My mother used to tell me:
“Once you start lying, there is no going back. One small lie is followed by another, bigger lie, then another, even bigger one. The lie is like a small ball of snow, that rolls down the snowy hill. It grows bigger and bigger, and you don’t even notice, until the avalanche hits you at the foothills”.I watched him for half an hour. He sat on the stairs with a notebook and sharply scribbled something with a pencil.
“Do you have a pencil sharpener?”, I asked, standing right in front of him and shadowing the sunlight.
“What?”, he lifted his curly head up, and I saw a slightly confused expression on his face.
“A sharpener, I wanted to draw some scratches, but all my pencils are blunt. It’s beautiful in here, isn’t it? I want to draw every single street and every corner”
“Oh, so you’re an artist?”, he asked, putting his notebook aside.
Of course, I am an artist. I went to the art school in New York, then to art college in Italy, and now I’m working on my new exhibition, which I think would be a groundbreaking event in the art industry. In my work I try to depict the fight between our inner selves and what the society wants us to be. And yes, I’m free tomorrow night and here is my number. Should I mention I never needed a sharpener? I have never held any pencils in my hands, neither blunt, nor sharp.
I watched him for half an hour. He was playing a guitar on the street, singing some romantic songs with an angelic voice.
“I’m absolutely in love with this song. Could you share the chords?”, I asked, sitting down beside him.
“You play the guitar?”, he asked, turning his face to me.
Of course, I play the guitar. Ant the piano too. My mother taught me, she’s a famous musician, has tours with the orchestra all over the world. Everyone said I had an ear for music. I went to music school, then to music college in France, and now I’m working on my first album. No, I’m not busy the day after tomorrow, the orchestral concert sounds great. Thanks to god, he hasn’t asked me to play or to sing. Everyone who has ever heard me singing said I’m absolutely tone-deaf.
I came earlier than the artist and waited for him at the entrance. Turned out, he invited me to the fashionable club with neon signboard and techno music. He’s running late now. Oh, this chaotic people of art, this is what I love them for.
“Hey, what are you doing here?”, I heard someone saying behind me.
I turned around and here he was, the musician I met yesterday. He seemed exited.
“What are you doing here? Didn’t expect to meet you”, I asked, pretending to be pleasantly surprised.
“Yeah, I know, seems like it’s not my kind of music, but I like the place. Let’s drop in and have a drink”
“I’m actually waiting for a friend here, so you go, and I’ll find you inside later”
When he walked in, an artist finally came. I could have asked him to go to another place, but I’m a skater on a thin ice and a player with fire, so when the club door opened in front of us, I stepped in. We found a table in the dark corner and sat down. He was talking about his works, the styles he used and other drawing stuff I didn’t understand. I nodded and smiled, and looked at him with admiration. A rapturous connoisseur – what else does an artist need?
Suddenly I saw someone wading through the crowd towards our table. It was a musician.
“I need to go to the bathroom”, I said and bundled off.
I went to the bar stand to think out an escape route.
“Didn’t expect to see you here!”, someone’s words struck me like thunder.
I lifted my head up and saw a writer that I met three days ago in a café. I told him I’m working on my new novel about difficulties in the relationship of mother and daughter.
“So, how is your novel, Jane?”, the writer asked.
“Jennifer, where did you go? You should meet the DJ, he’s a musical genius”, the musician said, coming to me from the dance floor.
“Janet, is everything okay? I was looking for you”, and now the artist also approached me.
I was surrounded. They called different names: Jane, Jennifer, Janet. None of them was me, and at the same time I somehow was all of them.
“I need to go through the bathroom”, I said and slipped away, leaving them perplexed.
I ran out of the club and looked up in the sky. I saw an avalanche coming down at me, but I was always faster than the avalanche.
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