Obsession (9780061887079)
Page 7
“Where does it lead?” my voice quavers.
“Often to behavior that wouldn’t be tolerated anywhere except here.”
“Is anything expected of me tonight?”
“No, Bee, just have a good time.”
THE FÊTE HAS NOT BEGUN, but dressed and ready I wander restlessly to the fifth floor of the Janus Club and come upon a dark passageway leading to a door that has been left unpainted as though abandoned before the house was completed. Curiously, the door springs open as I approach and as if pushed by unseen hands I stagger into a room as brightly lit as an empty stage. As the door behind me shuts I know not if the room be big or small, as the walls and ceiling are mirrored. The floor is even coated with a silvery sheen, and although it is not made of mirror appears to be so. Dazed, I stand stunned as hitting and bouncing off the walls, back and forth, up and down, around, stretching into infinity, hundreds—no thousands—of images of a woman whose face is concealed by a mask of doves’ wings and marabou feathers, her dress diamanté and woven with crystal stars, the tulle frothing around her like whipped cream. Closing my eyes, I twirl, willing the skin beneath this finery to shed like a chrysalis and when I open my eyes I will be Bee. Dizzy, I remove the mask—it is not Bee. It is I. Thousands of Priscillas crying out—Yes, yes—to the center of each of us—she for him, he for her—not me. What matter I be Wife? She will forever be his Queen.
IN SANTA BARBARA, Bee on sudden impulse decides to surprise Maja by appearing unexpectedly at the Masked Fête. She throws her white dress sprinkled with diamanté and crystal stars into a suitcase, into it, too, the mask of marabou feathers and doves’ wings Talbot placed across her eyes the night he brought her from Janus Club to Akeru. Her heart pounds as she looks from the window of the plane on its way to New York soaring into clouds and sunlight before rising into a nothingness of blue.
Dominated by mutual obsession, two eagles are now one. They travel, sweeping across mountains and valleys, oceans, deserts, toward each other, across forests by day, in dark of night, at incredible speed…
As midnight strikes, Bee appears at Janus Club.
Among the merrymakers a woman in a strapless tulle dress sparkling with diamanté and crystal stars, wearing a mask of white marabou feathers and doves’ wings, mingles in the great hall as new arrivals push through the door.
Among them she sees a woman entering dressed as she is, wearing a mask of white feathers and doves’ wings.
Simultaneously, the woman entering spots in the crowd another dressed as she is—and when she does—she falters—faints, but soon recovers.
She pushes through the crowd, tearing off her mask, moving swiftly toward the woman; she rips the mask off the other woman’s face.
As this happens, the two women clasp their arms around each other.
And that, dear reader, is how obsession ends.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My thanks to Daniel Halpern for the brilliance of his vision.
To Chip Kidd—as ever, endless admiration.
To Jeannette Watson for her friendship and encouragement.
To Helene Goulay and the Corner Bookstore for unfailing support.
To Jeanne Carter, agent supreme.
To the team at Ecco-HarperCollins for their involvement and commitment.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
GLORIA VANDERBILT is the author of four memoirs and two novels. She contributes to various publications, including the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and Elle, and has received two honorary doctorates of Fine Arts. She lives in New York City.
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ALSO BY GLORIA VANDERBILT
It Seemed Important at the Time
A Mother’s Story
The Memory Book of Starr Faithful
Never Say Goodbye
Black Knight, White Knight
Once Upon a Time
Love Poems
CREDITS
Cover design by Chip Kidd
Cover photograph by Geoff Spear
Photography by Geoff Spear
COPYRIGHT
OBSESSION. Copyright © 2009 by Gloria Vanderbilt. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Adobe Digital Edition May 2009 ISBN: 9780061887079
Version 08102012
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