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Arting Around All Day (open)

(( Continued from Picnics and Flowers ))


Rachyl handed a ten to the cabbie, covering both fare and gratuity, and got out with Meegan onto the curb before the Arch Museum of Art.

The granite steps were magnificent, clean, and rather striking in the mid-morning light. Linking arms again, they slowly climbed the seemingly never-ending steps towards the top, gazing occasionally at statues and fountains along the side.


"You know, I've never been to an art museum... We had a class trip planned once to go to the one in Philly, but I ended up with the chicken pox that week and never got to go." Rachyl sighed in memory... It seemed a lot of the "fun things" kids did during school she ended up missing due to illness or something more personal.

Rachyl 19 years ago
Rachyl nodded and smiled. "15th at Ramsey's. Got it."

She hooked an arm into Meegan's. "That's a Monday, though, what time is the show?"
Nyra 19 years ago
"The show opens at 7:30pm. But it will run for a week. So you can come anytime. The manager did assure me of an amazing party though on the 15th." she said with a grin.

"Please be sure to bring Meegan as well. I could use more insight if she doesnt mind sharing hers."
Meegan 19 years ago
Meegan lifted an eyebrow. 'How very odd, but then I've never met an artist that wasn't.' And an art show would be fun, I think.'

"Not to worry, Nyra, I'll be there. When you are finished there, look at the painting next to it and think 'light at the end of the tunnel.'"


Meegan took her arm from Rachyl's and walked from the room, when she reached the top of the stairs she leaned against the railling to wait for Rachyl.
Rachyl 19 years ago
Rachyl smiled gain at Nyra. "We," she said, emphazing the word, "will be there. With bells on. Well maybe not bells." She sighed. "You know what I mean."

With a nod of her head, she bid Nyra good day, and walked up the stairs to join Meegan.

The taller woman leaned so lasciviously against the railing it was hard for Rachyl to not stop and stare at her delicious curves.


"I hope you don't mind me inviting myself along on the artistic tour she seems set on giving you," she said with a wink.
Meegan 19 years ago
"My dear, I wouldn't dream of going with out you." Meegan pushed herself up from the rail and smiled at Rachyl. The sense of forboding still heavy on her arms and shoulders.

"Come on, lets go shopping."


Meegan started down the stairs with a wink.
Rachyl 19 years ago
Rachyl tilted her head at Meegan's sudden change of plans, but didn't mind.

As they exited, Nyra didn't seem to notice them, but a painting near a side exit caught Rachyl's eye...

It was a rather large oil painting of what looked like a view from the driver's seat of a car; signs were visible, if blurry, and there was a vague feeling of motion from the somewhat blurred seperating stripes. In the impossibly large rear view mirror, grossly distorted, were two figures, standing on a curb, the shorter figure with a hand raised, almost as if they were waving at the driver...
The speedometer was pegged at ninety.

Rachyl stopped dead in her steps and fell to her knees with a loud thud, staring, open-mouthed at the painting.

In the bottom corner, the tiny signature showed "J.Walker."
Nyra 19 years ago
Nyra smiled as the women walked out but her attention was still upon the artwork. Her pencil flew over the page in front of her, it seems inspiration had struck.

After a few minutes she flipped the page and walked onto the next one.
"Light at the end of the tunnel, hhmmm." Once again she sat down and analyzed the work. Trying to view it as Meegan had told her. Her sketchbook was full and she sat till the sun sank trying to find that point of view. Hopefully she could talk with Meegan at the showing a bit more broadly.

((Nyra Out!))
Meegan 19 years ago
"Oh my goodness!" Meegan rushed to Rachyl's side and crouched down next to her. "Are you alright? What's wrong?"

Meegan's face was a mixture of panic and curiosity.
Rachyl 19 years ago
Meegan's worry came through her paniced tone, but all Rachyl could do was point at the painting.

She remembered vividly the day her father had dropped she and her mother off at the rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike, then drove off... They had walked out just as he started driving away, and Rachyl remembered waving at him, the same way she did every morning, as if he were just driving to work...

And there it hung on the wall, for all to see...

The anger she used to feel, the rage she'd pretty much let go through years of therapy, meditation, and forgiveness, uncounted hours of hatred for her father bubbled up inside. All she wanted to do was tear the painting from the wall and rip it to shreds, bash the frame against a pillar, shatter it to splinters. Her fists clenched as she fell forward, eyes still riveted to the piece, her chest heaving as she tried not to vomit on the immaculate floor.
Meegan 19 years ago
Meegan looked at the painting (one she had never liked, since it had seemed so sad), she looked down at the signature and nearly joined Rachyl on the floor. Instead she put her hands under Rachyl's arm and helped her up.

Slowly she lead her closest friend outside the museum. Once outside, Meegan lowered her to the steps, and sat down next to her, tucking an arm around Rachyl's shoulders.



"I'm here when you're ready to talk."
Rachyl 19 years ago
The painting had seared into her mind in the scant brief moments she'd been looking at it. Her voice was ragged, tears streaming down her face as she shook, barely able to keep herself upright, in Meegan's arms.

"How could he paint it? How could he flaunt what he did? Is it wrong that I want to tear it to shreds, then cut him to ribbons with the splinters? Or even stab his heart out, the way he did to me, to Mom, that day? Why does it hurt so much? When I thought I'd forgiven him, when I'd let go of all the anger and hatred I'd found inside me after I'd learned and been old enough to understand what he did, why does the distorted representation of his point of view make me so sick I want to vomit all the hateful things I've said, thought, written about, over the last nineteen years, or bash my forehead against one of those stone pillars until I can't feel anything, can't see anything but the blood I wish was pouring from his battered, broken, betraying body?"

A body-wracking sob, almost an explosion, came from her chest as she fell into Meegan's embrace, sniffling and gasping on her shoulder.
Meegan 19 years ago
Meegan simply rubbed her hand up and down Rachyl's arm. There were no words for this kind of pain. Meegan knew it well, but in a different light, her parents left her against their will, her father left freely. Meegan hugged Rachyl close, and let her sob into her chest, soaking the front of her cami.
Rachyl 19 years ago
The tears finally stopped flowing.

Rachyl hadn't 'properly' cried for what her father had done, had never shed a tear even through years of therapy and talking with her mother about it (as infrequently as they had) and the outburst was rather... liberating.

Straightening, she reached into her purse for a tissue and started giggling. As she dabbed her eyes and wiped her nose, she answered Meegan's inquisitive gaze.
"I was just thinking, I'd never have met Nyra if I hadn't been concerned about her bleeding, and offered her a napkin to help staunch it."

A staccato sob wracked her again and she sighed, then cleared her throat, her voice a bit less choked with emotion. She took a clean tissue and wiped some makeup from Meegan's chest and shoulder, then hugged her briefly. "My place isn't too far, would you mind if we stopped by so I could freshen up? I didn't bring enough supplies with me to take care of something of this... magnitude."
Meegan 19 years ago
"Of course we can sweety, and I'm going to need to borrow a blouse, this one is a bit...damp."

Meegan laughed, then pushed herself to her feet, she reached a hand down to help Rachyl to her's.
Rachyl 19 years ago
Taking Meegan's hand, she rose to her feet, and kept hold of her friend's hands. She looked deep into Meegan's eyes, trying to express the gratitude she felt for her allowing the rather uncharacteristic display of emotion she'd just indulged...

She walked side by side with the designer to The Strip, and hailed a cab.



(( Continued in Sunday Shopping, Meegan and Rachyl out. ))