She smiled, and the tears that had been in her...
She smiled, and the tears that had been in her own
eyes fellThe cheeks they landed on were old and
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ruined with wrinkles, but the eyes were young
v
Ten minutes later, Wireman and I were standing at
the end of the Palacio boardwalk againHe had
left the lady of the house with a slice of key
lime pie, a glass of tea, and the remote control
I had two of Wireman's egg salad sandwiches in a
bagHe said they'd just go stale if I didn't take
them home, and he didn't have to press me too hard
I also hit him up for a couple of aspirin
"Look," he said, "I'm sorry about thatI was
going to ask first, believe me
He nodded but didn't look directly at meHe was
looking out at the Gulf"I just want you to know
I didn't promise her anythingSo she makes assumptions the way
kids do, based on what she wants rather than on
the facts
"And what she wants is to be read to
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"Poems on tapes and compact discs don't cut it?"
"NopeShe says the difference between recorded
and live is like the difference between canned
mushrooms and fresh ones He smiled, but still
wouldn't look at me
"Why don't you read to her, Wireman?"
Still looking out at the water, he said: "Because
I no longer canwhy not?"
He considered this, then shook his headWireman's tired, muchacho, and she'll be up
in the nightUp and argumentative, full of rue
and confusion, liable to think she's in balenciaga bag London or
St
"Will you tell me another day?"
"Yeah He sighed through his nose"If you can
show yours, I suppose I can show mine, although I
don't relish itAre you sure you're okay to get
back on your own?"
"Absolutely," I said, although my hip was
throbbing like a big motor
"I'd run you in the golf cart, I really would, but
when she's this way - DrWireman's clinical term
for it is Bright Going On Stupid - she's apt to
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take it into her mind to wash the windowsor
dust some shelvesor go for a walk without her
walker At that he actually shudderedIt looked
like the kind that starts out as burlesque and
ends up being real
"Everybody keeps trying to get me into a golf
cart," I said
"You'll call your wife?"
"I don't see any other option," I saidYou can tell me all about it
when I come to look at your picturesThere's a visiting nurse I can call -
Annmarie Whistler - if the morning works betterAnd thanks for listening to me,
Wireman
"Thanks for reading to the boss
I set off down the beach and had gotten about
fifty yards before something occurred to meI
turned back, thinking Wireman would be gone, but
he was still standing there with his hands in his
pockets and the wind off the Gulf - increasingly
chilly - combing back his long graying hair
"Wireman!"
275
"What?"
"Was Elizabeth ever an artist herself?"
He said nothing for a long timeThere cambon chanel handbag was only
the sound of the waves, louder tonight with the
wind to push themThen he said, "That's an
interesting question, EdgarIf you were to ask
her - and I'd advise against it - she'd say no
But I don't think that's the truth
"Why not?"
But he only said, "You'd better get walking,
muchachoBefore that hip of yours stiffens up
He gave me a quick seeya wave, turned, and was
gone back up the boardwalk, chasing his
lengthening shadow, almost before I was aware he
was leaving
I stood where I was a moment or two longer, then
turned north, set my sights on Big Pink, and
headed for homeIt was a long trip, and before I
got there my own absurdly elongated shadow was
lost in the sea oats, but in the end I made it
The waves were still building, and under the house
the murmur of the shells had again become an
argument
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How to Draw a Picture (IV)
Start with what you know, then re-invent itArt
is magic, no argument there, but all art, no
matter how strange, starts in the humble everyday
Just don't be surprised when weird flowers sprout
from common soilNo one
taught her; she learned for herself
The more she drew, the more she sawThe more she
saw, the more she wanted to drawAnd the more she saw, the more her language
came back to her: first the four or five hundred
words she knew on the day she fell from the cart
and struck her head, then many, many mulberry bags more
Daddy was amazed by the rapidly growing
sophistication of her picturesSo were her
sisters - both the Big Meanies and the twins (not
Adie; Adie was in Europe with three friends and
two trusty chaperones - Emery Paulson, the young
man she'll marry, had not yet come on the scene)
The nanny/housekeeper was awed by her, called her
la petite obéah fille
The doctor who attended her case cautioned that
the little girl must be very careful about
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exercise and excitement lest she take a fever, but
by January of 1926 she was coursing everywhere on
the south end of the Key, carrying her pad and
bundled up in her "puddy jacket and thumpums,"
drawing everything
That was the winter she saw her family grow bored
with her work - Big Meanies Maria and Hannah first,
then Tessie and Lo-Lo, then Daddy, then even Nan
MeldaDid she understand that even genius palls,
when taken in large doses? Perhaps, in some
instinctive child's way, she did
What came next, the outgrowth of their boredom,
was a determination to make them see the wonder of
what she saw by re-inventing it
Her surrealist phase began; first the birds flying
upside-down, then the animals walking on water,
then the Smiling Horses that brought her a small
measure of renownAnd that was when something
changedThat was when something dark slipped in,
using little Libbit as its channel
She began to chanel replica handbags cheap draw her doll, and when she did, her
doll began to talk
278
By then Adriana was back from Gay Paree, and to
begin with, Noveen mostly spoke in Adie's high and
happy lah-de-dah voice, asking Elizabeth if she
could hinky-dinky-parley-voo and telling her to
ferramay her bushSometimes Noveen sang her to
sleep while pictures of the doll's face - large
and round and all brown except for the red lips -
scattered Elizabeth's counterpane
Noveen sings Frere Jacques, frere Jacques, are you
sleepun? Are you sleepun? Dormay-voo, dormay-voo?
Sometimes Noveen told her stories - mixed-up but
wonderful - where Cinderella wore the red slippers
from Oz and the Bobbsey Twins got lost in the
Magic Forest and found a sweetie house with a roof
made of peppermint candy
But then Noveen's voice changedIt stopped being
Adie's voiceIt stopped being the voice of anyone
Elizabeth knew, and it went right on talking even
when Elizabeth told Noveen to ferramay her bush
At first, maybe that voice was pleasant
Then things changed, didn't they? Because art is
magic, and not all magic is white
Not even for little girls
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7 - Art for Art's Sake
i
There was a bottle of single-malt in the living
room liquor cabinetI wanted a shot and didn't
take itI wanted to wait, maybe eat one of my egg
salad sandwiches and plan out what I was going to
say to her, and I didn't do that, tiffany's necklace eit