Saturday, December 20, 2014

erik


ben was up to his usual tricks and it was a wonder that the current batch of underworld thugs he'd ripped off hadn't murdered him yet. he wanted to tell me the particulars, but i just waved him off. if ben wound up dead, it made no difference to me as long as i had the cash in my hand for the work i'd completed. i don't know why i took the job, i didn't really need the money- i guess greed since he'd offered me 5x my rate with no strings attached. anyway, the house was finished now and in spite of having to constantly struggle against bens' nagging bad taste- it was spectacular. the color palette was rich and sumptuous, the textiles were luxurious and tasteful, the walls glowed with painstakingly applied venetian plaster and all the architectural details had been researched and lovingly restored to their perfect art deco origins. i'd brought in some massive gears and used them as a partition in the great room to top it all off with a little bauhaus flavor. it was gorgeous and i was exhausted. ben and i ended our tour of the house in the media room and when he indicated that we should sit for a moment, i did not hesitate to rest my weary bones on the aubergine mohair chesterfield sofa i'd placed there. as we surveyed the room, ben was twitchy and looking around as though he expected someone to burst in at any moment. finally he suggested that a finishing touch would be over-sized panels between the 4 columns on the far wall, each painted with a figure. i was astonished to realize it was true. my insides churned as i knew i would never be happy unless those paintings were there. i excused myself and headed back to my studio. i toiled through the weekend but it was no use, i simply had not budgeted for the energy expenditure of four 8 foot oils. finally i called in erik. i handed him the roughed out canvases almost in tears. as usual, he smiled and said, 'don't worry, i'll make them beautiful'. 3 days later we were standing in the media room with ben watching the workmen put up his finished masterpieces.

as we walked out onto the patio, i saw that ben's house was actually attached to another and there was no wall separating the yards. ben saw me looking at the garish, cartoon palace of his neighbor and said, 'i don't want to put up a fence because it's roseanne barr. erik and i looked at each other incredulously.

i watched as ben counted out many thousands of dollars into erik's open palm. erik and i drove away laughing so hard we could not speak.

6 Comments:

At December 22, 2014 at 2:58 PM , Blogger Greenpa said...

One of the exceptional things about your dream narratives (to me) is the extraordinarily low number of typos, misspellings, or mistaken word choices. And here, we have two! "Waive" for "wave", and "palate" for "palette". Hm.

So; were you testing, to see if I'm awake? Intentionally swapping those, as humor? Too much cold medicine, or champagne? Inquiring minds, and all. :-)

 
At December 22, 2014 at 3:50 PM , Blogger shandra beri said...

aaaaaannnd... fixed (thank you!). the internet has really eroded many of the sharp edges in my brain! sometimes i don't remember which device i'm using and i'll try to 'swipe' text on my ipad or magnify an image with my fingers on my laptop like it's a touchscreen. for years and years i resisted the siren call of abandoning my inner my grammar-Nazi. i held fast as long as i could, but technology won and now as a result, i am partially stupid.

my only consolation is that children of the future won't be able to read cursive.

:D

 
At December 22, 2014 at 6:54 PM , Blogger Greenpa said...

MMGBPAL

(multi muffled guffaws because people are listening)

 
At December 22, 2014 at 7:01 PM , Blogger shandra beri said...

(oO)

 
At December 26, 2014 at 9:19 AM , Blogger Greenpa said...

Got me on that one. What? :-) (In high school I had a serious girl friend who delighted in ending her letters to me at summer camp with long strings of "initials" - 30-40 letters long. No translation provided- then; or EVER. Torture.)

 
At December 26, 2014 at 9:39 AM , Blogger shandra beri said...

haha... it's just a little face with googly eyes! :)

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home