But I could hear him breathingThen, at last,... 318
But I could hear him breathingThen, at last, he
said: "Did you do something, Edgar? Tell Wireman
I thought about telling him I hadn't done a damn
thingThen I considered him checking his X-ray
folder and finding one was goneI also considered
469
my sandwich, wounded but far from dead"What
about your vision? Any change there?"
"Nope, the left lamp is still outAnd according
to Principe, it ain't coming backBut hadn't part of me known the job wasn't
done? This morning's diddling with Sharpie and
Cardboard had been nothing like the previous
night's full-blown orgasmI didn't
want to do anything more today but sit and new omega watches stare
at the GulfWatch the sun go down in the caldo
largo without painting the fucking thingOnly
this was Wireman
"You still there, muchacho?"
"Yes," I said"Can you get Annmarie Whistler for
a few hours later today?"
"Why? What for?"
"So you can sit for your portrait," I said"If
your eye's still out, I guess I need the actual
Wireman
"You did do something"Did
you paint me already? From memory?"
"Check the folder with your X-rays in it," I said
"Be here around fourI want to take a nap first
470
And bring something to eatPainting makes me
hungry I thought of amending that to a certain
kind of painting, and didn'tI thought vintage chanel jewelry I'd said
enough
vi
I wasn't sure I'd be able to nap, but I didThe
alarm roused me at three o'clockI went up to
Little Pink and considered my store of blank
canvasesThe biggest was five feet long by three
wide, and this was the one I choseI pulled my
easel's support-strut to full extension and set up
the blank canvas longwaysThat blank shape, like
a white coffin on end, touched off a little
flutter of excitement in my stomach and down my
right armI flexed those fingersI couldn't see
them, but I could feel them opening and closingI
could feel the nails digging into the palmThey
were long, those nailsThey had grown since omega aqua terra watch the
accident and there was no way to cut them
vii
471
I was cleaning my brushes when Wireman came
striding up the beach in his shambling, bearlike
gait, the peeps fleeing before himHe was wearing
jeans and a sweater, no coatThe temperatures had
begun to moderate
He hollered a hello at the front door and I yelled
for him to come on upstairsHe got most of the
way and saw the big canvas on the easel"Holy
shit, amigo, when you said portrait, I got the
idea we were talking about a headshot
"That's sort of what I'm planning," I said, "but
I'm afraid it's not going to be that realistic
I've already done a little advance prada clutch work
The pilfered X-ray and Sharpie sketch were on the
bottom shelf of my workbenchI handed them to
Wireman, then sat down again in front of my easel
The canvas waiting there was no longer completely
blank and whiteThree-quarters of the way up was
a faintly drawn rectangleI had made it by
holding the shirt-cardboard against the canvas and
running a No2 pencil around the edge
Wireman said nothing for almost two minutesHe
kept looking back and forth between the X-ray and
472
the picture I had drawn from itThen, in a voice
almost too low to hear: "What are we talking about
here, muchacho? What are we saying?"
"We're not," I omega de ville men's watches sai
