Main Character Vibes

A lady's choice and a gentleman's agreement

Fewer people were now in the park. The plump orbs of the streetlamps prepared for their looming night shift as they began faintly emitting their warm white lights dotting the spaces between trails and trees. The trees at High Park cast their swaying shadows every which way. And as the sun moved across the sky, the shadows grew longer. Until at sunset, the trees were transformed completely into their own silhouettes juxtaposed onto a marmalade orange sky.

Elias was floating through the city in the wake of his cannabis high while Wayne was walking with purposeful and eager strides next to him. Both men were carving their way amid a sea of fleeting faces on the sidewalk; bodies and faces disappeared in the backdrop to a cacophony of sounds. Sounds that seemed to reverberate in the background; the homeless man's guilt-inducing "can you spare change?" falling on deaf ears ...the Red Cross volunteer's "would you like to make a donation to so and so" being dismissed by middle-class penny-pinching savers ...and the young professional girl's weekend exultations to her friends "everyone's coming to pre-drink at my place tonight."

Wayne and Elias carried themselves on the sidewalk with what can only be described as stoic masculinity. Women would notice them with a seductive look followed immediately by a flirtatious smile before they quickly, and perhaps unconsciously, preened their gentle wind-blown hair.

Both Wayne and Elias were well-dressed and each of them exuded their own manifestation of the intangible things that make men seem attractive to women.

Although Elias was a handsome young man, his charm and intrigue rested mostly upon his seeming indifference to his surroundings. It was as if he hadn't a care in the world...and was simply living for a living. But there was also loneliness in his eyes. The loneliness of being charming and lovable but being incapable of loving. Emotional unavailability had its attractive qualities. It was like the asymmetrical mystique of an invite that is vaguely untroubled by external cues...a handsomely expressionless face that was unfazed by the vagaries of the world. And hence it was an unimpressed face that left passersby wondering about the source of such confident nonchalance.

These delicately devilish, sidewalk encounters with fleeting women, who perfectly balanced mischief and innocence were short-lived romances...romances, however faint, that both Elias and Wayne were nonetheless consciously and proudly attuned to.

"Is this the surprise?" Elias asked quizzically as they approached Wayne's gallery.

Elias was transfixed by the Gothic nature of the building. It seemed to not only harbor art, but by virtue of its fantastical architecture, it also appeared to radiate art. There was something inherently sinister about the sharp edges and pointed angles of its Gothic architecture. Moreover, its eerie design was melodramatically accentuated by the foreboding background of the dusky sky. It stood as an architectural intimation of sins and passions, glories and disasters.

At the gallery's entrance stood a luxurious placard that read: "Private Gala."

Elias lingered for a few moments on the sidewalk as he looked at the dapperly dressed crowd. Patrons of tonight's exclusively lavish event had an elite air of privileged sophistication about them. This scene disquieted Elias before he took solace in reasoning that ostentation is often misconstrued as sophistication. Elias deduced that they were a medley of the who's who of the city's art scene, as well as, the city's political class, and the plutocrats who funded their campaigns.

Pulled by the gravity of his mounting curiosity, Elias drifted towards the door to sneak a peek at the exclusive event. Inside, the gallery was not too crowded. The warmly lit ambiance created a comfortably embracing air. Sufficiently embracing for a person to feel safe enough to embark on an artistic exploration in the wilderness of his own imagination.