\nThe party was over. I was tired.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe rambling, mazelike loft apartment I shared with Cassie was now truly housewarmed, and the wine I\u2019d sipped all evening lent a hazy gold warmth to the strings of tiny lights we\u2019d looped from the curtain rods. Their cheery glow against the black expanse of the enormous industrial windows brought to mind a tiny vessel moving through an expanse of dark sea, the only bright spot in leagues. My ears hummed with hours of laughter and conversation, my muscles warm and languid from dancing in Cassie\u2019s too-big dress, a sleeveless red vintage number in ruched velvet that hugged her curves. On my tiny body, with no curves to hug, it gapped and skimmed. Its hem, which graced Cassie\u2019s ankles, tripped up my bare feet.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe last few stragglers were arranged in twos and threes, half in and out of their coat sleeves, pledging their devotion to future get-togethers, brunches, matinees, this-was-just-so-greats and we\u2019ve-got-to-see-each-other-more-oftens. Little snatches of laughter swirled in my ears with the tinkling of all our new wine glasses being collected and carefully stood on the polished cement counter and in the gleaming steel sink. I spotted Cassie lounged with friends, leveled by drink and the relief of a party gone well on the broad sweep of hand-knotted silk and wool we\u2019d chosen for the main living area. Her emerald dress and black hair shone like spilled inks across the lustrous blues and earthy plums of the rug, which still fairly vibrated with the effort of many hands and ten times as many fingers knotting it into existence. Cassie\u2019s laughter rang like dropped bells as she rolled onto her back, helpless with it, her eyes soft and wet, her voice roughened with happy talk and drink. Beautiful Cassie. I would keep her happy, just like this, forever. I would–\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019ve found you.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nI flinched and nearly fell, caught by strong hands.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m so sorry. Did I startle you? It\u2019s just that this place is so big. It\u2019s wonderful, but I just can\u2019t seem to find my coat.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nI\u2019m smaller than all of Cassie\u2019s friends, so I always look up to speak to them, but this man was monolithic. His voice rang something in me like a plucked cello string, and I took a deep breath before answering. His eyes seemed so far above me I couldn\u2019t quite manage a bridge of reassuring contact.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cOf course,\u201d I said. \u201cIt\u2019s just over this way, on the other side of the kitchen. Through Cassie\u2019s studio and down the back corridor. Follow me.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nThe sounds of happy late night chatter and clinking glasses faded behind us, with one last wisp of Cassie\u2019s laughter tickling my ear before dissipating in the darkness. I glanced back to see the tall guest a step behind me, and I startled to realize that one of his large hands still held me just above the elbow. His fingers easily enclosed my entire upper arm, and the heat of his palm pulsed into my bare skin. I regretted the playful impulse that earlier allowed Cassie to zip me into this bright, foolish splash of cloth. The enormous open space of Cassie\u2019s studio enveloped us, the air rich with pigments and the easels peopled with gigantic canvases, landscapes teeming with impossible creatures, like walking through Cassie\u2019s dreams. As we passed the bank of dark windows lining the corridor that would lead to the spare bed and its mountain of coats, I craned my head back to search the night sky for a light. Any light. I saw only my own reflection, shadowed by the guest\u2019s enormous shape.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cYou\u2019re really way out here, aren\u2019t you,\u201d said the deep voice above me. \u201cNot another residential building in sight. I suppose in a few years this whole warehouse district will be completely gentrified, filled up with luxury apartments like this one, all huge windows and acres of newly finished floors, cathedral ceilings and polished surfaces. Strange, just this one out here all by itself, isn\u2019t it?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWell, it\u2026 Yes, well, we\u2026 Cassie and I\u2026\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cCassie waits tables at a coffee shop three days a week, doesn\u2019t she? And focuses on her art, especially now that she has this place with an enormous studio. I don\u2019t think Cassie comes from money. And you, what do you do exactly, if you don\u2019t mind me asking?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cOh, me? Well, I do a little of this and a little of that,\u201d I stammered. I stepped into the spare bedroom and snapped on the light. The bed was empty of coats.\n<\/p>\n
\nI turned to face the guest, and was about to state the obvious, that his coat was clearly not here and must be somewhere else in the apartment, when he took my shoulders in his massive hands, and simply lifted me from the floor. It wasn\u2019t pain that flooded my form, as I don\u2019t feel pain, exactly, but the swimming feeling when my shape begins to lose integrity.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThis will do just fine,\u201d the guest said in his booming voice. He lifted me higher and snapped my entire form in the air as one might snap the wrinkles out of a freshly washed garment. He lifted me to one side, took me in one hand and pushed the fingers of the other hand into the assembled energy of my shape, through my carefully created surface, sliding one arm inside the length of my own arm as if he were slipping into a jacket. With one arm in, he shifted and slipped his other hand and entire arm into my other arm-sleeve. Then he shrugged into me and tugged me tight around his massive shoulders and muscled back, effectively merging my energy with his own and engulfing me with his body. The soft impact I heard was the red velvet dress tumbling to the floor behind him.\n<\/p>\n
\nHe raised the energy of his voice to that of our native tongue and spoke a name I hadn\u2019t heard in lifetimes. \u201cIt\u2019s time to come home and make amends for what you\u2019ve done.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nHe stepped in front of an ornate freestanding mirror and turned to one side and then the other, straightening his clothing and admiring his handiwork. I could barely detect my pale shape behind the buttons of his shirt, my two eyes and mouth like three round, black holes of disappointment and surprise in the vague roundness of my face. Home. The thought of returning to that bleak place with its rules and strictures made my heart darken and cough out a mist of weak sparks. Already the mirror shimmered in the air, its solidity starting to shift.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cYou really shouldn\u2019t do this to people, you know,\u201d he said. \u201cPoor Cassie. She seems like a nice enough kid. She\u2019s going to find herself and her drunk friends lying in an abandoned warehouse in a few minutes, you realize. There\u2019ll be nothing left but a few wine glasses and an empty dress.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nBut it was so lovely while it lasted,<\/em> I thought as we walked as one out of the flickering, shimmering apartment and into the solidity of the night.\n<\/p>\n \nIt\u2019s always so lovely while it lasts. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The party was over. I was tired. The rambling, mazelike loft apartment I shared with Cassie was now truly housewarmed, and the wine I\u2019d sipped all evening lent a hazy gold warmth to the strings of tiny lights we\u2019d looped from the curtain rods. Their cheery glow against the black expanse of the enormous industrial …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106658,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19864],"tags":[19863],"class_list":["post-137325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-tcl-32-summer-2019","tag-the-colored-lens-32-summer-2019","entry entry-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/106658"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=137325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137326,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137325\/revisions\/137326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=137325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=137325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}