Steven Millhauser - The Barnum Museum - Stories

Panel 9.The youngish man in the blue cutaway stands facing a white-haired woman wearing two rows of pearls. In the speech balloon above her head are the words: I’M SO GLAD YOU COULD COME, ALFRED. Far behind them, at the bay window, we see the white arm and black hip of the raven-haired woman.

Panel 10.Alfred stands at one side of the bay window, looking furtively at the raven-haired woman who stands at the other side, looking out at the yellow fog. Her high-piled hair is pulled so tightly back that it appears to be tugging back the skin of her face and lengthening her almond eye. In the thought balloon above his head are the words: DO I DARE?

Panel 11.A close-up of the face of the raven-haired woman. Her hair is shiny black with dark-blue and purple highlights. Her eyebrows are thin and arched and purple-black. The red of her lips and the purple of her eyebrows are slightly off-center and imprint the neighboring skin with eyebrow and lip. Thin crescents of her violet irises have slid into the whites of her eyes. Her cheeks are hollow and beneath her eyes lie shadows like pale bruises. Her face is white with blue and lavender shadows.

Panel 12.A view of the building, which is black and almost entirely concealed by thick yellow patches of fog. In the street stand two men in pea jackets and wool caps. In the speech balloon above one man’s head are the words: JEEZ, DIS IS SOME FOG, HUH JOE? In the speech balloon above the other man’s head are the words: T’ICK EZ PEA SOUP! In a yellow bay window high above their heads two silhouettes are visible.

Panel 13.The white-haired woman stands between Alfred and the raven-haired woman at the window. The white-haired woman is looking at Alfred. In the speech balloon near her head are the words: WOULD YOU LIKE A CUP OF TEA? In the speech balloon above his head are the words: WHY YES, THAT’S VERY…I MEAN, IF IT ISN’T TOO MUCH TROUBLE…

Panel 14.Close-up of a white porcelain teacup filled with tea. Two wavy vertical lines rise in the air above the tea. A teaspoon rests in the cup and fingertips grasp the end of the spoon. On the teacup is painted a Japanese lady concealing the lower half of her face behind a red-and-black fan.

Panel 15.Alfred is shown as an infant in a diaper fastened by a big safety pin, as a toddler in shorts, as a boy of ten in a sailor suit, as a college student in cap and gown being handed a diploma, and as a fashionable young man-about-town. The infant holds a little spoon, the toddler holds a red ball in one hand and a spoon in the other hand, the boy in the sailor suit holds a sailboat in one hand and a spoon in the other hand, the college student’s diploma is wrapped around a spoon, and the fashionable young man is resting his gloved hand on a walking stick shaped like an enormous spoon. In the yellow band at the top of the panel are the words: I HAVE MEASURED OUT MY LIFE WITH COFFEE SPOONS…

Panel 16.The raven-haired woman is half reclining on a red velvet couch, with one bare white arm extended along the couch arm. The material of her dress is stretched tightly across her rounded hip. Her lace fichu is parted slightly. The top halves of her big round breasts rise above the square décolletage of her black bodice and seem about to burst the cloth. In the lamplight her blue-black hair glitters like gunmetal. Alfred sits in a white wing chair turned partly toward the red velvet couch. He holds a teacup in one raised hand. Her blue-black melancholy eyes, fringed by long black lashes, are half closed. Beside Alfred’s chair a smiling man looks down at him. In the speech balloon above the man’s head are the words: LONG TIME NO SEE, OLD BOY. Behind him a stern woman in a lavender silk dress and a black lace shawl stands holding a cup of tea. In the speech balloon above her head is the word: MICHELANGELO…

Panel 17.Alfred is hanging on a wall. A large pin passes through the collar of his blue cutaway. The collar stretches higher than his head. The tightly bunched sleeves are pulled up to his forearms and the high wing collar comes over his ears. In one hand he holds, awkwardly, a cup of tea.

Panel 18.Alfred is sitting in his chair. The white-haired lady is standing beside him, holding the teapot. In the speech balloon above her head are the words: MORE TEA? In the speech balloon above his head are the words: WHY YES, I…THANK YOU, I…To the left of the white-haired lady we see a corner of the red velvet couch, a white upper arm, a curve of shiny blue-black hair.

Panel 19.Close-up of a plump ivory-white arm resting on the red couch arm. From the frilled edge of a green lampshade, yellow light pours. A silver bracelet with luminous white highlights loosely circles the wrist. The long, languorous hand holds a white teacup. At the ends of long fingers the sharp nails are shiny blood-red against the white porcelain. On the upsweep of the forearm lies a dusting of light-brown hairs.

Panel 20.Alfred is sitting in his chair, holding a cup of tea on his knee. The white-haired lady is standing beside him, holding a silver sugar bowl. In the speech balloon above her head are the words: I FORGET. DO YOU TAKE SUGAR? Alfred is daydreaming. In the thought balloon above his head we see a narrow street with tenements on both sides. In open windows, sad-eyed potbellied men in undershirts, smoking pipes, lean their elbows on the sills.

Panel 21.A close-up of the white-haired hostess. Lines of worry appear in her forehead. In the speech balloon beside her mouth are the words: IS ANYTHING THE MATTER?

Panel 22.Alfred in his chair, from the waist up, facing us. He has a strained smile. His speech balloon reads: I…I DON’T KNOW, I…One of his arms is resting on the chair-arm. The hand is a crab’s claw. The other hand holds a teacup. The fingers remain, but the back of the hand has already turned to crabshell.

Panel 23.The crowded room. A bald man is shown half rising from a lyre-backed chair, which tips backward. He holds a tilted saucer on which a teacup is balanced on one edge. Tea from the cup hangs in the air. The man’s mouth is open wide, his eyebrows are raised, one hand is pressed to his cheek. Behind him an open-mouthed woman in a blue gown stands with an arm extended and the palm up, as if to ward off a blow. Another woman cranes her neck forward, peering intently through a lorgnette. The red book has fallen from the open hand of the mustached man at the mantelpiece and has reached the level of his waist. The monocle has sprung from his eye. Everyone is staring at Alfred in his chair. Both of Alfred’s hands are claws and his face is that of a gigantic crustacean. One claw holds in its pincers a teacup by the handle. On the red couch the raven-haired woman stares straight ahead, without expression.

Panel 24.On the ocean floor lies a gigantic crab. Behind it, tilted in the sand, a white wing chair stands in the green water. On the chair seat, a teacup sits on a saucer. A red fish swims above the teacup. Dark green seaweed hangs on the back of the chair and over the arms.

Panel 25.Alfred is sitting in his chair, mopping his forehead with a polka-dot handkerchief. The white-haired hostess leans toward him. Her speech balloon reads: ARE YOU SURE YOU’RE ALL RIGHT, ALFRED? His speech balloon reads: OH YES…YES…I’M ALL RIGHT!!

Panel 26.The crowded room. Faces have turned to stare at a red-jacketed butler who strides toward Alfred. The butler’s right leg is swung out and the black cloth of the pant leg clings to the front of the leg and billows behind. On the cupped fingers of one hand the butler holds aloft a silver platter topped by a silver dome.