it’s all related to Paradise Lost .’
‘Never read it. No, wait, we had to read it at school, but I’ve forgotten most of it. There’s an angel with a flaming sword who expels Adam and Eve from Paradise.’
‘God, that’s right. Plus Satan. The first book, about Satan’s hatred of God, goes on forever. And then there’s Eve, who thinks she’s supposed to eat the apple. All very sad, but I don’t remember exactly what happens, not in any detail.’
‘Me neither. So what do we do when people find us?’
‘They’re not allowed to talk to us. They will, of course, but we’re not supposed to answer. And we have to stay perfectly still. Anyway, the pay’s good.’
‘How did you hear about it?’
‘There was an ad in the theatre section of the paper here. I gave them a call. They’re going to hold auditions. I’m sure they’ll take you, but it’ll be a bit harder for me.’ She pointed to her breasts. ‘Have you ever seen an angel with boobs?’
15
SO NOW I’M AN ANGEL. IT WASN’T DIFFICULT. THE director picked me out of the line-up straight away. ‘The thing is,’ she said, ‘you have to be able to lie very still.’ Turning to her assistant, she added, ‘She’s so small she could fit inside the cupboard in that building on William Street, by the Gledden Arcade. Make a note of that.’
And then to me, ‘Do you think you can lie very still? Because that’s what you’ll have to do.’
I said it would not be a problem. After all, I had enough to think about. Almut also passed with flying colours. She had done her best to hide her breasts, but she need not have bothered. ‘We’ll put her on the roof of His Majesty’s Theatre, across from Wilson’s Car Park. She looks like she could hold a sword in the air for a couple of hours.’
Yesterday was our first day. Last night Almut was so tired she couldn’t think straight.
‘I have to stand all day in that bloody sun, but the view’s fantastic. Mind you, I don’t see any of the people up close. How about you?’
‘I don’t see them either.’
I don’t see them, but I can hear them. I listen to the way they walk up the stairs, then stop and stand still for a moment until they see me. I can always tell when they have spotted me, I can feel it, which is strange because there is never more than one of them at a time. They have to promise to look for the angels alone. I try to guess from the footsteps whether it’s a man or a woman, since I am not allowed to turn round. I have to curl up on the floor of the cupboard with my face to the wall. Whenever someone comes in, I try to hold my breath for as long as I can, but after a while you get incredibly stiff and the wings are fastened so tightly that it starts to hurt like mad. Thank God I can always hear them coming up the stairs, so when there is a lull I rotate my shoulders. Otherwise I would go crazy. The other thing that annoys me are the people who deliberately stand there for a long time, hoping you will break down and turn round. It’s always a man, you can tell. When that happens, I concentrate on my favourite Annunciations – on the poses, the position of the wings. And I think of him , of how we lay there together in the desert, also on the ground. Too bad I didn’t have my wings then. I wish I knew whether he has been thinking of me, and where he is. And then I fantasise a bit about what he would say if he walked in here, and whether I would recognise his step and turn round, even though it’s against the rules, but of course that is ridiculous. I discovered afterwards where his mob lives. It wasn’t hard to work out because they have a very distinctive style. The whole kinship group paints in the same way. Here in the museum in Perth, I have seen the paintings of the rest of his mob, the people I was hoping to meet, though they were kept secret from me, or perhaps it is the other way round, since of course my existence was kept secret from them. Time passes quickly when
‘Never read it. No, wait, we had to read it at school, but I’ve forgotten most of it. There’s an angel with a flaming sword who expels Adam and Eve from Paradise.’
‘God, that’s right. Plus Satan. The first book, about Satan’s hatred of God, goes on forever. And then there’s Eve, who thinks she’s supposed to eat the apple. All very sad, but I don’t remember exactly what happens, not in any detail.’
‘Me neither. So what do we do when people find us?’
‘They’re not allowed to talk to us. They will, of course, but we’re not supposed to answer. And we have to stay perfectly still. Anyway, the pay’s good.’
‘How did you hear about it?’
‘There was an ad in the theatre section of the paper here. I gave them a call. They’re going to hold auditions. I’m sure they’ll take you, but it’ll be a bit harder for me.’ She pointed to her breasts. ‘Have you ever seen an angel with boobs?’
15
SO NOW I’M AN ANGEL. IT WASN’T DIFFICULT. THE director picked me out of the line-up straight away. ‘The thing is,’ she said, ‘you have to be able to lie very still.’ Turning to her assistant, she added, ‘She’s so small she could fit inside the cupboard in that building on William Street, by the Gledden Arcade. Make a note of that.’
And then to me, ‘Do you think you can lie very still? Because that’s what you’ll have to do.’
I said it would not be a problem. After all, I had enough to think about. Almut also passed with flying colours. She had done her best to hide her breasts, but she need not have bothered. ‘We’ll put her on the roof of His Majesty’s Theatre, across from Wilson’s Car Park. She looks like she could hold a sword in the air for a couple of hours.’
Yesterday was our first day. Last night Almut was so tired she couldn’t think straight.
‘I have to stand all day in that bloody sun, but the view’s fantastic. Mind you, I don’t see any of the people up close. How about you?’
‘I don’t see them either.’
I don’t see them, but I can hear them. I listen to the way they walk up the stairs, then stop and stand still for a moment until they see me. I can always tell when they have spotted me, I can feel it, which is strange because there is never more than one of them at a time. They have to promise to look for the angels alone. I try to guess from the footsteps whether it’s a man or a woman, since I am not allowed to turn round. I have to curl up on the floor of the cupboard with my face to the wall. Whenever someone comes in, I try to hold my breath for as long as I can, but after a while you get incredibly stiff and the wings are fastened so tightly that it starts to hurt like mad. Thank God I can always hear them coming up the stairs, so when there is a lull I rotate my shoulders. Otherwise I would go crazy. The other thing that annoys me are the people who deliberately stand there for a long time, hoping you will break down and turn round. It’s always a man, you can tell. When that happens, I concentrate on my favourite Annunciations – on the poses, the position of the wings. And I think of him , of how we lay there together in the desert, also on the ground. Too bad I didn’t have my wings then. I wish I knew whether he has been thinking of me, and where he is. And then I fantasise a bit about what he would say if he walked in here, and whether I would recognise his step and turn round, even though it’s against the rules, but of course that is ridiculous. I discovered afterwards where his mob lives. It wasn’t hard to work out because they have a very distinctive style. The whole kinship group paints in the same way. Here in the museum in Perth, I have seen the paintings of the rest of his mob, the people I was hoping to meet, though they were kept secret from me, or perhaps it is the other way round, since of course my existence was kept secret from them. Time passes quickly when
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