Just Right (Part 26)
Goldi: All That Glitters
I heard her sobs before I laid eyes on her and whatever words I had caught in my throat when we rounded the corner into a grand salon.
The glamor of the Gallery was forgotten as if it never existed. A dream perhaps, left behind from the few moments after we passed through his great iron doors, as if I was passing through into a castle of some great king? Back there, all splendor and pomp, a menagerie of grandeur meant to impress. But was it just a lie, a sleight of hand meant to fill a girl’s empty heart? What man or woman didn’t come through that door and feel a stir, a glimmer, a kindling of fire deep down inside as his riches flowed unbidden down from the ceiling in grand chandeliers and priceless works of art to rich carpets underfoot?
Only just now I’d danced for him on stage, the entire opera house emptied out, just my own voice ringing out over the balconies, the single stage light following me as closely as his watchful eye. I’d seen him there, a little man in a big suit, his eyes peeping out from under his wide-brimmed hat, skeletal fingers…
