He sat at the red comfortable chair with the soft lining which was designed for his needs. And this indeed, was very expensive. Each chair on it's own was £ 1500. Ridiculous amount of money, fortunately it were only 6 and not a whole theatre. But even then he had been more than willing to pay for them.
While
leaning backwards, he modified the chair to his own comfort and
allowed his thoughts to wander off, hoping that thinking about her
might also reduce the noise that swirled round and round with false
tones.
He
recalled her face and hoped this time it would be calm although he
knew the main feature of it was her mouth and that was never
calm. How stupid to have fallen in love with that same mouth which
was at the time her attraction, particularly to him being a
bachelor who lived on his own for too long.
He
met her at the birthday party of his best friend. He never meant to
go but this was friend's 40th
birthday and a 'Bal Masqué'. He liked that, he did not often appear
in public and definitely not at parties but this way he was going to
be slightly incognito. Not that he was easily recognized because he
was famous (which he wasn't) but he just did not like large crowds.
And
one other thing was that he was extremely rich and women,
particularly single women, had a nose for money. They smelled it and
immediately behaved like cats in heat, something he hated! It made
him immune for the female species. But with a masque he would be
fairly safe.
Blame
the masque that he fell for her mouth. Of course it was the most
visible part of her face apart from her chin which revealed a
determined character but that is not what he noticed. No, it was her
mouth as beautiful as a rose in full bloom. He wasn't a poet but the
phrase 'a rose in the morning dew' crossed his mind. He watched it from a distance and could not take his eyes of it.
Her
lips were so fascinating that the world around him disappeared. He
stood in the middle of a universe without sounds and people. The
space was empty and in this emptiness floated her mouth
with the moving lips like wings as if they weren't attached to her.
The
thin air around him wasn't cold but warm and comfortable. He couldn't
remember if her mouth made his blood boil or the warm thin air. Or
both, he did remember he fell in love, deeply in love, without being
introduced to her.
The
mist dissolved and very slowly the sounds of tinkling
champagne glasses laughter and conversations returned.
A male voice next to
him asked him if he was alright and without turning round to the man
he said he was fine and added: “thank you for asking.”
He
shook his head an realized he must look like a fool although the
beautiful mouth smiled and moved towards him. It was then when he
noticed it belonged to a woman almost as tall as he was. He looked
into green eyes behind a very simple but expensive masque. A warm
voice said: “I don't think we met before”. When he agreed, they
exchanged names and started a conversation. He needed all his
willpower to listen to her words (which were many) and not to fix his
eyes on her lips. Although he had relationships before with women he
went to bed with, he never had the desire to kiss them the very first
moments of their first meetings but now he only wanted one thing:
kissing her. And not a social kiss, or a kiss between two friends no,
he wanted to press his lips against hers until she opened her mouth
to welcome him. He wanted his tongue to dance with hers in an erotic
rhythm and he did not care he was at the birthday party!
With
these memories he moved in his chair, a little restless because his
emotions balanced between relief and grief and he did not feel
comfortable with both. Why did he marry her so soon? He surprised
family, friends and society. Even the newspapers that never wrote
about him before, headlined “Most desired bachelor found his Eva”
(why on earth did his parents name him Adam...)
She
did not only have a beautiful mouth but also brains and organisation
talents. In no time she organized their wedding and sent out
numerous invitations to people he had never heard of before and who
she called 'colleagues' or friends. If he had not been so very much
in love at the time, inviting these people who were mainly in the
showbizz, must have set off numerous alarm bells. But the
bells kept quiet and only rang when it was far too late.
It
did not take her long after the marriage to convince him of her many
talents like performing, singing and being an actress of high level.
Well, not discovered yet but with his help (read; money and status,
after all he did not only have a double barrelled name, no, he had
three names and a long forgotten title) she was finally going to
break through.
Strangely
enough he never heard her singing (not even in the shower but this
might have been because the always showered together), nor seen her
performing. And when it finally happened, in full public in the music
room in his Manor, he was shocked. Not just a little bit but deeply
shocked. At first he could not believe how a beautiful mouth and a warm sensual voice like hers, produced a noise that could
only be described as an old unmaintained unidentifiable agricultural
machine that tried to plough it's way through sticky clay.
It was awful, terrible,
shocking and above all embarrassing because she did not stop! She went
on and on, looking over the heads of the poor spectators that were
too polite to cover their ears wit their hands.
He
wanted to crawl under his chair, fly to the ceiling, dissolve in thin
air (maybe not a wise thing to do), everything to move away from
her singing as far as possible. And by the look of their guests,
every body had the same idea. And even so more the so called 'colleagues
and friends' from their wedding party.
Even
after all those years his cheeks turned red in embarrassment. And
what ever he tried to stop her, to convince her to search for other
talents (she must have at least one he hoped), she kept believing she
was The Star the world was waiting for. He sighed and was the
producer that organized her first official concert, still thankful.
Agreed, they planned it together to make her see that the large
audience wasn't at all polite enough to let her go on. People who
paid for her performance were most likely going to shout and whistle.
Fortunately
for her, it never happened. Yes, she was going to perform, people
were waiting for her to enter the stage but when she did, her high
healed shoe got strangled in her enormous dress of which the skirt
was made of numerous layers of lace. Before someone could offer help,
she fell off the platform in between the people of the orchestra and
indeed, broke her neck.
Her
audience still wanted their money back but not before the next day
because they thought it was part of her act and applauded and
laughed.......
 |
| Photo: @marshallubx (Instagram) |
In the old abandoned and forgotten Manor his
now fading and decaying private theatre with the red chairs and
curtains (the colour of her mouth) the blue walls and the large
mirror instead of a scene decoration is the only witnesses of his
desire to stare at the reflections of an empty stage, empty chairs
and to absorb the valuable and admirable stillness.
Word of thanks: the photo of @marshallubx (Instagram)) inspired me to write this story and I was given permission to use the photo as an illustration for which I am very grateful. Thank you Marshall!
Links:
please visit the beautiful Instagram account of @marshallubx
Note:
the story is pure fiction! A figment of my imagination!
Helen
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