Disclaimer: I don't own Dave at Night. Okay. Onward.
His hand is curled around hers. She stands next to him, watching with amusement his rapture at the paintings.
"Dave," she says softly.
"Irma Lee," he says back, kindly, though he looks annoyed at having been interrupted.
"The museum is closing," she tells him.
"Let it," he says.
Irma Lee grins at him.
When the guard comes around to check that everyone is gone, Irma Lee and Dave hide. They stifle giggles, and run as quietly as possible through the large, white rooms.
Once they feel that they are no longer in immediate danger of being caught, they stop, sit cross-legged on the floor in front of a Gauguin.
Dave lies back. He stares up at the lights on the ceiling and sighs. It comes out shaky.
Dave is not perfect, Irma Lee knows. He doesn't talk about his father or his brother, but she knows he is still angry.
He gets up, circles around the room, looks at every piece. "They're so beautiful, don't you think?" he says. "That's what I want to do for the rest of my life."
It was his teacher at the Hebrew Home for Boys that made him like art like this. Irma Lee has never had a teacher inspire her.
Dave breathes in deeply. He remembers the carving of Noah's Ark. It is even more beautiful than these, he thinks.
The carving comes with memories for Dave. He remembers sitting shivah for his father, playing stickball with his friends, opening the door for Elijah on Passover. These memories do not necessarily have to do with the carving, but he remembers them anyway.
Irma Lee takes his hand and leads him away from that room, into another. Dave realizes that she is even prettier than all the art in the museum combined, and tells her so.
She smiles, but only a little. "But you are Jewish, Dave, and I am black."
"So?"
"I care about you, but look at how people see us."
"Does that matter to you?"
"No."
"Good," Dave says, and they stand with each other in front of an oil painting by Francois Boucher. Dave glances at the card to the side and nearly chokes. "This painting is called The Toilet of Venus.
Irma Lee and Dave laugh at that, a little too loud. They see flashlight beams nearby, and run away.