Laird Hunt - Ray of the Star

“Our gondoleer,” Harry said,

“He doesn’t look happy,” Solange said,

“You’re right, he’s not, he’s been standing here waiting for three quarters of an hour next to this abandoned, borrowed Yellow Submarine waiting to see if the person who borrowed it from him would turn up again,” Alfonso said sternly, while inwardly in fact he was quite pleased that Harry’s negligence in re the submarine had so conveniently handed him a straightforward justification for rescinding Harry’s occupational privileges, and he was preparing to broach this subject, and to extract an imminent date and time for Harry to fulfill his end of the bargain and tell him his story, which would no doubt intersect intriguingly with the connoisseurs planned attentions, when a curious thought, one that had not entered into his calculations about the source of his misgiving earlier, entered his mind — no doubt by some side door or other, the handle of which was Solange’s happily smudged silver face or Harry’s sweat-streaked wrists or the half-shredded sparkling water bottle splayed across the roots of the oak tree that rose and spread just behind them — and made him uncross his arms and recross them then look off to the side to study the thought again then once more before confirming that, yes, while of course as he well knew he had been the one who had told a certain handsome young man interested in taking up the living statue profession and who had come and stood in front of him, for the purpose of observation, for several days, that he might, since he was interested in golden things, just as well go and observe the technique of the angel near the top of the boulevard, and then of course a few days later the young man had become the golden angel’s young man and then, some weeks later, had died horribly and smashed her heart to smithereens, all this he knew, but it hadn’t occurred to him until just that very moment that it was the connoisseurs who had planted the suggestion in his mind, during one of their circuits, as they passed behind him, “Send that guy off to see Solange, that’s who he ought to see next, that would be good, don’t you think?” or had it been them? was he remembering something that had actually occurred or dropping depth charges from the present into the past? he didn’t think so, and because he didn’t, because there was doubt in his mind and maybe just a little more than doubt, especially given the expressions that had played over the connoisseurs’ faces when they had discussed Harry earlier, instead of telling Harry it was time for him and the submarine to part ways, he leaned over, opened the hatch, and said,

“Climb in,”

“We’re going somewhere,” Harry said,

“I’ll take you,” Alfonso said,

“You’re sure?” Solange said,

Alfonso patted the side of the submarine and said it would be good exercise,

“Are you going to take that stuff off or walk with it?” Harry said, pointing at Alfonso’s hind legs,

“They’re on rollers, they work even better than the submarine, every now and again I like to move around a little when I’m performing, it wouldn’t do to walk off without my legs,” Alfonso said, and before Harry could say something else, Solange took his arm and pulled him into the submarine and shut the hatch behind them, and after she had instructed Alfonso to grab her gear then told him where they were going, they were off, and as they moved off, Harry and Solange looked at each other and Solange said,

“I think he’s going to tell us something,”

“I think so too,” Harry said,

“The thing is I can’t,” Alfonso said, “Or at the very least I shouldn’t, it’s difficult, even tedious, extremely tedious, it’s just that a moment ago I had a thought and that thought, well, made me think,”

“I thought a thought but the thought I thought was not the thought that I thought I thought,” said Harry,

“If only,” said Alfonso,

“This is about the connoisseurs, something to do with them, isn’t it?” said Solange,

“It might and it might not be,” said Alfonso,

“We saw you at the market with them earlier,”

“We had breakfast,”

“After the long night,”

“It was a long night, wasn’t it, too long, maybe I’m just overtired,”

“Maybe we all are, I’m not finding this submarine as comfortable today as I used to, plus I saw a ghost,” said Harry,

“Actually, I don’t feel particularly tired,” said Solange, “And when I saw you four this morning I got the feeling you were cooking something up, though I wouldn’t have thought it had anything to do with us,”

“Well, ha, ha,” said Alfonso,

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know, I really don’t, look, just whatever it is you’re going to do, don’t do it,”

“You mean don’t have dinner?”

“He means don’t go with Ireneo, that is what you mean isn’t it?”

“Who’s Ireneo?”

“Some guy,”

“Some guy that was looking for you?”

“Why?”

“I forgot to mention it but he asked me about you,”

“What did you tell him?”

“I sent him goose chasing,”

“He got tired of chasing gooses and came to see me, but anyway, why shouldn’t we go with Ireneo?”

“I didn’t say you shouldn’t go with anyone, I just said whatever it is you’re going to do, don’t do it,”

“The café is just over there,” said Harry,

“Fine,” said Alfonso, “I’ve warned you, which is a lot more than I should have done, though as a last thing I’ll just say that I really don’t have any idea if following my warning will help,”

“Fabulous,” said Harry, “Thanks a billion,”

“Yes, that’s not all that helpful, Alfonso,” said Solange,

“Apologies, but that’s all I can offer, I’m not sure if I knew more I would tell you, in fact I think I wouldn’t, there may already be consequences, though I hope not, and now I’ll have to go, and if you don’t mind, Harry, I’ll take the submarine along with me, you won’t be needing it anymore will you?”

“No,” said Harry,

“Good,” said Alfonso, then he opened the hatch and Solange and Harry stepped out and went straight into the café and sat down at a table and ordered dinner and when dinner arrived, Harry said,

“Do you still want to go?”

“Yes, how about you?”

“Yes,”

“You have to admit that was a little odd,”

“Yes,” Harry said, and shuddered, which made Solange shiver, about which they both laughed, then Ireneo arrived, bowed to Solange and apologized, in some detail, for the earlier misunderstanding that had kept her from her audience with Doña Eulalia, told Harry that he was feeling just fine and that he had taken care of the issue that had made it seem, when they had spoken, like there was a problem, to whit he had thrown his shoes off a cliff and purchased the relatively quiet espadrilles he was wearing and wouldn’t be doing any further running for the foreseeable future, then guided them off along what proved to be a fairly unproblematic set of twists and turns that ended in front of Doña Eulalia’s building, and although Harry couldn’t for the life of him understand why he hadn’t been able to find said building when he had gone looking, he had the feeling that if he mentioned this to Ireneo, Ireneo would come up with something as bizarre and unexplained/unexplainable as he had about his shoes, and Harry, feeling more than a little fatigued, thought he would leave any additional ellipses to Doña Eulalia and her lamps, though Solange, perhaps because she felt much less implicated than Harry in what was to come next, felt no need whatsoever to keep quiet, and, because she had had her interest piqued, as they approached the large green door, said, “I’m walking in between someone who saw a ghost this morning and someone else who felt he needed to throw his shoes off a cliff this afternoon — I know something about the ghost but nothing about the shoes, care to enlighten me?”