The Peacock 1416

To Cynthia I say, "So you're coming to my place for lunch today." "I hope this isn't an impostion" she says. I'm not going to lie so I choose to ignore her plea for clemency. "You can come with me in my car." "Thank you. Thats very kind." "Practical anyway. What is it we are all gathering together for." "We can talk about it on the way over." "And so the plot thickens", says Nicole.

The Peacock 1415

"Carl and I are distant cousins." "Carl." "He was with us in your bakery yesterday. Short blonde hair." "Oh, yeah. He's kind of cute." "Uh-huh." "You don't mean to say..." "We're friends." This Nicole is incredibly nosy. "Oh." "No benefits." "i wasn't asking..." "Just in case..."

The Peacock 1414

"So, you two have already met", says Chuck. "Christopher, is that your name?, brought some friends into the bakery yesterday, and all of them but him got totally...baked", says Nicole with a dry little cackle. "I understand the cookies are great." "I wouldn't know", say I. "Well, later you will", says Nicole. "And you guys, where do you know each other from." "Long story", says Chuck, rescuing me. "We go back quite a number of years, then, just the other day, we saw each other on Pender Street, near the International Village Mall, and now it looks like Christopher and his friend Francois might be working with us." "Small world", says Cynthia. "And how do you two know each other", says Nicole. "i understand you're going to his place for lunch tody?"

The Peacock 1413

Even I heard of her, and I only listen to classical music. "But Priscilla had an operatic range. She was like Patti Smith with the voice of Nina Hagen, sometimes Kiri Te Kanewa." "You also like classical." "I took three years of voice at the Vancouver Conservatory of music." "Had I not heard you sing like you did with Sarah yesterday I would have hardly believed it." "You mean because of my green hair and tattoos. No, don't deny it, but that's part of the fun. Never dressing the part, then playing it to the hilt...

The Peacock 1412

"What brings you here?" say I to Nicole. "this is my other gig. I manage a a safe injection site in a homeless shelter in the area and I also network with others who help take care of the local people. My partner and I just opened Baked a couple of weeks ago. He's usually there, but I come in a ocuple of times a week. It's lots of fun." "Plus, you get to sing." "That friend of yours, she has an incredible voice. She could sing classical." "Her wife was a locally famous punk artist." "who would that be." "I think they were called Priscilla and Her Little Mouthbreathers." "Priscilla? She is punk royalty"

The Peacock 1423

"There is space for you at our table", says Chuck. I really don't feel like it, but only out of the most strict politeness am I going to accept the invitation. Thanks to Dad, I have a strong and noble sense of etiquette. "What a conincidence", says Cynthia, as I position myself in the chair opposite to her. "You can say that again", says Nicole, stifling laighter. "You know each other", says Chuck. "They came into Baked yesterday." "And..did they get baked?" "His friends did. Cookies. But this gentleman was the epitome of self-restraint and respectability." "And the designated driver", say I. "That too..."

The Peacock 1410

But now she herself is getting up to leave. I find it hard to believe that she has actually aged one single day in the twenty years that have passed since Carl knew her in Amsterdam. She is tall, incredibly tall, slender but with the broad shoulders of a man, accentuaed by the black leather bomber jacket that barely covers her tight black T shirt. She is wearing super tight jeans and high heeled black leather boots that strike the floor like a Clydesdale's hooves on cobblestones as she walks towards the door, her long poker straight blonde hair swaying with ensouciance as she selects an umbrella from the bucket by the door and leaves the café.