sculpture

As he walked around the gallery he shook his head. How exactly am I meant to get interested in sculpture if I can’t work out what it’s meant to be?. Fifteen years of working as a police man had taught John Doyle to look at things in new and unexpected ways. That was how you caught people, by thinking outside the box. But this was so outside the box that it was on the other side of the room.

As he stood there he noticed a woman beside him. Long dreadlocked hair hanging over her shoulders “Having trouble with ‘Passion in the subway’?” she asked.

“Not so much trouble, as total incomprehension“ he replied. That got a laugh out of her.

“That’s OK, most people don’t get it. I’m not too sure I do and I made it. I’m Thenny by the way” she said as John tried to get out an apology. “Come let me show you something that may be more to your taste” she said as she took his hand and lead him through the room and behind a curtain.

“Now this is something I can understand” he said as he looked at the figures. Each one almost looked alive. Frozen in action, it looked as if he could feel the texture of their clothes, the sharpness of weapons. “They all look so lifelike.”

“Thanks. I used techniques that date back thousands of years. The same ones used by the people that created the temples in Athens.” As she spoke she ran her hands over a warrior. Almost as if you would caress a lover. Her face looked full of sadness.

All of them looked as if they could date from ancient times. But two, they were very much modern. One was holding a gun in his hand, pointed at a target. The other was shielding his face from something as if too terrified to see what the other was shooting at.

“These ones look kind of,” John voice trailed off as he looked at the gun man’s face. “He looks just like Louie Santano, and this one is a dead ringer of his brother Marko” he said pointing at the other figure.

“Gosh, are they bad people?” She asked, almost playfully.

“Very, Marko’s a drug pusher over on ninth and Louie’s his muscle. They prey on the homeless girls down there.”

“I just pulled their faces from the air.”

“Well there spot on, you’ve even got Marko’s birthmark on his neck” John said as he inspected the statues.

“But come now. You can’t hog me all night, let’s go and mingle.”


Later that night after all the guests had gone Thenny walked back behind the curtain. Who would have thought that a simple act of self-defence could do so much good? Placing a hand on Louie’s cheek she smiled. As she did the soft sound of hissing snakes could be heard. Some would have almost said that her hair started to move one its own.