It Must Be True Then by Luci Adams

Author:Luci Adams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

* * *

“So, you want to be a full-time painter? A little to the left, I think.”

“God, no!” He laughs, moving the whole easel a little more directly under the light. As he sets it down, I suddenly see my mistake. I don’t know why I thought this was a good idea. Half the painting’s cast in shadow from this angle. Turns out, it’s not quite as easy as point and click, this whole picture taking thing. I’m not sure why I thought it would be. I walk around, um-ing and ahh-ing, and patiently he looks up at me like I’m the expert.

“How come? This is clearly your passion.”

“Exactly,” he says, like the conclusion to a riddle. “Never turn your passion into a full-time job.”

“Isn’t that exactly the opposite of what people say?” I question. “‘If you love where you work, you’ll never work a day in your life’ and all that?”

“If I painted every day, it would become a chore. I don’t want my escape to become a burden.” Strange. I guess I would never have thought of it that way. “Plus, painting’s a lonely old sport. Parenting can be too, at times. I think I’d go mad if I couldn’t work with people,” he adds.

“How is parenting lonely?” I ask, almost by accident. I don’t know many people with kids. Tiring, I’ve heard. But not lonely.

“It’s a different kind of loneliness,” he says. “It comes in those moments when they do something you’re proud of. Like the first time they correctly say a word they’ve never been able to say before. Or when you catch them reading, alone, by themselves, engrossed. These little moments that you want to capture in your mind, that you think—I’d love to share that with someone. I’d love to watch that with someone who feels the way I feel too. Only, sometimes you have no one to share it with.”

I swallow, not wanting to ask the question that lingers in the air unspoken.

“Shall we try another angle maybe?” he says, moving on. It’s probably a blessing. Now I don’t have to think of what I’d ask. I nod as he starts to move things around again.

“So, what, you just want to earn a little more on the side?”

“I don’t know,” he says, stepping back so I can take the picture. “Maybe. More I want to clear out this room. At least some of it. Truthfully, I probably would haven’t done anything if you hadn’t asked.”

“But you work on commissions I’m guessing?”

“Not yet.”

“Oh. Well, how did your work end up in the bakery?” I ask.

“Sallie’s a mum at the girls’ school. She’s done a few pickups for me when I’ve been delayed somewhere, so I did it as a thank-you really. She always said she liked the one in the living room and when I first saw the bakery she’d created—well, I got inspired.”

“So, no one’s paid you for any of this?” I say, pointing all around me.

He follows my gaze.

“Not yet.”

“But it’s good.”

“Thank you,” he says, nervously.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.