ISleepInADrawer.com

The Circle

Not again. You would think, after the first incident, that they would keep such a "national treasure" under better security. Or any security, for that matter. Oh well. Live and learn.

I remember the first time it was stolen. I was on a trip to Washington, D.C. (my last, it turns out). When we went to the National Gallery, I told my mom about Edvard Munch's stolen painting. She didn't know which one I was talking about. So, I took her to the gift shop, thinking that they must have a postcard of it somewhere in their "world famous" section. So, I told her to stand there and wait until I found one... which is actually a pretty annoying thing for me to do. But, I was fourteen, oblivious, emotionally-unbalanced, gay-but-was-the-only-one-who-didn't-know-it, acne-ridden, and I'm not even going to mention how I dressed. I thought I was smart, and that would compensate more than enough for the fact that I was entirely despised in my junior high. But then again, at least I hated junior high as much as it hated me.

Anyway, so that was a pretty annoying thing to do to my mother. Eventually, as I flipped through cards, she apparently found something else to catch her attention. She wandered off without my noticing. Finally, I stumbled upon a postcard of The Scream, held it up in triumph, and turned to my left saying, "Mom, here it is"... to a woman who was not my mother.

In fact, she was shorter, larger, and wearing a t-shirt that said "Jesus: Light of my World." She smiled and nodded, originally, noticing my mistake. But then, seeing the postcard in my hand, she yelped, "Horrors of Satan!" She backed off a few steps.

As for me, dumbstruck, I eventually snapped out of it, turned to run, and fell onto the postcard display. Sometimes, though, I wonder whether the "Horrors of Satan" comment was directed towards me. I was, after all, in junior high.

Posted by James at August 22, 2004 09:26 AM