Part 16 (1/2)

-Well, who's stopping you? said Billy.

-What?

-Who was that guy? asked Guy.

-Some Caltech nerd. He was explaining to me this abstruse Internet coding he's developed. Which, as you know, is the quickest way to my heart. I'm still kind of weak at the knees. Hold me.

-Internet coding? What's it do?

-It throws up all over you if you even mention those two words again.

-It. Do.

-G.o.d. You need to know when to switch off.

-Is there an after-party? Will there be drugs?

-There's always an after-party. And there's always drugs. That's how I lure you down here to look at the spermy art.

-I wish people would stop reading my mind.

-You should stop writing it down then.

-How much longer ...

-... will I put up with you? Hard to say. Why don't you go get your car and we'll talk about it on the way to the dealer's apartment.

-You're talking about the art dealer, aren't you?

-Is there any other kind? asked Violet, smiling enigmatically in a way that Guy thought was absolutely unfair.

-Do you think the Caltech nerd will be there?

-I imagine so. He owns the gallery.

-I thought you said he was a Caltech nerd.

-He is. His family's got money. He just does this to meet girls, or try to meet girls, which doesn't seem to be going well, judging from the frustration evidenced in these paintings.

-He did these?

-Well, technically, you could say his computer did them. But since he programmed the computer ... you know, conceptual art is not really my thing.

-Then why do you come?

-I enjoy watching you suffer, is one reason. And the look on Billy's face, you can't really put a price tag on that. Also, and this is really just an ancillary to the first two reasons, if I ever want a show of my own, I have to play the game.

-But you like playing the game.

Violet sighed. -Yeah. The tortured artist thing doesn't really suit me.

-Wouldn't it be cool if I wasn't such a loser and I could support you and maybe buy you a gallery of your own and you could just paint all day?

-I'd go nuts out of boredom. If you weren't such a loser I probably wouldn't even like you.

-That's the sweetest thing anyone's ever said to me.

-I mean it too.

-I know.

The after-party was somewhere downtown, in an old Art Deco building that had been turned into loft s.p.a.ces in an attempt to renovate the hollow core at the heart of Los Angeles, an effort that so far was doing okay but not spectacularly well. Guy wandered aimlessly through the crowd of black-spectacled hipsters, wondering if he should get a pair of black specs, even though his vision was perfect. Maybe even better than perfect. Better at any rate than the mediocre red wine in his gla.s.s tumbler.

I don't understand the vogue for alternative wine gla.s.ses, thought Guy. Is there a reason for it or is it just a statement of ”We are not grown up, we're only playing”? And how does that statement work, exactly? There are people here in their fifties making the same statement. At some point the thing you're pretending to be becomes the thing you are, otherwise you look ridiculous. Or you look ridiculous anyway but you don't care, or you look ridiculous but you don't know you look ridiculous. That might be where I fit. Wish I knew how exactly to look at myself through other people's eyes.

-Some people shouldn't be allowed to breed, said a voice beside Guy, which turned out to belong to the Caltech nerd slash gallery owner.

-Did you say breed or breathe? asked Guy.

-I ...

-It doesn't matter. I agree with both statements. But only if I get to choose. I hear you've developed some new kind of Internet coding?

-You heard that?

-I have lousy hearing. But my eyesight is very good.

-It's true. I don't think it has any practical application, but it's kind of fun.

-Did someone say something about fun? asked Billy, sidling up to Guy and the Caltech nerd.

-A different kind of fun, said Guy. He turned back to the Caltech nerd. -So what is it exactly?

-Well, in essence, I've developed a way using 4D quaternion Julia set fractals ...

-Julia Fractals! exclaimed Billy. -That would be a cool name for a punk rock singer. I mean, you know, a girl.

-Ignore my friend, said Guy. -He's out of his depth talking about anything except nineteenth-century Eastern European literature.

-Maybe it's not that interesting, demurred the nerd.

-No, don't say that, I won't hear it, it absolutely is interesting, said Guy.

-It's nothing much. It's a way to untraceably interfere with websites by planting subsensory messages that would be unknowingly viewed by anyone who visits. For instance, if you hated Republicans, you could go to a Republican site and plant a message that says, Vote Democrat.

-And that would work?