In Over Her Head by Elsie Russell - Parnasse.com

ought out a picture of two boys in face helmets and white quilted
fencing outfits. Then one of Angelo in toe shoes and a lace altar
boy/baby doll nightie thing dancing with the priest's robes, his face in
white mime makeup.
A picture of Dick, with the vestiges of hair on his head, his
arms around the two boys. A medieval castle behind them like a stage
set prison. The Avignon piece. Sandro is perhaps fifteen, and as proud
as ever. Angelo looks melancholy and lost.
A photo of Ula and Sandro practicing in an empty room. Ula is
young although with her long flat body and the ballerina knot at the
back of her head it's hard to tell how young. Sandro is still a little boy
and is smiling gallantly up at her.
"I think I've seen enough. You were very close to him, weren't
you?"
He nodded. "We had our own world, our private language. It
was not for Ula, Dick, anyone."
"So you met Ula before he went to live with Dick?"
"Ula was always trying to break into our play world. More when
Mama was away," he said, evening up the rows of photos.
"Why was your mother away?" she asked.
"Doing the movies in Rome. The nanny complained that
'Gelino would not share mama's clothes for dress up, like the Biba and
the old platform shoes from the modeling days, even though Ula was a
young woman already! That is when Mama found out and she fired the
nanny and told 'Gelino why don't you go live with Dick so he can train
you to be a real finocchio, not a little girl playing dress up!"
"Finocchio? Isn't that a vegetable?"
"Homosexual, except that is not what he was at all."
"No kidding."
"Is that when Dick took those pictures of, um, you and your
brother?"
"What pictures?" His head whipped around.
"Um, with the, uh, Empire State Building, you're both kinda
laughing, playing some kind of, uh, game? You're like, younger than
me."
"Where did you see those?"
"At Dick's, in the hall."
"When? The first days? Managgia. He has those up?"
"Framed, next to pictures with, like, Picasso and Dalí, and a
lady who I think must be Ula's mother."
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