The musically inclined novel is one of spring’s hottest debuts.

The only reason it got to me is because of how it was affecting Nev. That the regular people like to beat back what’s different, because it scares them half to death.

You’d talk and vapor would be pouring out your mouth.

You’d open his cabinets and all you saw was Campbell’s soup.

What had me bothered was when he stopped scribbling down lyrics, stopped fooling around on the guitar.

It was like it was getting colder outside and everything inside Nev was freezing up too.

I went to Bob and I said,He’s not right.

As Nev hibernated, Opal blossomed.

Artists of all stripes, attracted by her outer wrappings, hovered in her sphere.

Giving up never did anything for anybody.

I just figured, Well, this project didn’t work outon to the next.

Plus, I still had a way to go on my contract, and I’m nobody’s freeloader.

So I kept myself busy during the downtime.

VIRGIL LAFLEUR,

OPENING AN OLD PHOTO ALBUM:

The winter look was about layers and textures.

I threw a belt on it and voila!instant chic.

Yes, and that one had a salad bowl as the base.

We lined the inside with flannel, turned it upside down, and built it up from there….

The lip became plum, the eye bronze.

I took a photograph of her every day for a while.

I felt like… otherworldly.

Whatever I wore was my shell and nothing outside it could touch me.

I attracted so much attention just strutting down the street.

All that energyhorror, delight, sex, disgustit would warm me up and then bounce off.

She left an impression.

If I went out the next week alone people would ask, “Where’s your fascinating girl?”

An art dealer we met somewhere wanted to give me money to show up at his gallery opening.

I said, “What do you want me to do, sing?”

and he said, “No, just be as fabulous as you are right this moment.”

At the end of the night the man gave me fifty bucks and thanked me for coming.

I thought,Well, isn’t that interesting.

Our home address fluttered onto someone’s list, and we started receiving invitations.

More galleries, concerts, a higher echelon of artists…

Sometimes it did get boring.

He promised something big was gonna happen.

Everybody who went had a quality about them, a buzz, and the connections were legendary.

The summer before I started going, they’d flipped the upstairs into a venue for parties and concerts.

You never knew who might show up.

Celebrities, yeah, that was always a given.

I was trying to learn how to work the place.

So I made my way around.

I smoked, drank my wine, studied the people and the shows they put on.

But we never did make it to Max’s, because Rivington Showcase happened before we had the chance.

I’d like to think I would, though.

FromThe Final Revival of Opal & Nevby Dawnie Walton.

Copyright 2021 by Dawnie Walton.

Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Related content: