Claude Debussy’s Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun.
Story and Illustration by ‘Shoe.
The Busker threw open a door he called it. His eyes had darted side to side.
“You’ll lose your job. Everybody will. The end will come. It’ll all fall down. I’ve got a room for you where I live. It’s next to mine. Let me know.” He leaned his head half sideways and peered at her. His eyes were pin point darts in a flood of light from passing traffic.
“Capitalism.” He made an intense yukking noise that was guttural laughter and rocked from side to side on his stiffly extended legs. His folded arms hugged his chest.
They met when she still worked at the newspaper. They were workers. She knew him sight unseen first. She heard the powerful sound of a raucous guitar and then his voice. He was playing an intersection. Night street lights flicked on. Street lighting was minimal. Some shop fronts showed no light. She stopped to drop a coin into his opened guitar case.
“Mark,” he said over the music. Yukk yukk.
“See you at 7,” he said the day his eyes darting they finally agreed they could meet and have coffee and cake if she wanted. He confided the address as if it was a front to a clandestine organisation. A haunt of down-and up-beats, a group of regular students playing Dungeons and Dragons, stayers commingling with models of insolence, young men or young women in single pairs or as alone and still as sculpture.
The Busker waved her over. He stood up from a bench seat at a long table. He was rocking and bounced towards her. He might off walls. Hair sprang free from between his fingers like wire as he grabbed and ran the length of his beard through his right hand. She was ushered.
“This one. Isobella Celente. Warren. We call him Hood. Isobella. Peter. We call him Peach. This Rita. Isobella. Georges.”
He was tapping his feet methodically. He introduced her to each of the customers at the table. The least hesitation he demanded response.
“She’s new here. Look after her.”
“Sure”. That was Georges in a grubby leather vest over a black t-shirt full of holes and his jeans legs folded into cuffs. He returned a few minutes later with a cup of tea sans milk he put down in front of where she sat next to him. “Gnome,” he said, “Call me Gnome. It’s ordinary the tea. Not fancy. Milk costs more.” His hands were soft and dirt under his fingernails was evident. The Busker made the yukking sound that was laughter meaning he was pleased. He thanked Gnome for his care.
“Does anybody want a tea,” he added. A murmur in the negative went the table length. He showed Isabella she could buy a slice of toast with a cup of tea. A well dressed man in a shining silver-grey suit came in and spoke to The Busker over their shoulders. He departed in a chorus of protest.
“That’s Reuben. He’s a bounce. He’s our friend.”
People came and left The Busker said were friends. When the others who were in that close company left that night, Isabella stayed to while time away. She was expected at midnight in her new office on Symonds only a quick climb up a grassed terrace and an adjacent park. Queen is the arterial heart of the city of Auckland from the wharf and its Harbour to K’ Road at its upper end. Symonds on its ridge that butts K’road and runs to the west through an older section was a literal High Street above it and a financial district of its own was consolidating in competition. A deregulated system was acting out a local land grab and assets battle. A nouveau riche risked money and these streets like careless fire.
A young man reading at one of the tables put down his book and came over. He offered to buy her a cup of tea. She agreed. They talked and drank tea with lemon slices they squeezed juice from no milk. He draped a satchel over his shoulder, hooking it with a grasp of fingers and gathered newspaper he handed to one remaining patron at another table. He announced he was going her way. Safer the two of us if you trust me and am I safe myself. The park was not lit. He was Hugh. She introduced herself. He had expected friends. They’re not coming. Isobella walked with him happy for the company. They crossed the exterior paving and street between the café and the dark city Art Gallery to access the edge of the park. He expected his friends to have come that night to play Dungeons and Dragons. Will we be safe walking up through this park he asked her did she think as they walked into its enclosure of sweet calm and only black shaping. The moon had no purchase on the park that night.
Voice said:
I’ve had a couple of goes at reading this but haven’t been able to get into the right mood. However the music clip plays on as a soothing background and I also really enjoy the background of your art work.
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helvityni said:
…so it looks like that you like backgrounds.
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sandshoe said:
I chuckled at your comment helvi to Voice. I had to think for a while to work out what you were meaning derh slow me.
Yes, it seems Voice you like backgrounds. 🙂 Thank you. I hope next episode you do or don’t get into will have a similarly pleasing number of backgrounds. I have been thinking about them. 🙂
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Voice said:
Not at all, ‘shoe. I like YOUR backgrounds (one composed by you, one selected by you) in THIS piece. And, although I haven’t gone back and checked its predecessors, I seem to recall you putting similar amounts of work into background in a couple of those as well, with equally pleasing results.
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sandshoe said:
Voice, I am really pleased. I understand what you meant. You are absolutely right that the background is a feature of some of these I have published here. It’s very nice to have the acknowledgement of the work, Voice.
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Hung One On said:
This is good shoe, I really liked it. When I was reading it I thought wouldn’t it be nice to be young again and passionate about something
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sandshoe said:
Dear HOO, I am so glad I was able to entertain you. That is really a lovely response. I can imagine that. Thank you so much.
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Hung One On said:
Nice music, just had the perfect chance to listen
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sandshoe said:
I noticed this article just this morning.
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/01/17/william-blake-dante-divine-comedy/
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Jayell said:
Interesting.
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sandshoe said:
OK.
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sandshoe said:
OK, in what way is it interesting?
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Jayell said:
Numerously. It covered a myriad, a panoply and a complexity, of a range of diverse ensembles.
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sandshoe said:
Jeeze, mate, thanks. I tried to make it do that. Many thanks.
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helvityni said:
Love the painting, all those soft peaceful greens. Now that I have read your story carefully, I get the feeling you are writing about people you know, and who you care about. I suppose all writers do that… 🙂
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sandshoe said:
helvi, thank you for your kind comment of appreciation. helvi, I did the illustrations to carry the story with me, to remember it and what my imagination was doing to explain it to me. They are triggers. A personal shorthand. In this particular one that I titled when I first did it ‘The Cold Front meets the Warm Front’ there is a complexity of imagery like cards in a filing box. That you say I am writing about people I know is flattering given we are 6 episodes in, suggesting I am therefore holding character and that really is a driver.
Now regards these characters, I don’t know them. helvi, don’t mistake me. I thought when I started writing this serial that I did. With writing can come a tracery of grief in this part that shows to the author how much they didn’t know a person rather than how well they do or did. Suddenly as a writer develops and can command language and style to work for them, the characters become whoever they are as they step out of the story’s elements, not whoever was a model, in exactly the same way a painter uses a model. Interesting as a line we walk and it does drive incentive to conceive of just that much more of an arty edge to the telling of a story when its derivation is personal. We like to represent ourselves as worthy artistic company. Thank you, helvi,
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sandshoe said:
Edit: helvi,
helvi…
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Big M said:
I love the way you have explained a bit about the characters, without giving their whole life stories away in single paragraphs. Leaves one wanting more will Isobella make it to the office?
Lovely work, ‘shoe.
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sandshoe said:
Thank you so much, Big. I will in fact be able to answer your thought-aloud query very soon and set us back into the environment of the Castle itself. While I enjoyed writing this bridge to the background of the Castle, I was really sweating it there was material I must not reveal in this episode. I really look forward to finishing the next two episodes. These characters are queueing up lol.
That’s great feedback, Big. You’ve been a great help in getting this out.
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lindyp said:
Love the depth and colour in your painting Sandshoe and it seems to fit the tale like a glove -the meandering lines and the park —-
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vivienne29 said:
I meant to comment on the painting. It’s terrific. Lovely colour and feeling. Very appealing I thought.
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sandshoe said:
Thank you so much Vivienne for your feedback.
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sandshoe said:
Thank you so much lindyp.
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gerard oosterman said:
It is nice to follow Debussy’ prelude with the accompanying notes. I haven’t seen that on YouTube before. A stunning painting as well. The story takes time to digest Shoe but already love the juxtaposing of different themes. Well done and thank you.
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sandshoe said:
Hello dear Gerard. Yes, I was presented with a design problem otherwise if the video displayed a clashing image. It was a bit lucky to find such a lovely performance on one piano too. I have searched for years, Gez. Thank you for your comment you think the painting is stunning. You know what that means to me. Thank you so much. It is done by the way with fine line pens, pencil, coloured pencil, felt pens and crayon on fine typing paper as others of mine have been. It was very dark and inexpert although packed out with my imagination. I had imagined its next stage would be lighting behind it. Along came the invention of the graphics programmes and digital technology. I have used that to continue the ‘development’ process.
Gerard what I am personally excited about coming back to it is finding the story is in me, but what you refer to, that the juxtaposition survives of themes. I really love it you are following it and I appreciate the writing isn’t easy, the lapse between the episodes. If I say anymore about the structure I have in mind I will give too much away and I must have my critics. You are absolutely on the knocker. I so appreciate it, Gez.
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vivienne29 said:
Looking forward to the next episode. Will all go well?
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sandshoe said:
Vivienne, lovely for me your interest. Whether it will go well and how I can handle that of it that needs to not go well really has occupied me for…months. I think…think…I can pull it off now so that it’s good for the reader even when the reader finds that it isn’t going well for the character/s. Remembering that I’m only the writer. I might find things go swimmingly for everybody and that’d be a coup. 🙂 hahaha
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vivienne29 said:
Well I shall l wait and see. Another lovely painting would be appreciated. You’re jolly good at it Shoe.
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sandshoe said:
Link to Episode 1
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sandshoe said:
Link to Episode 3
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sandshoe said:
The tags have linked with Episode 2 and Episode 4. Here is the link to the previous episode, Episode 5
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