Page 62 - WTP Vol. XI #3

Ages of Juliette (continued from preceding page)
a chimera viewed through a dusky mirror, a muzzy reality with a noisy soundtrack sounding almost like laughter.
“Where will you go, Lukas?”
“I dunno, Jules. I just dunno... somewhere peaceful. Peaceful like in that poem Dad used to recite... re- member?”
“Yeah, Dad and his poetry.”
“How did it go? Something... something, then ‘And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes drop- ping slow.’ Do you know where that’s from?”
“Somewhere Irish, maybe?”
“Don’t do that, Jules.”
“Do what?”
“Dumb yourself down for my sake. It’s embarrassing.”
“Okay... it’s from the ‘Lake Isle of Innisfree’ by William Butler Yeats... satisfied?”
“Satisfaction isn’t something I know much about. But what I do want to know is how the fuck does peace drop? I mean, wouldn’t peace drip? If it drops, what’s that? A humongous wad of peace falling on top of all of us? What’s frickin’ peaceful about that?”
“I don’t know, Lukas. I don’t know.” Her nails are cells away from blood. She looks up and sees a stylized blue moon on the bar’s ceiling smiling down. Be-
nign and knowing, its crinkled eyes seem to hold a knowledge of possibilities beyond her grasp. And
just before the booze clots her brain for the night and seals off all cogent thought, she imagines Portia and her Uncle Hayes meeting in the ether. Each of them recognizing themself in the other. The one who never lived. And the one who lived not long enough. The two of them together. Forever. On the dark side of the moon. In the shadow of Gemini.
Schultheis is the author of Baltimore’s Lexington Market, a pictorial history (Arcadia Publishing in 2007); the award-winning short-story collection, St. Bart’s Way (Washington Writers’ Publishing House in 2015); and A Balanced Life (All Things That Matter Press in 2018). The author of nearly forty published short stories, she has received awards from The Fitzgerald Writers’ Conference, Memoirs Ink, The American League of American Pen Women San Francisco Branch, Winning Writers and Washington Writers’ Publishing House. She also is an elected member of the National Book Critics Circle.
55
The Past Rises Up to Meet Me
oil on panel
36'' x 60''
By Nicole Renee Ryan