Olimpico patio, Waverly and St. Viateur — Montreal, QC
Male, late 20s, wearing grey zip-up sweatshirt with white stripes on sleeves. Shaved head, dark stubble, Aquiline nose.
Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (Vintage)
Page 68:
At Fifth Avenue you cross and walk up to Saks. You stop in front of a window. Inside the window is a mannequin which is a replica of Amanda — your wife, the model. To form the cast for the mannequin, Amanda lay face down in a vat of latex batter for ninety minutes, breathing through a straw. You haven’t seen her in the flesh since she left for the last trip to Paris, a few days after she did the cast. You stand in front of the window and try to remember if this was how she really looked.
Porch-swing. Sound of wind chimes.
Noveline: I love a cocaine culture novel. It’s like reading a particularly thrilling ethnography. All those dollar bills. All that euphoria.
Romana: It’s because you’re still hung up on Sherlock Holmes.
Noveline: (blushing) Rubbish. Now do you remember those mannequins they used to use in nuclear tests in Nevada? What on earth was that all about?
Romana: Rather like crash test dummies, I expect. Or just to make the whole thing more ghastly.
Noveline: I used to leave a mannequin in the window when I went out in the evening, to make it seem like someone was still at home.
Romana: (amused) Yes, it had a deerstalker, didn’t it?
