? ? ?
ROSE WALKED INTO the small cabin where Pierrot sat, a compartment they had reserved for themselves. The seats had been reupholstered with brown and green and gold material. There was a pastoral mural painted on the walls. There was a small bed that folded out from the wall. Rose closed the door behind her. She began to unbutton his jacket and he swayed back and forth. Pierrot pulled down the bed, and the pillows hopped up in surprise.
55
THE BIG APPLE
It was unseasonably cold in New York City that morning. The quality of the air was different from that of Montreal. But it was so subtle. It was crisper. It smelled like someone who was about to kiss you. It smelled a little bit like Coca-Cola.
They could suddenly see better. Many people who needed glasses found their eyesight rectified for just that moment.
The minute the first member of the Snowflake Icicle Extravaganza stepped off the train, tiny snowflakes began to fall from the sky. They were so minuscule that at first nobody was able to see them.
As soon as the sun went down, the snow began to fall in huge flakes. They were like girls in Communion dresses doing cartwheels. People in mourning discovered that they were actually quite lucky. They could see momentary proof of the snowflakes on their black clothes before they melted and disappeared.
? ? ?
JIMMY SAT IN HIS OFFICE in the Romeo Hotel with Caspar. There was a fishbowl by the window with two fancy goldfish that swam in circles, like tassels on a burlesque dancer’s nipples. The mobsters were staying in for the night because of the snowstorm. They were both aware that Rose and her troupe had arrived in the city. The radio was on; a singer who sounded like she had a clothes-peg on her nose whined about not getting what she wanted for Christmas.
“Did I ever tell you just how much I hate Montreal?” Jimmy asked. “And every asshole I meet from that place?”
“Yes, many times,” Caspar answered.
“Is this dope worth it? Can’t we buy from anyone else?”
“It’s been tested. It’s incredible, supposedly. Like nothing those morons have ever had before.”
“Tell me again why the fuck we have to wait until the show is over to pick up the dope?”
“Because the dope is inside a moon.”
“Because the dope is inside a fucking moon! That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Why did I agree to this shit? What are we doing tonight?”
“Playing cards.”
“Never mind that. Let’s go. I need to see this. Come on. You like the theater.”
“I don’t know. We have to blow the girl’s head off. It’s inappropriate.”
“Come on. Let’s not start worrying about what’s appropriate and what isn’t at this point in our lives.”
“It’s starting in less than an hour.”
“Then we have no time to lose.”
“What if all the tickets are sold out?”
“Ha-ha-ha!”
Jimmy grabbed his coat and flung open the door to his office and leaned out into the corridor. “Girls, come on!”
Jimmy came down the stairs with his arms around two girls. When the other gangsters saw Jimmy heading toward the front door, they immediately wanted to join him. They grabbed their coats and hats, took their girlfriends’ hands and left their meals behind and followed. There was no point hanging around the hotel on a Friday night if Jimmy wasn’t going to be there.
The girls found the sidewalks icy and slippery, especially as they hurried along in their pretty high heels. When they arrived at the theater, there was no lineup outside. A sandwich board said that last-minute tickets would be sold for half price.
Five minutes before the curtain rose, they were able to pay half price for excellent seats. Jimmy wasn’t happy because he had hoped to sit at the back of the theater. He wondered whether tomorrow’s show would be canceled and if he would have to kill the girl in the morning.
? ? ?
WHEN ALL THE PEOPLE had been seated and had settled down and when the curtains rose in small, soft jerks, snow began to fall heavily outside. It came down over the whole of the city. It filled the palms of all the statues of angels. It covered all the roofs of the buildings with a giant down quilt. The audience inside the theater completely forgot that the outside world existed. Because, really, it wasn’t there at all.
56
THE SNOWFLAKE ICICLE EXTRAVAGANZA
ACT ONE
The chorus girls came out. They were dressed like little girls in short white dresses, with ribbons in their hair. Because of the identical make of their dresses and their woebegone faces, the audience was able to ascertain that they were orphans. They carried mops, and they swept in perfect unison. Except for one girl, who wore a black wig. She stood completely still in the middle of the stage, while all the chorus girls did wild movements with their mops around her.
ACT TWO