Here was Sunset with Witchgrass on one side and...
Here
was Sunset with Witchgrass on one side and Girl
and Ship NoRunning below the
pictures was this:
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I hope you'll join me for an exhibition of my
work, on the night of April 15th, at the Scoto
Gallery, in Sarasota, Florida, 7 PM-10 PMA First
Class reservation in your name has been made on
Air France Flight 22, departing Paris on the 15th
at 8:25 AM and arriving in New York at 10:15 AM;
you are also reserved on Delta Flight 496, leaving
New York's JFK on the 15th at 1:20 PM and arriving
in Sarasota at 4:30 PMA limousine will meet your
flight and take you to the Ritz-Carlton, where
your stay has been booked, with my compliments,
for the nights of April 15th-April 17th
There was another arrow below thisI looked up at
Wireman, bewilderedHe was still with the poker
face, but I could see a pulse beating on the right
side of his foreheadLater on he said, "I knew I
was putting our friendship on the line, but
somebody had omega olympic watch to do something, and by then it had
become clear to me that it wasn't going to be
you
I turned to the next page in the brochureTwo
more of those amazing reproductions: Sunset with
Conch on the left and an untitled sketch of my
mailbox on the rightThat was a very early one,
547
done with Venus colored pencils, but I liked the
flower growing up beside the wooden post - it was
a brilliant yellow and black oxeye - and even the
sketch looked good in reproduction, as if the man
who'd done it knew his businessOr was getting to
know it
The copy here was brief
If you can't come, I'll more than understand -
Paris isn't just around the corner! - but I'm
hoping that you will
I was angry, but I wasn't stupidSomebody had to
take holdApparently Wireman had decided that was
his jobIt's got to be Ilse who helped
him with this
I expected to find another painting over the
printed matter on the last page, but I didn't
What I saw there hurt my chanel jumbo flap heart with surprise and
loveMelinda was ever my hard girl, my project,
but I had never loved her the less for that, and
what I felt showed clearly in the black-and-white
photo, which looked creased across the middle and
dog-eared at two of its four cornersIt had a
548
right to look beat-up, because the Melinda
standing next to me could have been no older than
fourThat made this snapshot at least eighteen
years oldShe was wearing jeans, cowboy boots, a
Western-style shirt, and a straw hatHad we just
come back from Pleasant Hill Farms, where she
sometimes rode a Shetland pony named Sugar? I
thought soIn any case, we were standing on the
sidewalk in front of the little starter home we'd
had in Brooklyn Park, me in faded jeans and a
white tee-shirt with the short sleeves rolled up a
turn and my hair combed back like a greaserI had
a can of Grain Belt beer in one hand and a smile
on my faceLinnie had one hand hooked into chanel white watches the
pocket of my jeans and a look of love - such love
- on her upturned face that it made my throat ache
I smiled the way you do when you're about an inch
away from bursting into tearsBelow the picture
it said:
If you want to keep current on who else is coming,
you can call me at 941-555-6166, or Jerome Wireman
at 941-555-8191, or your MomShe'll be coming
549
down with the Minnesota contingent, by the way,
and will meet you at the hotel
Hope you can come - love you either way, Pony Girl
-
Dad
I closed the letter that was also a brochure that
was also an invitation and sat staring silently
down at it for a few momentsI did not entirely
trust myself to speak
"That's just a rough draft, of course Wireman
sounded tentativeIn other words, not like
himself at all"If you hate it, I'll junk it and
start again
"You didn't get that picture from Ilse," I saidPam found it in one of her old
photo albums
All at once everything made omega aqua terra watch sense
"How many times have you talked to her, Jerome?"
He winced"That hurts, but maybe you have a right
Probably half a dozen timesI started by telling
her you were getting yourself in a jam down here,
550
and that you were taking a lot of other people
with you-"
"What the fuck!" I cried, stung
"People who'd invested a lot of hope and trust in
you, not to mention money-"
"I'm perfectly capable of refunding any money the
people at the Scoto may have laid out on-"
"Shut up," he said, and I had never heard such
coldness in his voiceOr seen it in his eyes
"You ain't an asshole, muchacho, so don't act like
oneCan you refund their trust? Can you refund
their prestige, if the great new artist they've
promised their customers doesn't materialize for
either the lecture or the show?"
"Wireman, I can do the show, it's just the goddam
lecture-"
"They don't know that!" he shoutedHe had a hell
of a shouting voice on him, a real gucci hobo courtroom
bell