Chapter 28 #3
Loris chuckles, slips from the embrace and tugs Charles back inside the salon.
This time, they stay beside the couch, Loris’ arms bracketing Charles from behind.
They’ve already contemplated the painting for an hour.
They’ve teared up, fumbled for words, worried about the strength of their pulses, and gradually accepted that Kaunas was neither a dream nor a hallucination.
But facing Her again, majestic on the cream wall, sends Charles’ heart back into his throat and his fist around his pendant.
‘I can’t pick a favourite now,’ Loris says against his cheek.
‘Your initial vote went to Ljubljana. It’ll be confirmed when you see Her at Christmas.’
‘Really? We’re going to San Francisco for Christmas?’
‘Perhaps at Easter. Depends how much I earn and manage to save. Because it’ll be on me. I’ll get you to complete your Lands bingo card too.’
‘I didn’t pay for your flight here.’
‘You opened the doors of this villa, Loris.’
‘It didn’t take much.’
Charles is spared the trouble of finding a non-betraying response by Enrica, who enters the room with a maid carrying a tray of nibbles.
‘My husband just got back from work. He doesn’t know a lot about Olwinski, but is it alright if he joins us?’
‘Please!’
‘I will send him to the cellar to choose a bottle. He knows a lot about that.’
‘Just one quick question!’ Charles exclaims as Enrica edges back towards the door. ‘Before we get to the heart of the matter. What’s your take on The Mind of Wonders?’
‘In what sense?’
‘Do you believe it’s a convoluted made-up life story or that—’
‘Charles…’
‘—Pavel told the truth about his past and how much his ordeals have influenced the creation of the Lands?’
‘The truth! The book and the paintings don’t work separately. But I could talk about it for hours, it might be best not to get me started.’
‘Oh, we’d be over the moon to listen!’
Charles beams at Enrica, making it easy for Loris to shove a bread-stick between his lips as soon as she leaves the room.
‘You know I won’t have the nerve to take her arguments apart!’
‘Mm-hmm.’
‘I’m gonna have to nod along.’
‘Mm-hmm.’
‘You’re gonna pay for this.’
Charles crunches the stick and traces a vein on Loris’ forearm with the other half of it. ‘I’m counting on it.’
He can’t think of better reunion foreplay than an unspoken debate about Pavel in front of the most incredible of his paintings.
***
Hello Enrica,
I hope you’re doing well.
I have to confess that the email subject was only meant to catch your attention and I’m sorry if I wasted twenty seconds of your busy day.
If you’re still reading me after this disclaimer, I would like to offer my sincere condolences for your recent loss and tell you how your father unknowingly changed my life.
My name is Loris. I’m a barman in London. The pub I work at doesn’t have the best reputation. It’s rare to see new customers and even rarer to see them again.
A few months ago, Charles walked in for the first time and made me lose my French and my English.
His face was a work of art that the greatest painters could only dream of creating.
But it also projected a melancholy that had me wishing I could stop time and understand.
Understand why his flawless lips seemed to put on the hardest fight before each smile.
Why his unreal eyes took so long to focus back on the world I watched him from.
I wished I could join him inside his, hold his hand, comfort him and maybe see his face light up and shine, as it was meant to.
Sadly, I couldn’t stop time, understand or hold his hand that day.
When he walked away, I made peace with never knowing if he would find some.
Charles was not supposed to come back to the pub, but he had left a pen behind.
A Kaunas pen, bought at the Hermitage Museum when he was a teenager and cherished more than anything since.
Because Charles worships Pavel Olwinski.
He has travelled to all the Lands. All but Kaunas, which was kept in Ustica.
Seeing the painting isn’t a dream he believes can come true, so he clings on to the pen instead.
And misplacing it brought him back to me.
Today, I understand the battles Charles fought and the world he wrestled in.
Today, time stops whenever I hold his hand.
Today, I’m so in love with him, I lose my French and my English when I try to explain it.
And the reason why I get to love him is that he’s passionate about a painting he couldn’t see.
If Kaunas hadn’t been kept away from Charles, life might have kept him away from me.
And today, that he’s mine and that I’m his, I would love for his dream to come true.
Could you please tell me if you have any intention of exhibiting Kaunas? Even if it’s in five years’ time or you only have a draft of a project. I could give Charles a thread of hope and see my favourite painting: his face lightening up.
I would of course understand if you were unable to let me know. I just wanted to try my luck. My wonderful luck that made Charles’ pen fall on my side of the bar counter, back in November.
In any case, thank you very much for reading until the end.
Have a colourful day,
Loris