High Art

[wolfs_daughter]

The tattoo had scabbed over. It itched, but she'd been told not to scratch it. She didn't really feel different, per se, but it had been an accomplishment of sorts.

Echo had finally finished cleaning out the van, and she'd chosen one of her earliest pieces, which she'd done when she was fifteen. It was a wolf in full howl, and she was proud of it despite the slightly primitive quality of it. She'd had to dust it off a little, since she'd kept it in storage before the move, but after taking a whisk broom to the thing to get the cobwebs off of the muzzle she set it out in the front yard of the trailer. She felt a little nervous about showing her art to a relative stranger, even though Devin had seemed like a nice guy.

The hybrid poured some tea into a tall glass in the trailer's tiny kitchen, dropped three ice cubes into it. She'd left a note on the writer's motel door since he'd been out, asking him to drop by. Today wasn't as scorching as it had been yesterday. Maybe she was getting used to the desert heat.

Comments

[devin_capshaw]

The car crunched over gravel and sand, pulling to a stop outside the trailer. Light bounced off the silver exterior, and Devin was glad he had worn his sunglasses. He grabbed a binder off the passenger seat and exited the vehicle.

He gave a staccato knock on the door. He had been glad to hear from Echo, and it gave him an excuse to stop being a hermit. It wasn't really Devin's style. Back home, he had always been sociable, sometimes to a fault.

[wolfs_daughter]

"Just a sec!"

Echo had been throwing together a sandwich to go with her tea, and she padded to the door on bare feet when she finished. The meatloaf kept trying to escape from the bread, and she took a hasty bite to keep it from landing on her shirt. The door creaked when she opened it, and she made a muffled noise of greeting when she saw Devin on her small porch.

"Hi. Sorry. The sandwich was running away from me so I had to capture it."

[devin_capshaw]

"Oh, of course. You have to watch out for that."

Devin smiled and held out the binder. "My end of the bargain." He peered around her into the trailer. "This is awesome. It's like a little space pod."

He had grown up in a cramped, pre-fab Bungalow. He was endlessly fascinated by any dwelling that wasn't. "Are you going to invite me in?"

[wolfs_daughter]

The hybrid rolled her eyes at herself, waved her free hand behind her. "I'm sorry. You're my first guest, I'm not used to inviting people in yet. Please, come in."

When Devin had stepped past the threshold, Echo closed the door to block out the heat and said, "I'm still kind of getting settled in, but there's the couch and that chair to sit on. Do you want a soda or anything? Or I have tea."

As if to prove it, she held her glass aloft before taking a drink. The ice cubes crackled noisily. She looked down at the binder he'd handed her. "So how much have you written?"

[devin_capshaw]

He looked around curiously. It was cool inside, but not overly chilled. The sun illuminated the walls, casting shadows of the few pieces of furniture.

"No thanks," Devin replied. "I'm good for now."

He took a seat on the sofa, watched Echo examine the binder. "Four and a half chapters, submitted for your approval."

[wolfs_daughter]

Echo took the chair, crossed one ankle over the other while she arranged her lunch on the table and the binder in her lap. She took the first few pages out after making sure her hands were clean, inspected them.

"Is it a ghost story?" she asked, looking at Devin. "I read some of Stephen King's stuff because he has a handle on the macabre, but other than that horror isn't very interesting to me. What are the chapters about?"

[devin_capshaw]

"It starts out with a kid, playing around in one of the abandoned mines. He meets something bad. I don't spell out what it is, because I think that's for the cheap seats."

Devin shrugged, pulling at some of the fuzz on the couch.

"Then there's the aftermath. I was hoping that would lead into the main action."

[wolfs_daughter]

"Like the abandoned mines they have here?"

Echo was half-reading when she asked the question, one of her unshod feet tapping against the other, and a beam of sunlight was splashing through the window and across the page. She altered the way she was holding the paper so the glare didn't blind her.

"Can I ask if it's a buried space alien, or would that be giving too much away?"

[devin_capshaw]

Devin chuckled, leaning back against the couch.

"Exactly like the abandoned mines here, actually. My story is set in Searchlight."

He scratched his upper arm through his shirt. "Not quite. I don't find aliens very scary."

Glancing around the trailer, he cocked his head. "Your turn."

[wolfs_daughter]

"It's outside," Echo said, re-stacking the sheets of paper she'd been perusing and putting them back in the binder. "I would have brought it in, but the living room is small enough with just the furniture in it."

The door swung outward when she opened it, and she stepped out onto the porch and then down the two steps to the small front yard. "I had to dust him off because spiders built webs on him while he was in storage. This is one of the first things I ever completed."

The brunette's expression was shy and a little uncomfortable when she looked at her visitor, and she patted the sculpture on its clay head. "His name's Fenris."

[devin_capshaw]

Devin walked around it, taking it in from every angle. "It's really good," he told Echo. "Seriously. I could never in a million years do something like this."

He smiled, still looking at the sculpture. "What else have you done? Do you have any more here?"

[wolfs_daughter]

"Most of my stuff is still back home in Seattle," Echo said. "I only brought a few pieces because I wanted to get new inspirations out here, but Fenris is special. Papa said I'd have to have something to show the foundation people while they consider giving me a grant, so I got him out of the storage unit."

She looked up at the cloudless sky and took a drink from the glass of tea she'd brought along. "When did you decide you wanted to become a writer? The arts can be difficult if you don't have a lot of patience for the waiting process."

[devin_capshaw]

"Me? When I was sixteen."

Devin glanced away, focusing on another trailer about 30 yards from them. "I messed around a lot when I was a kid. Actually, some pretty serious stuff, although I didn't take it seriously at the time."

He smiled ruefully, ran his fingers through his slightly damp hair. "I got expelled from my high school. The only other options were homeschooling, or this alternative program, and my mom and dad both worked full-time.

"Anyway, I met this teacher there, he was my one-on-one, he gave me a journal and it turned out, I liked writing better than talking. Certainly better than sharing my fucked up feelings out loud, you know?"

[wolfs_daughter]

"I used to keep a journal when I was a kid," the hybrid said. "But I always liked to make stuff, so that was how I expressed myself. And I was home-schooled when I was little, at least until we left the commune. I never quite fit in at public school, which was why they were always trying to send me to the shrink."

She was going to have to get some lawn chairs for her yard, something to sit on. Echo sat down on the porch, her heels trailing on the ground. "What'd you do to get expelled, or is that too personal? Public education can be...unkind...if you don't fit the mold the teachers are looking for."

[devin_capshaw]

Devin regarded Echo curiously. "You lived in a commune? What was that like?"

He didn't want to say it out loud and offend her, but the only time he had heard of communes were in the context of cults. Or hippies. Or hippie cults.

"Actually," he answered, smiling sheepishly, "I think they were pretty justified in doing it. Of course, then I thought they were just out to get me. But I don't really like to talk about it. Let's just say it landed me a stint in teen lock-up."

[wolfs_daughter]

"It was like a big, extended family. We grew our own food, schooled the kids together, fished in the nearby lake. It was..."

Echo trailed off, looked down at the ground. It had been like a family, her only experience with having brothers and sisters, and then they'd been asked to leave because they'd found out Papa was a werecreature. She'd never quite forgotten that initial rejection, and she hadn't forgiven it either. Weren't their kind of people supposed to be accepting?

"It was a long time ago, is what it was," she said, picking up the thread of what she'd been saying as she summoned a smile. "Have you heard anything from that publisher you sent your chapters to?"

[devin_capshaw]

"It sounds like you miss it. This is a pretty big change of setting."

Devin sat down next to her. There was laundry flapping on a clothes line in front of a trailer down the way. Everything was quiet except the distant drone of dirt bikes.

"Yeah, it's a go. What I gave you is what I have of the first draft so far. How about you? Hear anything about your grant?"

[wolfs_daughter]

"I got a packet of materials in the mail," Echo said, drinking some more tea. "They want me to come to Las Vegas for an interview, since they have what I guess is a branch office of the foundation there. I have to explain what I'd do with the money in person."

Which meant she'd have to buy something decent to wear. She wasn't much for dresses and skirts, and heels were a non-starter, but she wanted to make a good impression. Maybe she could ask Holly's advice, since the other girl seemed to have good taste in clothes.

"And I decided to put down stakes in Searchlight for a little while because it's small and quiet, like the commune used to be. I like being able to walk the place in less than a day. And if it's not quite like a family, the people are friendly enough. I was a quiet kid who kept to myself, especially after they put me in real school, so I got used to being a loner."

[devin_capshaw]

"I hope it works out for you. You'll have your own coffee table book in no time."

He leaned back, elbows against the porch. "I'm staying here for awhile, too, so you won't be that much of a loner. Until you get tired of me, that is."

The truth was, he had become somewhat solitary himself. Devin wasn't accustomed to that. He had always been the most sociable, boisterous, loudmouthed, never wanting the party to end type.

Now he was waxing poetical about a town he would have once sooner spit on. People changed, he knew that first-hand, but it was surprising to realize he counted as 'people.'

[wolfs_daughter]

Echo smiled bashfully, bumped Devin's calf with her knee. She'd have to put Fenris back in the van before it got dark, because she didn't want anyone to steal him. Maybe she'd speak to the owner of the trailer park about putting a little storage shed on her lot. She was the kind of tenant who'd never cause problems or be the reason the police were called, so they might not mind.

"My interview is in two weeks, so if it goes well I can buy you lunch at the diner to celebrate. I just hope I get good news."

In the next lot, a door opened and closed, and her neighbor Mrs. Abernathy trundled out onto the porch with a laundry basket in her arms. Echo waved, and the older woman waved back. "Do you need your pages back or can I keep them?" she asked Devin, making a hand gesture towards the interior of her trailer. "I wouldn't want to interrupt your process by making you start all over."

[devin_capshaw]

He glanced over to the neighbor, then back at Echo. "No, they're yours. I copied them just for you, courtesy of the Searchlight library."

Devin bumped her back. "Is this a good place to live? I might have to start hunting soon, because even the weekly rate at the El Rey is putting a dent in me."

He didn't mention that he might hyperventilate when it came time to sign a lease. He was a commitmentphobe of the highest order.

[wolfs_daughter]

"Yeah, it's a pretty nice place," the hybrid said. "Mostly older people live here, so there's no loud music at night or wild parties. They have the option of six month leases rather than a year, and that's what I signed for since I don't know what's going to happen if and when I get my grant. I'll have to spend some time in Las Vegas since that seems to be the only place to rent art space. But I'll be living here."

And the trailer was nice and cozy, especially now that she'd started to make it her space. Maybe she'd buy a few posters and frame them to hang them up on the walls. The rooms were too small for her own art, but pictures wouldn't take up too much space.

"I still need to get a television," she told Devin. "I know you can only get a few channels here, but even a black and white set would give me a distraction in the evenings."

[devin_capshaw]

"Tell you what," Devin said, "I'll boost the one from my motel room for you. If you don't delay and act now, I'll even throw in the laminated card with the channel guide on it."

Six months was a long time in his world, but not unfathomably so. He could sweat it out, finish up his book, and see what called from there.

[wolfs_daughter]

Echo let out an uncharacteristic giggle, then finished off her tea. Then she pushed at Devin's shoulder with her free hand, saying, "No, thank you. I wouldn't know what to say if the police came by asking questions. I'm a law-abiding citizen, not to mention a bad liar."

The sun was just beginning its approach to the opposite horizon, and she shaded her eyes when it reflected off the windshield of her van. The vehicle needed a wash, she could have written in the dust. Devin's car must have been brand new, it looked pristine compared to what she was using for wheels.

"Have you ever lived in a motel before? I mean long term. I don't think I could handle it for long."

[devin_capshaw]

"No, but it's not so bad. Less distractions, for one. The knowledge that you can leave anytime you want to."

Devin picked at a large splinter in the wood. "I change my living arrangements often. I stay with friends, make a trip back home. I had my own place once, and it drove me crazy. I would start feeling trapped, I found reasons to hate everything about it."

He sighed, blinking against the sun. "Welcome to my neuroses. I was trying to see how long I could fool you into thinking me normal."

[wolfs_daughter]

If he had known about the Wolf, he wouldn't have said that. Echo cocked her head to the side, studied Devin in profile. Her ice cubes had melted in the heat, and she drank the water before setting the glass aside to her left.

"So what's normal?" she asked him with a one-shouldered shrug. "All the other kids at school thought I was a freak because I talked about Gaia and knew all the constellations by name. It's hard not to internalize feeling different. Society, or whatever you want to call it, singles out the oddballs. Eventually I learned to deal with it, because I am different."

She could have showed him right then, but it would have been too much and too soon. They'd just met, and she wasn't stoned, so she had no excuse to parade herself in front of him like a circus exhibit. Besides, she wanted to feel normal for just a little while longer.

"It's not so bad, and a trailer is a good bolthole to hide in."

[devin_capshaw]

He looked back at her. "Is that how you think of it? As hiding?"

[wolfs_daughter]

"Sometimes you have to hide," Echo said, and if she sounded a little bitter she couldn't help it. She hid her other self all the time, because she'd been told it wasn't normal and she could no longer stand the ridicule. "It's...it's not easier, but it can be safer."

She was beginning to feel self-conscious again, and she picked up her empty glass. "I'm getting a headache from all this heat." It was a lie, or at least a half-truth she was comfortable with, but she told it poorly. "I'll call you when I know something else about my interview, okay?"

[devin_capshaw]

"Sure, no problem." Devin could tell when someone wanted to be alone.

He stood from the porch, took one last glance at the sculpture. "Good luck with everything."

[wolfs_daughter]

Echo closed the door with a quiet click, listened there until she heard a car engine start and then the crunch of gravel. She felt bad about just shutting down like that, but her nature dictated that she had to have her alone time when she wanted it. She would leave Devin another note in a few days and apologize.

Hopefully she'd get some good news, then she could buy the writer that lunch she'd promised. It would be nice to have another friend.