Nightblindness By Callie

chapter III

Three weeks had passed before Mandy could bring herself to leave her sister's apartment. Nothing would have pulled her out-except for Curt. The day before, he had called her to tell her he was in town playing at a tribute concert. "I just finished a record with Jack Fairy, can you believe it?"

She hardly knew what to say. Thinking of Jack made her think of Brian, a subject she didn't want to touch. "I'm glad you're back, Curt," she said, nearly breaking down from hearing his voice.

"Come to the show." And he hung up.

She may have been out of the house, but she didn't feel like having any unnecessary human interaction. She felt as if everyone around her was laughing at her, pointing at 'the reject.' And at the center of her imagination's circus of mockery was the spiteful face of Brian Slade, leading the chorus of guffaws. She slid through the wings in the middle of Curt's passionate performance and watched with aching torment as he thrashed upon the stage, beating himself with adrenaline emotion. Mandy rolled her head back and turned to see a cloaked figure at the far end of the audience, outlined by streetlights in the doorway. Despite the high collar, wide brimmed hat, and concealing darkness, she could tell at once who it was. But did anyone else see him?

After Curt's set, she waited in shadows for Curt to leave the stage, and snared him around the neck as he passed, pulling him into a long overdue embrace; they spoke in whispers. "That was really beautiful," she choked, letting salty tears flow from joy-filled eyes.

"Yeah?" Curt played with her hair, holding his forehead lazily against hers.

"Yeah." Mandy sighed and sucked back her tears. Gently she rubbed the back of Curt's sweat beaded neck with her fingernails.

"Did you see, uh-"

"No, I didn't see him." Mandy's smile faded and the tears came rushing back. Realizing how he'd hurt her with those words, Curt looked away. His eyes fell upon a strange boy leaning against a wall. His hair was spattered with blue in a vain attempt to resemble a certain fallen idol. But something about the lad was intriguing, and a plan began to form in Curt's head of how to debase this boy in order to save his own tattered heart.

Mandy noticed the boy, too, and his sad effort to become Maxwell Demon was depressing; she turned quickly away. Curt finally pealed his eyes from the kid and rubbed his cheek against Mandy's affectionately. "I have to go, Curt," she said weakly. She carefully brushed a tear from her eye and searched through her handbag for a scrap of paper, which she retrieved and scribbled upon before placing it in Curt's hand and curling his fingers around it. "My sister's place. I don't want to lose you again." She kissed him tenderly and hurried past him out of the venue.

There was something liberating about seeing Curt perform. Suddenly Mandy felt freer than she had in years, her mind's passions released with the energized exhibition. Any way around it, she couldn't sleep a wink that night and instead spent the long, early morning hours sifting through boxes of torn photographs and piecing them back together. As each image of her former husband came into view, her heart would skip a beat. Why was she salvaging remnants of that monster? Somewhere deep inside she knew the answer, thanks to Curt.

*********

The following afternoon was just like any other English day. Mandy lay asleep on the floor, a clipping on her lap. It was the clipping that had haunted her every day of the Maxwell Demon tour: Brian Slade and Curt Wild, tongues pressed together as they leaned into a suspended kiss. That relationship was what ruined Mandy Slade, edged her out of the picture and out of the spotlight for good. That relationship had made theirs so meaningless; after all, who would have any interest in a normal marriage? Certainly not Brian, but that was obvious, now wasn't it?

She awoke suddenly to a loud banging on the door. "Carla," Mandy groaned, and it took her a moment to realize that her sister was still at work and she would have to get up and answer it herself. She rubbed her eyes sleepily and cursed the continuous pounding-or was that only in her head? Swinging the door open, her tired eyes almost didn't recognize the sight before her.

"Can I come in?"

Mandy held the door and ushered him in. He was clad in the same ensemble he'd worn the night before, obviously having strayed from his hotel. He collapsed in a chair as Mandy busied herself in the kitchen making coffee. "I didn't expect you here so soon, Curt."

"Yeah, well-" He stopped mid sentence, for reasons which no one could tell. This was the same Curt, all right, always a little out of his head. "-I had no where else to go."

Hours of staring at that picture had changed Mandy's perception of her old friend. "What about Jack?" she asked, with an almost sarcastic tone in her voice. But Curt remained silent; something had happened last night that had changed everything. "Curt?" she coaxed, handing him the steaming cup.

"You saw him, right? That kid?" As soon as he said it, Mandy remembered the Maxwell Demon wannabe from the night before. Curt stared into the black depths of the mug, a thin smile forming across his lips. "It was the bastard's first time. He fucking worshiped me."

Mandy reached over and held Curt's hand in hers. Maxwell had adored him once again. "It's just a one night stand, Curt."

The rock star's crystalline eyes looked straight into hers. "Then why'd I just walk out on Jack?"

The awkward silence that followed spoke a thousand words. A strange anger filled the former Mrs. Slade as she pulled her hand away and tried to find her voice to answer the strange and sudden confession. "Do you even know his name?" she asked finally, her speech tight and granular.

"I don't think it ever came up." Laughter escaped his lips. "He looked better without that crap in his hair."

"One would hope."

"Listen, Mandy," he broke in, with an abruptly serious tone, "I don't know what the hell's wrong with me, you know maybe I'm crazy or something, but-" He paused, forming the words in his head. "-but I felt like I was changing him in some way."

"You did the same to Brian."

"Yeah. But Brian didn't do much damage to me."

"You say that," Mandy said, smiling as her voice became sly and quiet, "but you don't believe it."

Curt breathed deeply and rubbed his eye with his palm. For a moment they just sat there, staring at nothing in particular and letting the stillness do the talking. How did they get here? They had never spoken before the night of the argument that ended it all, and now all they had was each other. "I can't stay here," Curt said finally, matching his tone with the vacant expression on his face.

"Yeah," Mandy sighed, mirroring her old friend's emotions. "Neither can I."