Awake

[Saturday, 11/26/2022, 11:45 AM] Lily Pool was a fairly popular place, but most people gathered on the side with the cafe and the bridge, while the opposite bank was usually empty. But not today. The first thing that caught his eye was the brightest red T-shirt he’d ever seen — red, like a muleta in a matador’s hand, like a screaming fire alarm, like the blood that for some reason rushed to Daniel’s face. The ginger hair attracted no less of his attention: this shock of locks seemed to get in the way of its owner — he often raised his right hand and awkwardly, with his elbow, tried to remove the strands falling on his face. His hands, apparently, were busy with something. From time to time his bare feet took a step or two in the lush green grass; at some point he groaned and hit himself on the calf, leaving a green handprint — local insects were not indifferent to bare legs with toned muscles and they appeared to especially appreciate park visitors in short shorts. Daniel understood them very well. He could no longer stand still and moved towards the water to quietly look at the other side of the invader of his territory. All the stealth failed, because, for the first time that day, Mimi gave a short yelp and, hanging out her tongue, reminded him that the weather was not cold at all. — Sorry, — Daniel praised her for not practicing ill manners and drinking from the pond and took her bowl and water from his backpack. The man on the left gave them an absent-minded glance, which was directed more at the dog than at her owner, and returned to his painting. He was working without an easel, just pressing a plastic tablet with paper taped to it to his stomach. A narrow palette was balancing on the same tablet held by his left hand, tubes of paint strewn at his feet, and the artist would bend over now and again to fill the palette. No, wait, he was bending over… Daniel realized he was staring. Even Mimi, who looked first at him and then at her still-empty cup, understood this. Eventually, she couldn’t stand it anymore and touched his hand with her nose. Daniel blinked and turned away, his face critically close to the red of the T-shirt. But he managed to see the artist’s profile: his snub nose, rather full, half-open lips, and most importantly, a whole scattering of freckles that covered his nose and cheekbones in constellations, thinned out a little on his neck and spilled out again out of the sleeves of his T-shirt. It was fascinating. As for Daniel, he either had no freckles at all, or at the end of February two of them appeared on his nose — pale and unimpressive — only to disappear within a couple of weeks. He had never dated people with freckles and now he wondered how evenly they were distributed over the body, whether there were patterns in how they were grouped or whether they looked like random clusters and flares or drops that disperse across a sheet of paper if you run your finger over a brush that was dipped in copper and terracotta paints. — Sometimes I feel sorry you have very good manners, — Daniel whispered to Mimi. — Otherwise, you’d run up and steal something from him, and I’d give it back, all apologetic. The dog looked at him attentively to make sure that he seriously regretted that she didn’t have kleptomania, then sighed and one could clearly see in her eyes: “Lam, you’re almost 30, do you know that you can just approach people and introduce yourself? If all sorts of Martins do it, then you can do it too!” Despite this support, Mimi’s owner did not move, continuing to watch, most likely, the trees, and not the person that happened to be in front of them. The sun was getting closer to its zenith, and Daniel began to wonder how effective the artist’s sunscreen was because, with such light skin, he would suffer from sunburn in about 3… 2… 1 minute. Indeed, the painter began to touch his neck more and more often, as if checking whether there were blisters there or if he could continue to expose himself to radiation. The burning sensation seemed to have exceeded acceptable levels, because he laid the painting on the grass, casually wiped his hands on a rag, and, taking the cream out of a huge flat bag, began to smear it on his face and neck, at the same time marking himself with the paint here and there. “Me, I can help!” Daniel imagined raising his hand and exclaiming. “It’s irresponsible to apply cream like that without giving your utmost attention to the process, you can miss important areas!” He immediately realized that if he didn’t come over to see the painting while it was lying there, he would have to stand too close to see it later, which the stranger wouldn’t appreciate. So he stood up and asked the dog: — Do you want to go to the pool? OK, let’s go. “Me? “I was completely silent,” Emily was surprised but did not argue. They slowed down near the artist and the one who could speak managed to say: — This is… unusual. There was a pond in the painting, but it didn’t look exactly like mere mortals saw it: dozens of bubbles rose to its surface, reflecting stars, planets, and comets. At the same time, the grass around this body of water was no different from the original, and the Lily Pool building also pretended to be an ordinary masterpiece of architecture, which was just standing there feigning ignorance to the fact that the universe had opened up before it. Well, Daniel’s skills at pretending were no worse than those of Alfred Caldwell’s creation. — For some reason, my water always looks a bit… like this, — the artist wrinkled his nose slightly and smiled. — I like it. Very sunny. For the outer space. — Well, there is the sun in space. And other stars. — True. — I don’t know anything about space. Can you tell? — the artist said without any embarrassment. — A little. — I think I’ve already seen you here. I remember your… dog. — Yes, we come here occasionally. — Daniel did not say that they definitely had not met before because if they had, he would have had to have a serious conversation with himself and ask what was wrong with his eyes at that moment. But he couldn’t resist commenting. — You… missed it here. — He didn’t know how to point to the area between the collarbones, which had no protection from the sun at all. Then he realized that normal people just demonstrate it on themselves. — Thank you. I can’t paint under any kind of covering or even with a hat on —the shadow gets in the way. I have an hour and a half left with this light left, so I guess… Oh no! He was hinting that he no longer needed company! — Yes, sure. We are also in a hurry. — We are in a hurry to get away from here so that we can google in solitude how not to be intrusive — Daniel did not say out loud. They didn’t say goodbye, just exchanged half-smiles. “It’s still hard to believe, Dan,” Mimi’s voice said in his head. He hated being called Dan—it evoked images of aging politicians and bull-necked mixed martial artists—but in moments of reproach, Emily’s voice used this name only. “You have your looks, you have an apartment in fucking Lakeview, you, allow me to remind, have me — who is practically a magnet for nice and kind people — so what’s wrong with you? Why are you still relying on those Grindr alerts, which, FYI, sound like someone’s running with a stick catching in a fence?” — And I think they sound like a fanfare indicating that the future is optimistic and I’m being in demand, — Daniel said stubbornly. — Short-term demand. For, like, twenty minutes. Not the most sustainable supply chain, if you want to know what I think. — Hey! Last time that…what was his name…that’s not the point! — stayed for two hours! — Of which, for ninety-eight minutes he talked about how he couldn’t get a tax deduction for installing solar panels. — Actually, this is a serious problem that needs to be addressed urgently, otherwise, this country will never achieve the goal of net-zero carbon emissions! — Whatever. Oh, look, chipmunk!