Page 88 of Mann Hunt
“It’s part of his dream… Just not mine.”
Charlie stared at him. “And what’s yours?”
“I haven’t found it yet.” Justin smiled sadly.
Charlie took a sip of his beer. “So, do you have anyone around here you can at least talk to? Someone gay?”
Justin let out a mocking laugh. “Around here? Not a chance.”
Charlie leaned in a bit. “So…where do you go for action then? There’s gotta be some horny farm boy around here you could do on the back of his tractor.”
Justin had a mouthful of beer which he choked on, then it shot out through his nose. The two burst out laughing.
“I’d be happy to settle for a farm boy. I go into Calgary from time to time. Around here, the only guy that paid attention to me was the team owner.”
“What? Wasn’t that a bit creepy?”
“No. He’s a pretty good-looking guy, for his age. Really sophisticated. At least he was.”
The expression on Justin’s face changed. He went silent. Charlie had the feeling that Justin had said more than he’d planned to. He stared down at the table.
“You boys want anything else right now? I’m goin’ on break,” the waitress said as she dropped off the plate of nachos.
“Maybe another couple of beers,” Charlie replied.
“You got it,” she said, then headed back to the bar. Justin and Charlie sat sipping their beers until the waitress dropped off two more bottles. Justin broke the silence.
“Can I trust you?” Justin asked.
“Yeah. Of course… Did something happen to you?”
Tears were welling up in Justin’s eyes. Charlie reached over and touched Justin’s hand. Justin pulled away before looking around. It was clear he was checking to see if they were alone but nobody was looking their way.
Justin started slowly. “Ian was a photographer. He said there was something special about me. He thought I’d make a great model.”
“He said that to you?”
“Yeah, but he wasn’t one of those guys that shoot porn. He showed me what he’d done. His pictures are all over the internet. He was like a huge fashion photographer in England. He took pictures of everybody famous like…ever hear of a guy named Bowie?”
“Yeah. My parents used to listen to him.”
“He said I kinda looked like Bowie.”
Charlie really looked at Justin’s face for the first time. He had such delicate features. Without his masculine haircut, his face was quite androgynous.
“He told me he wanted to restart his career and had an idea for a new exhibition. He asked if I wanted to be a part of it. He wanted me to be his model. Can you imagine? Me—a model? He was the first person to see me as anything other than a future short-order cook. He said this could change my whole life—that I could be famous.”
“You know, sometimes people say things just to get what they want.”
“It wasn’t like that, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“As long as he didn’t make you do anything you didn’t want to do,” Charlie said. “I don’t like the thought of someone doing that.”
Justin’s expression started to relax. “He never touched me other than to put on a bit of makeup to smooth out the colour of my skin. He took me to a studio in Calgary and shot a bunch of pictures. The first batch were of me in my hockey gear. Then he shot hundreds of just my face.”
“How many times did you sit for him?”
“Three or four. He said when he was photographing Princess Di—yeah, I looked up the pictures on the net. He actually took pictures of a princess. He said whenhe was photographing her, he didn’t have much time and he regretted it, because it takes longer to get to know the essence of your model… That’s what he said, at least.”
