That one I turned to the wall, thinking when I...
That one
I turned to the wall, thinking when I looked at it
the next day it would have lost its magic, but it
hadn't
I snapped a picture of it with my digital camera,
and attached it to an e-mailIt prompted the
following exchange, which I printed out and stowed
in a folder:
EFree19 to KamenDoc
10:14 AM
December 9
113
Kamen: I told you I was drawing pictures again
This is your fault, so the least you can do is
look at the attached and tell me what you think
The view is from my place down hereDo not spare
my feelings
Edgar
KamenDoc to EFree19
12:09 PM
December 9
Edgar: I think you are getting betterIn truth the picture is amazingLike an
undiscovered DalíYou have clearly found
somethingHow big is it?
EFree19 to KamenDoc
1:13 PM
December 9
114
Don't know
EF
KamenDoc to EFree19
1:22 P
M December 9
Then MINE IT!
Kamen
Two days later, when Jack hermes birkin 35cm came by to ask if I
wanted to run errands, I said I wanted to go to a
bookstore and buy a book of Salman Dalí's art"I think you mean Salvador Dalí," he
said"Unless you're thinking about the guy who
wrote the book that got him in so much hot water
I can't remember the name of it
"The Satanic Verses," I said at onceThe mind's a
funny monkey, isn't it?
When I got back with my book of prints - it cost a
staggering one hundred and nineteen dollars, even
with my Barnes & Noble discount card, good thing
I'd saved a few million out of the divorce for
115
myself - the MESSAGE WAITING lamp of my answering
machine was flashingIt was Ilse, and the message
was cryptic only at first listen
"Mom's going to phone you," she said"I did my
best talking, Dad - called in every favor she owed
me, added my very best pretty-please and just
about begged Lin, so say yes, okay? louis vuitton speedy 30 Say yes
I sat down, ate a Table Talk pie I'd been looking
forward to but no longer wanted, and leafed
through my expensive picture-book, thinking - and
I'm sure this wasn't original - Well hello, Dalí
I wasn't always impressedIn many cases I thought
I was looking at the work of a talented smartass
who was doing little more than passing the time
Yet some of the pictures excited me and a few
frightened me the way my looming conch shell had
Floating tigers over a reclining nude womanAnd one picture, Swans Reflecting
Elephants, that was so strange I could barely look
at ityet I kept flipping back to look some
more
And what I was really doing was waiting for my
soon-to-be-ex-wife to call and invite me back to
116
StPaul, for Christmas with the girlsEventually
the phone rang, and when she said I'm extending
this invitation against my better judgment pink prada handbag I
resisted the urge to smash that particular hanging
curveball out of the park: And I'm accepting it
against mineWhat I said was I understand that
What I said was How does Christmas Eve sound? And
when she said That's fine, some of the I'mcovered-
up-and-ready-to-fight had gone out of her
voiceThe argument that might have nipped
Christmas with the Family in the bud had been
avertedWhich did not make this trip back home a
good idea
MINE IT, Kamen had said, and in big capital
lettersI suspected that by leaving now I might
kill it, insteadI could come back to Duma Key
but that didn't mean I'd get my groove backThe
walks, the picturesOne was feeding the otherI
didn't know exactly how, and I didn't need to knowShe knew I would, not
because she was my favorite (Lin was the one who
knew that, I think), but because she had always
been satisfied with so little and so chanel quilted bags seldom asked
for anythingAnd because when I listened to her
117
message, I remembered how she'd started to cry
that day she and Melinda had come out to Lake
Phalen, leaning against me and asking why it
couldn't be the way it wasBecause things never
are, I think I replied, but maybe for a couple of
days they could beor a reasonable facsimile
thereofIlse was nineteen, probably too old for
one last childhood Christmas, but surely not too
old to deserve one more with the family she'd
grown up withAnd that went for Lin, tooHer
survival skills were better, but she was flying
home from France yet again, and that told me
somethingI'd go, I'd make nice, and I
would be sure to pack Reba, just in case one of my
rages swept over meThey were abating, but of
course on Duma Key there was really nothing to
rage against except for my periodic forgetfulness
and shitty white ceramic chanel watch lim