Vanity Bear

Billy Tanner, a long way from home, enters the third largest and by far most tasteful ballroom in NNYC and drinks in the sights. The crowd slowly dispersing to their seats; the sharply lit runway which traces a circuit around the room; the banners adorning the walls at periodic intervals:

The NKRR Artists Collective presents:
Holly Margaret Fall/Winter

An usher by his elbow asks if he would like help finding his seat. Billy shakes her head and says, broad smile aglow, that they would prefer to explore for themselves.

Odette and Christine enter by another doorway, hand in hand. Odette silently marvels: how different the room appears from when she and the Nootlyn Philharmonic performed there just a week ago.

(A group recognises Christine, urges one another to ask her for an autograph. Fearing she must be pestered for autographs all the time now, they let the opportunity slip.)

Jennifer is everywhere, overseeing everyone, tolerating not a single hitch. One step behind her is Flo, just about keeping up, there to help her do anything.

The time approaches. Seats are taken. Odette leans her head on Christine’s shoulder as they wait. A whisper ripples through the crowd - a rumour that he may have returned to model for Holly – that he may be walking today. The quick consensus is no, surely not. Surely not.

Returning, one comment from Flo paints a smile on Jennifer’s face. A second provokes her to genuine laughter. They take their seats by Odette and Christine on the one side as Flo passes programmes to Madeleine, Sebastian, and Felicity on the other. Felicity receives hers with a smile. It is only fleeting, but not too fleeting for Flo to see. Flo doesn’t draw attention to it, but she allows herself a smile of his own as he sits.

Then, no sooner are they sat than they are standing again, crying out in joy, arms outstretched. Priscilla and Pinter savour their delighted surprise.

You didn’t say you’d come!

It’s only a whistle-stop visit, darling. We wouldn’t miss it for the world.

The lights dim. They hurriedly sit. Backstage, Holly casts one last look over her designs and their models. Then she gives the signal and the lighting, music, and walks commence simultaneously.

Such boldness!

Such ingenuity!

It certainly blows Vucci’s season out of the water. Dare I say it - I do - the finest collec’tion we have seen all year.

I presume it shall be a glowing review from the Metropolitan, then.

I don’t edit for the Metropoli’tan any more. I’m in a new line of literature now. Biographies. And I’m starting with the biggest of them all…

Holly feels the crowd’s exuberance, weighs up their anticipation. They’re ready. She nods. Send him in. The music grows louder, faster, still failing to drown out the crowd as they scream at the very first sight of him - the biggest model in the world - striding out - wearing the pièce de résistance.

Oh my gosh! It’s him! John Dory!

STRIKE A POSE

John Dory walks the most iconic walk in the world, each paw landing effortlessly in front of the other. Cameras flash, capturing every fold of cloth and every lock of fur from a dozen different angles.

FEEL YOUR PERFECTION

His snout is upright, his gaze unwavering. Someone faints as he passes. It’s not the first time. (Security are forced to escort someone out, kicking and screaming: “That’s a bear! How can nobody else see that it’s a bear!”)

BE THE FASHION

Sometimes, John wonders how this came about. How he went from munching berries in the woods to walking the world’s most elite runways. (And to having an inner monologue.) He supposes that it’s one of the great cosmic mysteries. We may never know the truths behind these things. Perhaps they are too strange and too wondrous for our minds to comprehend. But John Dory doesn’t worry about it. So long as there is beauty, and fun, and friendship, he knows that the ineluctable logic of the cosmos tends towards goodness.

POSE. POSE. POSE. POSE.