reil0211hedrich

iv 463 I didn't like the idea of stealing from a friend - not even a single X-ray photographNor did I like keeping silent about what I was sure I'd done to Candy BrownI could have told him; after the Tom Riley business, he would have believed meEven without that little twinkle of ESP, he would have believed meThat was the trouble, actually Wireman wasn't stupidIf I could send Candy Brown to the Sarasota County Morgue with a paintbrush, then maybe I could do for a certain brain-damaged ex-lawyer what the doctors could notBut what if I couldn't? Better not to raise false hopesat least outside of my own heart, where they were outrageously high By the time I got back to Big Pink, my hip was yellingI slung my duffle coat into the closet, took a couple of Oxycontins, and saw the messagelight on my answering chanel wallet purse machine was blinkingHe was delighted to hear from me Yes indeed, he said, if the rest of my work was on a par with what he'd seen, the Scoto would be pleased and proud to sponsor an exhibition of my work, and before Easter, when the winter people went homeWould it be possible for him and one or 464 more of his partners to come out, visit me in my studio, and look at some of my other completed work? They would be happy to bring a sample contract for me to look at It was good news - exciting news - but in a way it seemed to be happening on some other planet, to some other Edgar FreemantleI saved the message, started to go upstairs with the pilfered X-ray, then stoppedLittle Pink wasn't right because the easel wasn't rightCanvas and oil paints weren't right, either I limped back down to my big living j12 chanel diamond watch roomThere was a stack of Artisan pads and several boxes of colored pencils on the coffee table, but they weren't right, eitherThere was a low, vague itching in my missing right arm, and for the first time I thought that I might really be able to do thisif I could find the right medium for the message, that was It occurred to me that a medium was also a person who took dictation from the Great Beyond, and that made me laughA little nervously, it's true I went into the bedroom, at first not sure what I was afterThen I looked at the closet and knew 465 The week before, I'd had Jack take me shopping - not at the Crossroads Mall but at one of the men's shops on StArmand's Circle - and I'd bought half a dozen shirts, the kind that button up the front When she was a little kid, Ilse used to call them Big People tiffany diamond ShirtsThey were still in their cellophane bagsI tore the bags off, pulled out the pins, and tossed the shirts back into the closet, where they landed in a heapI didn't want the shirtsWhat I wanted were the cardboard inserts Those bright white rectangles of cardboard I found a Sharpie in a pocket of my PowerBook carrying caseIn my old life I'd hated Sharpies for both the smell of the ink and their tendency to smearIn this one I'd come to love the fat boldness of the lines they created, lines that seem to insist on their own absolute realityI took the cardboard inserts, the Sharpie, and the X-ray of Wireman's brain out to the Florida room, where the light was bright and declamatory The itch in my missing arm deepenedBy now it felt almost like a friend 466 I didn't have the sort of light-box doctors stick X-rays hermes vintage and MRI scans on when they want to study them, but the Florida room's glass wall made a very acceptable substituteI didn't even need Scotch tapeI was able to snap the X-ray into the crack between the glass and the chrome facing, and there it was, a thing many claimed did not exist: the brain of a lawyerIt floated against the Gulf I stared at it for awhile, I don't know how long - two minutes? four? - fascinated by the way the blue water looked when viewed through the gray crenellations, how those folds changed the water to fog The slug was a black chip, slightly fragmentedIt looked a little like a small shipLike a rowboat floating on the caldoI had meant only to draw his brain intact - no slug - but it ended up being more than thatI went on and added the water, you see, because the picture seemed to black and white chanel demand