CHAPTER24
Kari rose early and painted all morning. For the first time ever, she actually applied oils to two canvases during the same session. The butterfly girl was on the easel to her left; on her right stood the woman chasing the man and his lantern. Somehow the two paintings felt interconnected. Or they balanced each other in some illogical manner. Whatever it was, the longer she worked, the more she became convinced that in reality she was working on just one large project.
She became utterly caught up in her work, something that had been happening with increasing regularity. Such that her ringing phone was a jarring irritant, until she remembered why she had brought it with her.
“Rafi?”
“No, dear. Graham. Rafi has been breaking out in hives ever since we passed Santa Barbara. It’s his customary reaction to entering a frontier zone.”
“Where are you?”
“We just left San Luis Obispo. Wherever do they come up with these names?”
“Can you stop somewhere and buy us lunch?”
“Kari, it’s four o’clock in the afternoon.”
“No wonder I’m starving. I’ve been painting since daybreak.”
A pause, then, “Well, as long as we’re not required to watch them shoot and skin some poor animal. What will you have? Bison tongue on sourdough?”
“You’re loving this. I can tell.”
“I do confess the scenery is rather fetching. Mind you, in an utterly primitive fashion.” A second voice muttered something. “Rafi wants to know when you’ll be moving back closer to civilization.”
“Never, never, never, never.”
“She says it will be a few weeks yet.” To Kari, he said, “We’ll be with you soon. Unless the road gives out and we’re forced to hire a pony.”
Kari rushed into the house, where she was greeted by a loudly complaining kitten. She opened a tin of food, then carried it and Sienna to the rear porch. Kari seated herself so that she was facing the atelier and fed the kitten off the tip of one finger. It was how Graham had directed her to make Sienna’s acquaintance the first time they met. Ever since, it remained Kari’s way of apologizing.
“What am I going to do with you? Do you want to come with me to Miami?”
Sienna replied with her remarkable ability to eat and purr simultaneously.
“I don’t like carting you off so soon after you’ve arrived here. And you hate being around almost everyone.” She scooped out another finger’s worth. “Ian will be there. Which I think we both agree is a plus.”
Sienna licked the finger clean. Purring. When Kari did not offer more food, the kitten head bumped her and purred.
“Liam—he’s a young artist—he and his mother have offered to come feed you. And it’s only for a week at most. Should I leave you here? Alone?” She lifted the kitten so they were eye to eye. “Pay attention. This is important.”
Kari returned to her atelier, settled the kitten in her basket, and resumed painting. She stayed there, immersed in her work, until Sienna bolted for the corner drop cloths. Then Kari heard a car-door slam, and a man called her name. She set down the brush and palette, wiped her hands with a paint-stained cloth, and told the kitten, “Don’t you start. You were born in their home.”
The kitten remained invisible. Silent.
Kari walked out front, kissed the two cheeks, and demanded, “Where’s lunch? I’m so hungry.”
Rafi said, “You’ve waited this long, you can just starve a while longer.”
Graham said, “We’re going to pretend we’ve viewed your lovely new home.”
“And we’re enjoying your company,” Rafi said.
“Now that the trivialities are out of the way,” Graham said, “why, yes, Kari dear. We’d love to see your secret stash.”
“And you can explain why we had to come all this way to see work you should have shown us years ago,” Rafi said.
She studied the two implacable faces and knew they were only half joking. “They’re not secret. I just wasn’t ready to give them up.”
