Thinking fast, I said, "My husband bought them for me. I like them so much I'm thinking of getting a pair for my sister. Tell me about the designer. What's his name? Dixie?"
"I don't know much, madam. Only the owner knows who Dixie is and where they come from. But whoever it is is a real genius. Apparently both Bulgari and people from the Memphis group have been in already, asking who he is and how they can get in touch with him."
"How do you know it's a man?" I put the earrings down and looked directly at her.
"Oh, I don't. It's just that the work is so masculine I assumed it. Maybe you're right; maybe it is a woman." She picked one up and held it to the light. "Did you notice how they don't really reflect light so much as enhance it? Golden light. You can own it any time you want. I've never seen that. I envy you."
They were real. I went to a jeweler on 47th Street to have them appraised, then to the only two other stores in the city that sold "Dixies." No one knew anything about the creator, or weren't talking if they did. Both dealers were very respectful and pleasant, but mum was the word when I asked about the jewelry's origin.
"The gentleman asked us not to give out information, madam. We must respect his wishes."
"But it is a man?"
A professional smile. "Yes."
"Could I contact him through you?"
"Yes, I'm sure that would be possible. May I help with anything else, madam?"
"What other pieces has he designed?"
"As far as I know, only the earrings, the fountain pen, and this key ring." He'd shown me the pen, which was nothing special. Now he brought out a small golden key ring shaped in a woman's profile: Lenna Rhodes's profile.
The doorbell tinkled when I walked into the store. Michael was with a customer and, smiling hello, gave me the sign he'd be over as soon as he was finished. He had started INK almost as soon as he got out of college, and from the beginning it was a success. Fountain pens are cranky, unforgiving things that demand full attention and patience. But they are also a handful of flash and Old World elegance: gratifying slowness that offers no reward other than the sight of shiny ink flowing wetly across a dry page. INK's customers were both rich and not so, but all of them had the same collector's fiery glint in the eye and the addict's desire for more. A couple of times a month I'd work there when Michael needed an extra hand. It taught me to be cheered by old pieces of Bakelite and gold plate, as well as another kind of passion.
"Juliet, hi! Roger Peyton was in this morning and bought that yellow Parker Duofold. The one he's been looking at for months."
"Finally. Did he pay full price?"
Michael grinned and looked away. "Rog can never afford full price. I let him do it in installments. What's up with you?"
"Did you ever hear of a Dixie pen? Looks a little like the Cartier Santos?"
"Dixie? No. It looks like the Santos?" The expression on his face said he was telling the truth.
I brought out the brochure from the jewelry store and, opening it to the pen photograph, handed it to him. His reaction was immediate.
"Why, that bastard! How much do I have to put up with this man?"
"You know him?"
Michael looked up from the photo, anger and confusion competing for first place on his face. "Do I know him? Sure, I know him. He lives in my goddamned house, I know him so well! Dixie, huh? Cute name. Cute man.
"Wait. I'll show you something, Juliet. Just stay there. Don't move. That shit!"
There's a mirror behind the front counter at INK. When Michael motored off to the back of the store, I looked at my reflection and said, "Now you did it."
He was back in no time. "Look at this. You want to see something beautiful? Look at this." He handed me something in a blue velvet case. I opened it and saw . . . the Dixie fountain pen.
"But you said you'd never heard of them."
His voice was hurt and loud. "This is not a Dixie fountain pen. It's a Sinbad. An original, solid-gold Sinbad made at the Benjamin Swire Fountain Pen Works in Konstanz, Germany, around 1915. There's a rumor the Italian Futurist Antonio Sant' Elia did the design, but that's never been proven. Nice, isn't it?"
It was nice, but he was so angry I wouldn't have dared say it wasn't. I nodded eagerly.
He took it back. "I've been selling pens twenty years, but I've only seen two of these in all that time. One was owned by Walt Disney, and I have the other. Collector's value? About seven thousand dollars. But as I said, you just don't find them."
"Won't the Dixie people get in trouble for copying it?"
"No, because I'm sure there are small differences between the original and this new one. Let me see that brochure again."
"But you have an original, Michael. It still holds its value."
"That's not the point. It's not the value that matters. I'd never sell this.
"You know the classic 'bathtub' Porsche? One of the strangest, greatest-looking cars of our time. Some smart, cynical person realized that and is now making fiberglass copies of the thing. They're very well done and full of all the latest features.
"But it's a lie car, Juliet: Sniff it and it smells only of today – little plastic things and cleverly cut corners you can't see. Not important to the car, but essential to the real object. The wonder of the thing was Porsche designed it so well and thoughtfully so long ago. That's art. But the art is in its original everything, not just the look or the convincing copy. I can guarantee you your Dixie pen has too much plastic inside where you can't see, and a gold point that probably has about a third as much gold on it as the original. Looks good, but they always miss the whole point with their cut corners.
"Look, you're going to find out sooner or later, so I think you'd better know now."
"What are you talking about?"
He brought a telephone up from beneath the counter and gestured for me to wait. He called Lenna and in a few words told her about the Dixies and my discovery of them.
He was looking at me when he asked, "Did he tell you he was doing that, Lenna?"
Whatever her long answer was, it left his expression deadpan. "Well, I'm going to bring Juliet home. I want her to meet him. . . . What? Because we've got to do something about it, Lenna! Maybe she'll have an idea of what to do. Do you think this is normal? . . . Oh, you do? That's interesting. Do you think it's normal for me?" A dab of saliva popped off his lip and flew across the store.
When Michael opened the door, Lenna stood right on the other side, arms crossed tight over her chest. Her soft face was squinched into a tight challenge.
"Whatever he told you probably isn't true, Juliet."
I put up both hands in surrender. "He didn't tell me anything, Lenna. I don't even want to be here. I just showed him a picture of a pen."
Which wasn't strictly true. I showed him a picture of a pen because I wanted to know more about Dixie and my five-thousand-dollar earrings. Yes, sometimes I am nosy. My ex-husband used to tell me I was.
Both Rhodeses were calm and sound people. I don't think I'd ever seen them really disagree on anything important or raise their voices at each other.
"Where is he?" Michael growled. "Eating again?"
"Maybe. So what? You don't like what he eats anyway."
He turned to me. "Our guest is a vegetarian. His favorite food is plum pits."
"Oh, that's mean, Michael. That's really mean." She turned and left the room.
"So he's in the kitchen? Good. Come on, Juliet." He took my hand and pulled me behind on his stalk of their visitor.