Perfect II: The Art Of Living

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The play seemed to be done by now. It had been called off by the playwright himself. Due to heavy rain, lights suddenly sparked and collapsed in mid show. The basses also crackled the sound that it became inaudible and twisted. Everything was ruined. Mediocre props soaked themselves on mud puddles scattered on Van Cortlandt Park. Ethan sheltered himself with Enid and Sebastian under a large commercial tent. He shivered from the cold, thinking of William who had been long gone since he left him.

           The rain abruptly stopped when every single viewer had gone home. Sebastian grunted and stomped his feet like a thirteen-year-old brat. Ethan sighed and picked up his homburg that sat beside his feet. Enid delivered it when she took a restroom earlier. However, he still worried himself for William.

           “So, how is New York, The City Of Dreams?” Sebastian asked, shoveling the stacked props/trashes behind the stage.

Ethan ignored him and watched the “The Safe Cross” actors vanish in broad moonlight. Van Cortlandt was now illuminated by a bright moonbeam. Less light posts, more green. Ethan tucked his homburg tightly to his head and tilted it to clear his vision.

“Are you even listening to me?” Sebastian asked another question with a disinterested tone.

“Sorry,” Ethan chuckled and pushed his glasses to his nose bridge. “The City Of Dreads,” he corrected before starting answering the first question. “New York is fine. Monochromatic. Delirious. Abnormal. Frustrating. Rude. Wry. Believe me they’re all compliments. I am working on a Technical Hardbound now and I know you will be an asset to our liability.”

“What?” Sebastian wanted clarification as he stopped his search. He turned to Ethan.

“Technical Hardbounds are books that explain a technical subject.”

Sebastian shrugged. “I know nothing about Med.”

They laughed. “It is nothing about Medicine or…”

“Not even religion,” Sebastian continued.

Ethan fired. “Slightly about religion but your help is not of God, though. I want you to help us about Trevor.”

Sebastian’s eyes grew bright. “How did Trevor came into this topic? Are you making an LGBTQ Technical Hardbound?”

“I believe LGBTQ rights is a very specific topic for a book. However, LGBTQ falls under Social Awareness which is the topic of our Technical Hardbound,” Ethan narrated and found Sebastian blankly gazing at him.

“What’s with ‘Technical Hardbound’? You did repeat it over and over.” Sebastian mused to exit the park to which the both gladly agreed. “Let’s talk about it on my favorite bar.”

           “Oh no!” Ethan declined. “I don’t do bars.”

           Enid giggled.

           “We should head to our place.”

           “No way I’d go to apartments. Half of Yorkish apartments are haunted. A café,” he heavily sighed. “A café perhaps will do me.”

           Ethan quivered from the idea but he agreed with Enid who giggled most of the time.

Da Vinci Café and Library knelt, juxtaposed by two narrow streets. It was shrouded by a humble satin shed in front where two sets of tea-tables sat. From afar, it looked like a flower shop from the flowerbeds that created a balk between the bars that came from both ends. It had pots and baskets of various flowers that blew a very pleasant odor. Delights, the name any patron called the dishes in Da Vinci Café, lay linearly on the enormous shelf beside another shelf of books. Mostly, Technical Hardbounds. Ethan entered proudly inside and stood in front of the counter immediately.