Page 43 of Curtain Call
“Riley,” Colin called over to him with his hand outstretched to grab his coat.
Riley turned with the eyes of a child at Christmas. They were bright with glimmers of excitement. He handed his coat and green scarf to Colin.
“Thanks,” Riley says, before walking a few feet forward and looking into the double glass doors at a limited exhibit. The sign reads Paris to Hollywood, Claudette Colbert’s Starfish Broach.
Once the attendant takes their coats and hangs them on top of each other on the same hanger, she hands Colin the ticket, and he catches up to Riley.
“Want to go in?” Colin asks.
“Sure.”
Riley walks into the dark space. In the center of the room, a display case houses a starfish embellished with what looked like raw rubies. Colin reads the inscription out loud to Riley.
“It says here that there are over seventy-one rubies and six hundred and sixty-five amethysts. And it has a dozen joints so it can move in three directions.”
“It’s stunning. Old Hollywood glam. I think it would make the perfect Christmas gift for me.”
Riley smirks but tries his hardest to keep a straight face.
“Seems like something that would be on Jax’s Christmas list,” Colin whispers to him.
“Um, totally,” Riley lets out the laugh he was containing.
They make their way back out to the main round foyer that branches off in many directions. Colin isn’t sure in which direction to go, so he decides to guide them straight. After they walk for a few minutes, he realizes where they are once they pass the information booth, and it was perfect. It led right to the Life Magazine exhibit and their time slot started in less than five minutes. They pass a large display of twenty-five squares statingHere All Belong. Colin took out his phone and snapped the photo. They made their way down the wide stairwell leading to the exhibit and Riley motioned to the restroom sign that was strategically off one of the stair’s landings. Colin thought it was a great idea, and he too stepped inside the restroom.
When they come out, a large red screen, with a projector displaying images, greeted them before they turned the corner to the entrance. Across from the entrance door was a large mural,Life Magazine and the Power of Photography. Colin was excited to see this exhibit as he has always loved taking pictures as a hobby, and when he gets wrapped in a wormhole of Instagram stories, it’s mostly photography shots from around the world.
Walking into the exhibit, Colin notices the vintage covers of some of the first issues of the magazine in 1936. A man swan diving, the Nazi regime, and two others. Upon further reading, Colin realizes that those were dummy magazines to test run the idea for Time Magazine. Clever, he thought.
“Colin, come check this out,” Riley calls from the next room over already taking in the next display.
“They were homes that were photographed in the 1930s for that first issue. They’re called shack towns,” Riley says while looking at the black and white photographs of an old apartment building, several homes, and Nelson’s Laundry, where the woman who ran it didn’t have running water.
“Makes us thankful for what we have today, doesn’t it?”
Colin moves along and is mesmerized by the movement in a gymnast’s photo. He is on the gymnastic horse in the middle of the routine. The photographer must have used a long exposure lens to capture it because on the horse are four images of the same gymnast throughout the movement.
The exhibit was eerily quiet, and Colin and Riley tried to respect the other museumgoers while they moved through the different rooms.
After turning yet another corner and going into a room with a light table filled with exposed film and magnifying blocks to look more closely at the picture, they made their way to something that hit a little closer to home. It was all about Black Lives Matter and extreme right politics. The photography that was taken during this time needed no explanation. Colin felt each picture. The blow to the head by a police officer, the heel of someone’s boot against his own scalp, the target on his back because of the color of his skin and reading each story in the exhibit made Colin’s eyes wet.
Riley had friends that were attacked in New York City a couple of years ago on the subway, so he empathized with Colin. He walked over and squeezed Colin’s arm without saying a word. The left side of Colin’s mouth turned up. It was his way of telling Colin he would always stand in solidarity.
The final display leading to the exit was war photos and the Holocaust. This was heavier than Colin wanted so he quickly glanced at the photos without reading as he walked by.
“Mind if we head out and check out other areas,” he asks Riley softly.
“Let’s do it.”
Colin put Riley’s hand in his, seized the moment, and escorted him back up the stairs.
“You want to grab a bite to eat? I haven’t eaten since breakfast and my stomach is feeling a bit queasy.”
“I ate earlier, but I’ll sit with you and have a drink and appetizer.”
“Perfect.”
Once they made it up the stairs, the New American Café was open. They were seated at the counter, which was fine since neither of them wanted to linger at a café. They would rather spend their time exploring far-off lands and history.
