Beautiful Things – Russ Doherty

Gordon looks at Laura with remorse. He can’t explain fast enough. “Laura, I didn’t mean for things to turn out this way. And I did love you, even though I was unfaithful. It was Renee’s tattoo that turned my head. I was mesmerized.” 

Laura turns to Renee. Renee lifts the back of her blouse. Laura stares at the dragon.

“So what does cook-boy here have that can help us?” Thunder says.

Renee looks at Gordon. “He says he has a vase by some famous glass artist.”

As Gordon thinks through this puzzle, he arrives at a new equation: Sell his gorgeous Chihuly vase, feed starving Afghan kids—stop his nightmares. 

“If I sell the vase and give you the money, will you just leave me alone?”

Thunder says, “How much is it worth?”

“Seventy-five hundred.” Gordon thinks Chihuly certainly is life-changing.

Renee nods her head. Thunder shrugs.

“Seriously, you’re going to sell your Chihuly vase?” Laura says to Gordon.

“We’re all kind of responsible for that war,” Gordon says. “I know we pulled out, but kids are starving over there, and the economy has gone to shit. Girls can’t go to school. Women all have to wear burqas. Once Al-Qaeda was defeated, we should’ve just got the hell out of there. Now we’ve ruined their country.”

“Those people need help,” Laura says. “But so do you.” She’s crying again.

All eyes are on Gordon: Renee, Thunder, Laura, and his internal ghosts.

He hesitates. “I’ll feel better if I do this. It’ll balance out for what I didn’t do in Afghanistan. And maybe for what I couldn’t give to Laura.” As he talks, Gordon wonders if what he’s saying is true. He sees his choice in stark terms: tame Renee or be caged himself. He decides his future has arrived. He’d rather tame the beautiful dragon.

 

***

 

Five years later, the neon sign outside the restaurant says Beautiful Things. Inside, blown-glass chandeliers hang from the ceiling, glass vases with glass flowers adorn the tables, and glass sconces grace the walls. The entranceway is a miniature of the exhibit from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, complete with rotating lights and the undersea effect. Satie’s music plays quietly.

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