch, arranges the ashtrays at a distance from the fine couches, adjusts the dimmer on the lights, fans the tassels on the Persian rugs, lines up Beethoven on the stereo to be followed by James Brown— a little musical anarchy please! — all the time watching the clock, the evening descending to the smallest details, the folds in the napkins, the position of the candelabra, the angle of the piano, the temperature of the mushroom sauce, so that Victor becomes impatient, tapping his foot, trying to figure out at what stage the dance is, if Rudi is finished yet, how long the ovation will take, until the intercom buzzes and the first guests of the evening announce themselves, so Victor bows generously to the organizing ladies, allowing them their kudos, barks one final time at the bartender who has not polished the glasses to satisfaction, Beware, I will return! for that is another rule of Victor’s, never be first at a party, even if he’s in charge, and instead of taking the elevator down he walks the stairwell, briefly pensive, almost sad, Victor spending a moment alone with Victor, leaning his head against the mustard-colored wall, breathing deeply, feeling the relaxation seep into his body, down to his toes, time for a quiet cocktail, somewhere dark and anonymous, not a gay bar, not a club, and not a Rambles cocktail either! somewhere he can rest temporarily, save his energy for the remains of the evening, and he finds a seedy little joint on Seventy-fourth and Amsterdam, checks out the jukebox, wonders how Rudi will react to the invasion