but not necessarily because I thought he was... 703
but not necessarily because I
thought he was wrong
"She gave me a brisk talking-to about taking care
of myself not so long ago, and it hit homeAnd from the look of her, you might be in
for a talking-to yourself, EdgarI think I might
find your friend Kamen and engage him in a bit of
a discourse
The girls and Ric were staring up at Wireman Looks
West and chattering animatedlyPam, however, was
positioned about halfway down the line of Girl and
Ship paintings, which hung like movie posters, and
she looked disturbedNot angry, exactly, just
disturbedShe beckoned me over, and
once I was there, she didn't waste time
706
"Is the little girl in these pictures Ilse?" She
pointed up at No"I thought at first gucci horsebit hobo this one
with the red hair was supposed to be the doll Dr
Kamen gave you after your accident, but Ilse had a
tic-tac-toe dress like that when she was littleI
bought it at RompersAnd this one-" Now she
pointed at No"I swear this is the dress she
just had to have to start first grade in - the one
she was wearing when she broke her damn arm that
night after the stock car races!"
Well, there you wereI remembered the broken arm
as having come after church, but that was only a
minor misstep in the grand dance of memoryThere
were more important thingsOne was that Pam was
in a unique position to see through most of the
smoke and mirrors that critics like to call art -
at least in my case she wasIn that way, chloe black chloe black and
probably in a great many others, she was still my
wifeIt seemed that in the end, only time could
issue a divorce decreeAnd that the decree would
be partial at best
I turned her toward meWe were being watched by a
great many people, and I suppose to them it looked
like an embraceI got one
707
glimpse of her wide, startled eyes, and then I was
whispering in her ear
"Yes, the girl in the rowboat is IlseI never
meant her to be there, because I never meant
anythingI never even knew I was going to paint
these pictures until I started doing themAnd
because she's back-to, no one else is ever going
to know unless you or I tell themHer eyes were still wide, her
lips parted as if to receive a kiss"What c c purse did
Ilse say?"
"The oddest thing She took me by the sleeve and
pulled me down to NoIn both of
these, Rowboat Girl was wearing the green dress
with straps that crossed over her bare back"She
said you must be reading her mind, because she
ordered a dress like that from Newport News just
this spring
She looked back at the picturesI stood silently
beside her and let her look
"I don't like these, EdgarThey're not like the
others, and I don't like them
I thought of Tim Riley saying, Your ex has great
insight but little kindness
708
Pam lowered her voice"You don't know something
about Illy that you shouldn't, do you? The way you
knew about-"
"No," I said, but I was more troubled by the Girl
and Ship omega de ville men's watches series than everSome of it was seeing
them all hung in a line; the accumulated weirdness
was like a punchThat was Elizabeth's opinionHowever
many there are, you must sell them
And I could understand why she thought soI did
not like seeing my daughter, not even in the guise
of the child she had long outgrown, in such close
proximity to that rotted sheerhulkAnd in a way,
I was surprised that perplexity and disquiet were
all Pam feltBut of course, the paintings hadn't
had a chance to work on her yet
And they were no longer on Duma Key
The young people joined us, Ric and Melinda with
their arms around each other"Daddy, you're a
genius," Melinda said"Ric thinks so, too, don't
you, Ric?"
"Actually," Ric said, mens gucci watches "I
