Untimely #12 - In the Gallery

Oh David don't I look divine? And yes, she did, because everyone wanted Karen's hair, so straight and so very very black. Black like jet some might say, and black as night others might say. And some say midnight blue, which is just about the same. Black and blue and white all over, with her lilyporcelainsnowwhite skin and gaping darkbrown eyes.

Black and blue and white all over

Like a lily midst the clover...

Lucia, darling, do you remember going for the Sunday strolls, the promenades in the gallery, weighted down with finery, white socks pulled up to the knee and stable boys in livery? When it rained the marble was so slippery and the girls looked so pale. Their hair so black and legs so long and thin!

When it rained the gallery was very full and the windows would steam up, slowly, from the bottom and the edges, until they were all covered like in a fog and the candles flickered overhead and everything was shinier and duller than you expected it. Her hair was so black and so low over her eyes and her mouth so red, so very very red. I think she put blue in her hair, to make it blacker. Just a bit, you understand, a bit of blue to make it black. It got very noisy in the gallery and the cold air rushing through the fever heat of bodies chilled us with its touch. In our stomachs we felt sick like hungry but not. We followed her through the gallery but it was no use, we couldn't see her face. Her hair was straight and short and blue in the sun but in the gallery it was black and blacker and she was prettier than anyone I'd ever met.