My wife and I had often gone to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls for weekend getaways and holidays. The immediate Falls area is very romantic at night, with lit up reflecting pools and extensive flowerbeds. We enjoyed watching the sweet sight of couples who were just starting out their life together, still deeply in love and probably honeymooning there. We also liked the carnival atmosphere to be found at on Clifton Hill and Lundy's Lane. We used to visit a wide variety of attractions such as the waltzing waters, Marineland, (back before it became a large amusement park) the chintzy souvenir shops, different restaurants and Ripley's Museum. However no visit would seem quite complete without a trip to the Wax Museum. One particular display which has always stuck in my mind was the wax sculpture of Cleopatra.
The combination of living out of state for several years and having a child meant that quite a few years had passed since we last had a chance to visit. Much of the enjoyment of Niagara Falls comes from the romantic atmosphere at night and were we to have returned to the Falls with our child, it would have been hard to enjoy many of the more romantic things that the nights bring, after all children tend to go to bed early.
When I found that I was scheduled to attend a conference for work to be held in the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario, I found myself dealing with mixed emotions. It was rather exciting to think of touring some of our old favorite spots again, yet I feared that seeing all the couples and romantic sites would make me deeply regret that my wife could not accompany me.
After arriving at the Hotel, I settled in, unpacked and immediately went down to the lobby to get the pamphlets for all of the attractions. I was happily relieved to find out that the museum with the Cleopatra exhibit was still in business. It truly was a very good quality museum. It's exhibits and sculptures did not just look like dressed up mannequins, rather their figures and faces really looked real. It was almost as though, if you reached out and touched them, they might spring to life. The only thing that I had sometimes noticed about them was that they seemed to have a certain degree of translucence which gave them a kind of an ethereal appearance.
The first day of the conference was okay as conferences go. But just like your regular job, you can't live work all day, and you look forward to doing other things. I was really feeling that I needed to get out, do some sight seeing and exploring.
So I decided to go and take in the sights that very night. After getting something to eat, while taking a brief walk around to see what had remained the same since I was last in Niagara Falls, the weather had taken a change and it was beginning to look like rain. I decided that this would be an excellent time to tour the wax museum. I could hear thunder beginning to rumble while I paid my admission and entered the building. Since it was around supper time and even earlier in the afternoon, the weather had looked pretty threatening, there was hardly anyone else in the museum. This gave me a great opportunity to really get up close to the exhibits and examine the quality workmanship the craftsmen had put into the models. They were so realistic it was amazing.
I came to my favorite display: the one of Cleopatra with her entourage. It's the type of exhibit at which some people might find themselves feeling kind of embarrassed if they were caught looking at it too long or too closely, because the museum had dressed her in very translucent garments. In fact the blouse, if that is what it would be called, was transparent. The model was life-like and truly beautiful! I smiled when I saw that her entourage was fully clothed as I knew that was not in keeping with the times in which she lived, as nudity above the waist was quite the normal attire for servants and attendants in Cleopatra’s Egypt. I supposed the wax museum didn't want to push the nudity issue too much nor let anything detract from the beauty of the Queen.
Egypt had always borne a fascination for me. I knew from my reading that Cleopatra was indeed one of the most beautiful queens of Egypt and I think the sculptor had really captured her beauty while keeping her true in a historical context. She was a bit shorter than myself. The dress part of the gown was diaphanous material which was under laid with an opaque white material that was not transparent which was strictly conformed to her elegant very well proportioned hips and to her mons. Her blouse was also diaphanous but had nothing underneath to hide the beauty of her full but firm breasts with large dark erect nipples.
Some women have a beauty that is so astounding that it is almost beyond sexual. Others are mostly sexual. Cleopatra seemed to be one who was beyond either of these levels, so that while her beauty was indeed astounding, you couldn't help but be aroused at the sexuality emanating from her. Her attendants were likewise very beautiful woman.
I had begun to move on to another exhibit, and the weather outside had indeed got worse, the thunder more frequent and at times the lights even flickered. All at once a loud thunderclap could be heard outside and the lights went out in the museum. I had always thought that being the only person in a museum which was dimly lit would give me a rather weird feeling. Then light began to come on. At first I thought it was just the emergency lighting, but then it occurred to me that, although I could still see the entire Cleopatra exhibit, I didn't see any others; it was as though that one display was all that existed.
