13. Sculpture
2081 Words
The doctor lets me go after an hour. Collin gets me ready, and we go sit on the porch.
Lindsay hands me a coffee. "You need that. You alright?"
"Yea. I'm fine."
"What happened?"
Collin rubs my shoulder. "She had some kind of seizure. She's ok."
"Did you hear about the explosions last night?"
Collin nods. "1. Was there more?"
"3. I guess 2 people died. A bunch more got hurt. Nobody we knew. I guess they went to school. After the 2nd explosion, Dipak closed everything. Put everyone on lockdown and ordered everyone home. The 3rd explosion didn't hurt anyone. That's what I've heard anyways."
Silvia runs up on the porch. "Did you hear what happened?"
"I was just telling them about the explosions."
"There was 8."
"Morning." Dipak grabs a coffee.
Silvia looks at him. "How many people died?"
"Nobody died. There were 2 explosions. 7 people were injured. They're good now."
Lindsay nods. "Did you really order everyone home?"
"Yes."
Silvia sighs. "Yea, I finally found a boy that likes me and Dipak made us go home."
He smiles. "He'll still like you today."
"He probably has a girlfriend now."
"It's only been 10 hours."
"It only takes 2 minutes for these whores."
"Yea, I guess you got a point there."
"If he likes you, he won't get pulled away that easily. Anyway, what are you all doing today?"
"Stalking him."
"Art shop."
"Dance studio."
I snuggle Collin. I have no words at all.
"So what are you going to actually do?"
"Sit here." They all laugh.
He rolls his eyes. "I swear. Why don't you go sit at the art shop? Maybe something will get done by accident."
"Not a bad idea. We need more coffee first." Lindsay sits an empty cup down.
That nice boy from the festival walks up on the porch.
"Hey Collin..."
Tre walks up behind him. "I got the coupons and the advertisement done for the show on Friday."
He hands the papers to Lindsay. "Hey, there's that boy Silvia. What's his name?"
"David. Oh my God. He's coming over here. I need to fix everything." She runs in the house.
"I need the price of the tickets for the show Friday and I can finish the advertisement."
"We're getting coffee first." Linsay pulls me to the coffee shop with her. We don't talk. She lets me walk and be quiet.
We get back, and I snuggle in beside Collin again.
He smiles. "Tickets are going to be 50g each. You're also hiring 3 people. 2 ushers will get 100g each. They work from 7 to 9. The show is from 8 to 9. Then you're hiring a ticket person too. 250g. They will sell the tickets from 4 to 8."
Lindsay nods. "That works. So 450g for hired people. That's not too bad. It's only 9 tickets we have to sell. Hopefully we'll get that many. Tre made coupons too. Free chips and cheese and another for a pretzel."
Tre nods. "We have to move the cheese out. Coupons are only good for your show though, so it should help."
"We only need 9 tickets to sell. Can somebody get me the chips and cheese towards the end of the show though? I like them."
Tre rubs his eyes. "And the coupons will only be in Friday's paper. So make sure you get that 1 if you want the coupon."
"Thank you."
Tre looks at Dipak. "I guess we're paying for the advertising too."
Dipak nods. "These 2 are not big on the business side of things."
"Well, if this takes off, they're going to need a manager, and it's not me."
Collin squeezes me. "I'll do it."
"You can't. You're involved with her for 1. 2, you own the studio they teach at. You need to manage that first. You can help them right now, but if this dancing thing takes off, someone will have to step in to represent them."
Dipak nods. "Let them go for now. They're playing and learning the field. Same with Collin. They're learning. If it goes too fast, we'll step in and get it sorted. But a class or show occasionally, he can deal with. No reason to bring in a manager yet. Let them get some experience with it."
Tre nods. "Collin is doing well. He understands the contracts and learns quickly. He's going to be good at this. He's still learning now."
"Well, he's not even 400 Tre. It's going to take a few years. That's why I'm saying, let them keep going. They're learning. And business, contracts, management, it's tricky. This gives them a lot of experience."
"It gives Collin experience. Those 2 won't look at it."
"If they end up making enough, they can hire a manager and not have to deal with it anyway."
"That doesn't mean they shouldn't learn."
"BOYS." Lindsay shakes her head. "Maybe someday we'll learn the business stuff. Today's not that day. And what do you mean Collin can't manage us because they're involved? You manage the princesses stuff, and you're involved."
"She's my mate. Not my girlfriend. It's a big difference."
Silvia falls off her chair. The nice boy and Silvia's boy look at him quickly.
Tre rubs his eyes and walks off the porch. "That is enough for me today."
Dipak cracks up laughing and leaves with him.
Collin kisses my head. "Let's go over to the art store."
We get some more coffee and sit in his office. Lindsay gets a contract and meets us there with Tre.
"It's the contract for the class Thora wants to teach on Saturday."
He sits back in his chair. "2 hours. Castle dances. Saturday at 3. Thora instructing. 25 people max. She wants 2.5k total. So 100g each."
Lindsay shakes her head. "No. I want 2.5k. Even if the spots don't get full. I still get 2.5k."
He raises his eyebrows. "Alright so..."
Tre nods. "That's what she wants to teach here. You have to look at it. Do you think you can make money on that? If you can, take her offer."
Lindsay nods. "It's a bit more a gamble than how Whisp negotiates. But you might be able to make a lot of money on that. Or you could price it too high to start and not sell any spots. At that point, you will have to give me the 2.5k from your own money. I really want to try teaching as Thora. I think it'll be fun."
"Yea, it would be your fault if you didn't advertise it right."
"I don't want to lose 2.5k."
Lindsay laughs. "Then advertise right. Who is the target audience? Probably teenagers or young adults. The older adults don't care about castle dances. So how much will daddy pay to have his daughter learn to dance with a queen? Also, young adults generally don't have too much money. So you don't want to go too high."
Tre reads the contract. "Also you don't want to go so low that it fills up in an hour. I think we went to low on Whisp's class. But if it fills up that fast, you went too low. You could always make a coupon too. Start it out at 2k on Monday. If it still has places left on Thursday, put a 50% off coupon in the paper on Friday. Valid for any class this weekend that's not already full."
"You think I should start at 2k each for Thora's class?"
"I would. People will pay that. But advertise that class all week starting on Monday, in the paper and everywhere."
"I'll give Thora her class at 3." He signs the paper beside her.
"Thank you. I'm so excited."
"Show me an advertisement for Thora's castle dance class please. Cost 2k a person. Limit 25. The sign up place is the same as always." The brain hands him a paper. "This looks good. And the paper advertisement for it. And the advertisement for Friday with the coupon hooked to it. Give me 5 posters total. Perfect. Thank you."
"Of course."
He pulls a paper out of the cupboard behind his desk and fills out some stuff.
"I'm going to add this to my calander. I'll come back later."
Collin holds me on the couch until, "Paul is downstairs."
"I don't think he'll come up here without a personal invitation, baby. Let's go see what he wants."
His dad stares at him when we get downstairs. "Are you ok?"
"Yea, I'm alright, dad."
I go over and look at the wood-carved stuff. He made a lot of progress here. After a while, I want to paint candle holders, but I don't want to bother him. Him and his dad are working on something. I pick up a little squirrel and find a brain. "Can I make an elephant out of clay?"
"Yes."
It brings me the tiniest bit of clay and gives me some directions. I make a little elephant in about 3 minutes. It's amazing. I love working with my hands like this. But it's really messy.
I check the garden and don't want to mess it up. So, I go out the front door. There's about 10 feet between the building and the path. It's all grass area. I have the brains bring me a s**t ton of clay. I'm going to make a person. I'll make Marcus.
I make him stand on a rock. It's a flat rock. Then I make his boots. I put him in his ground-length coat. I'll need stability as it gets bigger.
I take my time and work my way up. The pants are tricky, but I figure out how to make them look like pants. I keep the coat open.
About the time I get to his belt, it's at my eye level. I send the brains after some stuff for me to stand on and glance around. I'm drawing a bit of a crowd. I ignore them.
Collin hands me some water.
Omar stares at it. "What are you doing?"
"AAAAHHHHHH!"
He nods. "We're just going to let her work through this."
Dipak crosses his arms. "We'll clean up any mess. Let her go for now."
I stand on a step thing the brains brought and keep going. I work my way up his chest. Then I add buttons on his shirt. They take a while. Arms are easy after the legs. Hands are hard but I get them. I have him hold his sword. I get to his head and the brains have some sort of contraption set up for me to stand on. It's a couple of stools and wood balanced between them. I can walk all the way around my sculpture.
Collin makes me get down and washes my hands. Then he gives me some food. It's good. I didn't realize I was hungry.
There's probably 40 people watching me.
Lindsay fixes my hair. "Who is it? We're taking bets."
The pink hair girl laughs. "It's Marcus."
"You don't know that. He doesn't even have a head."
"Fine. But you watch."
I finish my food and go back to building. I fix the collar of his shirt and coat where they combine. Then his neck and head. It really looks like his face when I'm done. I add his long hair last. Hair is not easy. I get it perfect then add extra like a breeze is blowing it. I sculpt his dragon face into his hair that way. It's amazing. Then I go around and add patches and decorations to his clothes and coat. His boot laces. I add the king's ring to his hand.
The pink hair girl whispers in my ear. "Put a plain band around his ring finger on his left hand please."
I add on the wedding band, then I put the crown on his head. I put the jewels on it and make it as real as I can.
I turn around and Marcus is standing there with tears in his eyes. He pulls me down and hugs me. I wrap around him and cry.
Dipak gets out of his chair that's randomly in the path. "I'll sort this out. She needs a bath."
"Got them." The pink hair girl does something to Collins' door and pushes Marcus through.
"Let's get you cleaned up, baby. Then we can go back." Collin pulls me away from Marcus and guides me to my apartment.
- Writer
