"Way ahead of you, bossMy Mom used to work...
"Way ahead of you, bossMy Mom used to work in
one called the Scoto
"Is that supposed to mean something to me?"
176
"It's the hot-shit gallery on the arty side of
town," he said, then rethought that"I mean that
in a nice wayAnd the people who run it are
niceat least they always were to my Mom, but
"It is a hot-shit gallery
"Meaning big prices?"
"It's where the elite meet He spoke solemnly,
but when I burst out laughing, he joined meThat
was the day, I think, when Jack Cantori became my
friend rather than my part-time gofer
"Then that's settled," I said, "because I am
definitely elite
I raised my tiffany toggle necklace hand, and Jack gave it a smack
xviii
Back at Big Pink, he helped me into the house with
my loot - five bags, two boxes, and a stack of
nine stretched canvasesAlmost a thousand
dollars' worth of stuffI told him we'd worry
about getting it upstairs the next dayPainting
177
was the last thing on earth I wanted to do that
night
I limped across the living room toward the kitchen,
meaning to put together a sandwich, when I saw the
message light on the answering machine blinkingI
thought it must be Ilse, saying her flight had
been cancelled due to weather or equipment
problemsThe voice was pleasant but dolce and gabbana knock off cracked with
age, and I knew who it was at onceI could almost
see those enormous blue sneakers propped on the
bright footplates of her wheelchairFreemantle, welcome to Duma KeyIt
was a pleasure to see you the other day, if only
brieflyOne assumes the young lady with you was
your daughter, given the resemblanceHave you
taken her back to the airport? One rather hopes
soI could hear her breathing, the
loud, not-quiteemphysemic respiration of a person
who has probably spent a great deal of her life
with a cigarette in one hand
"All things considered, Duma Key has never been a
lucky place for omega speedmaster replica daughters
178
I found myself thinking of Reba in a very unlikely
tennis dress, surrounded by small fuzzy balls as
more came in on the next wave
"One hopes we will meet, in the course of timeThen it was just me and the
restless grinding sound of the shells under the
house
How to Draw a Picture (III)
Stay hungryIt worked for Michelangelo, it worked
for Picasso, and it works for a hundred thousand
artists who do it not for love (although that may
play a part) but in order to put food on the table
If you want to translate the world, you need to
use your appetitesDoes this surprise you? It
shouldn'tThere's nothing white ceramic chanel watch as human as hunger
There's no creation without talent, I give you
that, but talent is cheap
Hunger is the piston of artThat little girl I
was telling you about? She found hers and used it
179
She thinks No more bed all day nowI go Daddy
room, Daddy's studySometimes I say study,
sometimes I say groodyIt has a nice big window
They sit me in the charToo nice for me, so it makes me sat
Some clouds have wingsEvery
sunset I cry from satHurts the
down up in meI could never say what I see and
that makes me sat
She thinks SAD, that word is SADSat is for how
you feel in the char
She thinks If I could stop the chanel quilted bags hurt