C E Poverman The Black Velvet Girl (epub) id

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.I stood in front of the bride and groom, I don't think they'd tied the string on their wrists, yet, here was this beautiful young girl, maybe sixteen or seventeenshy, blushing, in a gold Benares sariand her groom, a nice-looking young cat, maybe twenty, the two of them almost like fawns, and I felt really kind of mean, and also, sorry for the young girl, but I danced up closer and closer, and dancing in one spot, I moved my feet up and down slowly so the only sound was the jangle of the bells on my anklets, I swayed in front of them, then, just her, like a cobra, she didn't blink, but stared back into my eyes, she was fascinated by the color, by the spot of black pigment, I raised my hands slowly over my head, her eyes never moved from mine.Even in the heat, the coins were cool as they started to sprinkle my feet.Then, there was the feathering of banknotes on my feet and ankles like birds' wings.I suddenly realized what Ram Lal had taught me to do with my eyesand what I had known in the jangle of the ankle bellswas to hypnotize her.One of Ram Lal's real powers was to hypnotizeto hypnotize the fear into themto hypnotize his curses into them.The car accident?My arms met, forming a vault over my head, my anklets jangled softly, the bangles on my wrists jangled together as I raised my arms higher.I knew that she was hypnotized, and suddenly I felt so sure, I looked away from her eyes, looked down into the circular mirrors of my tribal vest and saw the thousands of splintered faces of the bridal party, of Ram Lal, of the troupe, the servants, the bride,Page 8each one, separate, and all together, reflected in each of the mirrors, each of the mirrors flashing like a beam of sunlight on a wave, I looked down over the left side of my chest, then arched my back slightly, still softly stamping the jangle of my ankle bells like the whisper of a telegraph, I looked down at the faces reflected on my back; then, turning slowly back to the bride, I peered down on my right side and was instantly blinded by thousands of suns, it was to my right or it must have been in the East, my eyes ached, and I suddenly thought, what am I doing here?where am I?how did I get hung up on a gig like this I gotta go find Xo.Ram Lal was very pleased with meas a lover, as a chelastudent, as a.Ram Lal was pleased that I could go into a wedding party and knock 'em dead, bring the gold out of their pockets.I started getting my own reputation.No one knew who I was or where I came from.I had various namesthe one with pigment in his eye, the white one, and so on.It was a gas watching the brides right off look into my left iris, searching for the black spot, yes, it's him!I'd nod for Ram Lal who would start to smile because word had already been here ahead of us and it would be a cinch.It was a cinch.I don't think he was jealous.It was more bread for everyone.I don't know how long Ram Lal had been considering this next move, but one time the gig wasn't proceeding so gooda very uptight wedding party, no money.I'd been dancing in trances in front of the bride, nothing was working, Ram Lal had threatened to curse them, they weren't intimidated.They were getting ready to have us heaved out.Ram Lal clapped his hands and got us all dancing, not frenetic, but a very steady, very slow, menacing kind of dance, Duleep playing the deep drum, very slow, very loud, like it was tolling, boooom.boooom.can the finger cymbals, no sparkling sounds.Page 9Ram Lal danced slowly through the troupe over to me and staring straight into my eyes, looking up slightly because I was tallerthough I always thought of him as tallerhe put his arm around my waist and swaying his head in a trance so I had to fight to keep from passing out and falling over in the dust, he taught me the first curse.It was humid, very hot and close, flies swarmed in the air, it was the season for chills, convulsions, viruses, fevers, unnameable diseases, bad water.The sky a coagulate mucous, trembling,I danced before the bride and with the drum tollingsoftly softlytremblingI said it as Ram Lal had said it.I didn't even know what it was and maybe that was why Ram Lal taught mebecause there was no power if you didn't know what it meant? Maybe he thought I'd forget.Or wouldn't even know it was a curse.Or maybe he trusted me.Whatever I said, the coins cooled my feet in the dust.The flutter of banknotes.They had to pay plenty more that day to buy the curse back off [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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