30 Before 30

LONDON Chapter 5 - Not Your Dandy

Oh my. I shoved down the muffin and decided to get started.

I headed first to the London Eye, where the slow-moving Ferris wheel would provide a view of the city and time to plan next moves.

As I waited in line to go up on the Eye, I got another email. My stomach was doing flip-flops—and not from rising 443 feet in the air in the glass capsule ascending over London.

I chose to ignore the come when I walk through the door, or pretend to anyway.

FROM Sebastian Horsley

TO Angie Banicki

subject RE: Hi!!! 

7 Meard  Street. Soho. Come at 6.30.  Or when you walk through the door.

Sx 

My heartbeat and stomach settled as I listened in on my capsule mates pointing out the sights. Big Ben looming across the London River, Hyde Park—where I’d been walking earlier, and the Queen’s castle—anything I could see that would distract from the dandy declarations. 

As we began our descent, I attempted some photos despite the rapidly accumulating raindrops. A beautiful young mother and her little boys sharing the clear egg with me had stolen my attention. I watched the boys delight in the moving wheel and glanced down at my BlackBerry. Another email from the dandy, with yet more innuendo. No turning back.

FROM Sebastian Horsley

TO Angie Banicki

subject RE: Hi!!!

I’ll take you to the famous Colony Rooms before hand.  It is one  of the most famous/notorious places in London. It must be in your book.

So my dear.  I am signing off now. Come to my studio at 6.30/  7.00 p.m. tomorrow. 7 Meard Street Soho. It has a sign on the door  saying  “This is not a brothel.” Do not believe everything you read. 

Lots of love

Sx

Maybe my next tour stop should be St Paul’s Cathedral. Yes, church before brothel. The rain lightened as I wandered along the water on the Jubilee Walkway, half-heartedly making my way toward the church. This would please my father—not the Father, but my dad. On Father’s Day for the last six years, all Dad asked is that we go to mass for him and say a prayer. My intention was to take a photo or two and be on my way, but before I could get my camera out, standing in front of the huge dome, a roaring wind and sudden downpour gave me no choice but to take refuge inside the chapel. 

OK, God, I get it.

The cathedral with its stained glass and vaulted ceilings, perfumed with incense and candles, embodied every image of Catholicism and evoked every emotion of spirituality I’d felt growing up. Going up the 80 flights of stairs leading to the top level of the chapel, there was no time to think about all the dandy-babble because I could only concen- trate on breathing. Each landing, I’d stop to breathe and look down, inhaling the scent of the church. The familiar incenses were like Dad’s hands on my shoulders as we stood in the pews saying “Our Fathers” at Mass every week.

Nerves calmed, I headed back to my hotel and shot the dandy one last email, having had the bright idea that we should meet in public rather than at his not-a-brothel brothel.

FROM Sebastian Horsley

TO Angie Banicki

subject RE: Hi!!!