The Knight in Black Tuxedo
By Anthony Horvath
Smashwords Edition
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Copyright Anthony Horvath 2012. All Rights Reserved
Published by Bard and Book Publishing
Website: www.bardandbook.com
Cover by Julius Broqueza.
The Knight in Black Tuxedo
by Anthony Horvath
"You're perfectly forgettable," said he.
Teresa and Daniel's expression did not change. By appearances, it was as if someone had simply said, "What about this weather?" or "Last year, unemployment rates dropped."
The speaker leaned up against the wall where the stairs began their winding path to the upper floors. He didn't have a bottle in his hand and he didn't smell of alcohol but it was obvious anyway that he had been drinking. There was, perhaps, a barely perceptible slur of his syllables. At any rate, it was obvious. Teresa didn't need to deduce it; she lived with it.
Her father continued to look at her as though he were regarding a car or painting or horse. As far as he was concerned, he was merely stating a fact of reality. In his mind, he was merely giving his fair reckoning of the true state of affairs, notwithstanding the fact this his daughter was standing in the doorway with a bouquet in her hands, her hair done up nicely, and her finest dress perfectly tailored. Daniel, too, was wearing his finest. He had rented a tuxedo. If it wasn't the most expensive of his available choices it wasn't the cheapest either. He had saved up for eight weeks to pay for it just in case Teresa agreed to go to the senior prom with him.
Teresa had accepted his proposal with more enthusiasm than Daniel had expected. Daniel wasn't an athlete. He wasn't brilliant. He won no awards and was victorious in no contests. Teresa was a junior varsity cheerleader. Daniel had heard an awful lot about cheerleaders and his own observations had born out most of what he had heard. Still, Teresa never seemed the sort to think that she belonged to any kind of special club or societal class. That was what Daniel had thought, and yet would she go to the prom with one such as him?
Daniel beheld Teresa standing inside the door underneath the chandelier. The woodwork of the house was well crafted. The wooden stairs, stained a dark red color, seemed to frame her body just so. The soft light of the front entry way gave a glow. He had been touched to see that she hadn't put her hair up in a bun like he knew so many other prom dates would: he had made an off handed remark about how he thought a girl was most attractive with her hair down. She had noticed the comment and though she still spent hours on her hair, she let it flow down and past her shoulders, neatly held in place with barrettes that matched her outfit.
"You can spend all the time you want on some things but you can never make them more than they are," said Teresa's father impassively. He gave his daughter another look over and then cast a glance at the young man and then sighed, "Plain as plain can be." With that, he left the foyer for parts unknown.
Daniel wondered if his last remark had been directed at him or at Teresa. It seemed that it had to have been targeted at Teresa but he reasoned that even if it had it indirectly applied to him, as well. If Teresa was plain, it followed that she could only acquire a plain date. Daniel thought that this logic was sound.
With the father gone, Daniel and Teresa stood together, noiselessly. Fewer moments were more awkward than this one. Neither knew what to say or even what to think. Daniel hadn't expected anything like this while what Teresa feared had actually transpired. In the heavy silence there was an absence of initiative on both their parts and hence they both stood there, transfixed. It was as though a thick cloud had descended upon them so that uncertainty greeted any step or decision and so they did neither, the only sure ground that which they were currently standing on.
Daniel considered his logic. Was he a 'plain' person if he was dating another 'plain' person? Or, dispense with that. Was he not in fact as average as average can be? Why dispute it. Daniel knew in his heart of hearts that there was little that set him apart from his peers. He wasn't particularly tall. He wasn't particularly handsome. Some, he was sure, would think him ugly, but in his own estimation that would be overstatement. But what about Teresa? Daniel thought. He had thought her to be attractive on a number of levels, which is precisely why he asked her to be his prom date. If he was 'plain' and the only person a 'plain' person could get to be his date was another 'plain' person, did that mean that Teresa's father was right?
Daniel's stomach turned at the thought. He rejected the argument not on its logical basis but at the visceral response that he had to it. There are probably a great many times when a seventeen year old boy draws the wrong conclusion from his life experiences. No doubt, they tend to extrapolate a tad too absolutely prompting later- often painful- revisions. In this case, though, Daniel had emoted his way to a deeper truth. He knew somehow that the platitude, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" just wasn't true. He knew, somehow, that a beautiful thing is objectively beautiful- as real and as steady as the speed of light. And Teresa, despite what her father said, was beautiful.
"You're beautiful," Daniel asserted softly.
Teresa lifted her eyes to meet Daniel's.
As Daniel gazed into her soul by the light of her lamps he found himself suddenly pondering the impact that the father's words might have had on her. Were they crushing words? Did they press down on something inside her? If they did, were they met by some resolute conviction that the word of an ass was not to be given too much weight, even if that ass was one's own father? The longer he looked into her eyes the more he believed she had received them with that very conviction.
Daniel did not perceive, though, that the girl's strength had been helped by the thudding blow of an iron sword delivered by a silver knight. Indeed, even she did not perceive as much. If she were unlucky, she might live out her life thinking that in one of her most humiliating hours she had solely defended the ramparts of her being and that her attacker was representative of all other men. However, since the beauty that Daniel had perceived was real and substantial, visibly and invisibly, it could be safely said that Teresa would be lucky enough to some day recognize the daring rescue, and the rescuer.
Daniel slipped her hand into his and with the other opened the door. She paused as she stepped across the threshold and pulled him toward her. He was surprised by this, and also by the warm breath on his cheek that hesitated there for a moment, and then again by the delicately moist touch on his face by her lips. He shouldn't have been surprised. He had, after all, known all along just how beautiful she was.
So it was that as they walked down the sidewalk together to go to their high school prom, they were not as they appeared. Some would see a boy and a girl but with better eyes they would spy a damsel without distress and the knight coated in the blood of a slain dragon. Which vision was true? Neither and both: in fact, to be beheld there arm and arm would be a glimpse of a man, and that of a woman.