Lovers at the Museum: A Short Story

Despite the brevity of this work, it is quite a short story, I walked away with multiple connections that felt significant.  And a desire to explore other works by this author.  This is always a welcome outcome. 

When they were arrested, the boy and the girl claimed that they had spent the night inside, but the indignant guards swore that such a thing was impossible because they patrolled the premises tirelessly.  Furthermore, they security camera picked up everything down to a person's inner most secret thoughts.

Being locked in a museum - yep- very romantic - though in my experience - no wedding dress nor naked "boy"- much more PG rated than the night this couple enjoyed.  Of course, we didn't spend the entire night locked in the museum.  Yeah, but stll, no wedding gown.

He didn't get modern art; he preferred bucolic landscapes with cows.

LOL.  When I took my first teaching job, at Urbana University, the psychologist I replaced was "interesting".  To get a good idea of this consider one of the interview questions posed to me - a question that remains THE most memorable interview question ever, "Do you swing from trees?"  

Additionally, this person seemed to have had some belief that the only good art was art that included cows.  Now, while I don't swing from trees, I DID entertain the idea for a couple years that maybe the best art DID feature cows.  And so, I requested cow art from ALL my friends.  (NOTE - I'm still happy to add your bovine addition to my collection.)  Somewhere I still have a sketch for making a life-sized cow from plywood designed by Peter - a man who started with someone I had a brief crush on from physics class LONG ago who somehow ended up being a friend of Kevin's.  And - at the top of this page, the cow my mother drew for me.  Thanks Mom.  It is still in it's cheap-o plastic frame and on my wall.

He was determined to be delicate with the girl so as to not frighten her.  "Are you a whore?" he asked.

This is one of those lines that might result in milk shooting through your nostrils if you've made the mistake of taking a big sip to wash down the Oreo you were munching while reading.

"Have you smelled plums? They have a dense fragrance that leaves a sense of urgency in the mouth."

Finally, this is language as art- albeit, without a single cow.