Angelica Lost and Found

Chapter 62. Between Jim and It

The painting was in the bedroom, with its face to the wall it was leaning against. I hadn’t looked at it since bringing it home. When I fished it out of the water and laid it on the cabin roof it was just a big canvas on stretchers, nothing more than that. But now it seemed to be waiting for me. Well, I had done that to myself, hadn’t I, by leaning it against the wall and making it wait. But now the evening seemed favourable; I’d seen my last client for the day, a woman who constantly used the word ‘relationship’ and the phrase ‘more importantly’. She also liked using singular verbs with plural subjects and she thought the nominative case classier than the objective case. ‘Between you and I,’ she said in a burst of emotion, ‘there’s many, many guys out there who will simply not commit to a relationship. More importantly, I have issues of my own with commitment in a relationship. You know what I’m saying?’

‘I think so,’ I said. ‘More importantly, I’ve been taking notes so I can go over your issues again.’

She seemed well satisfied with the therapeutic relationship but I was very tired after the session. I poured myself a large Jack Daniel’s, sighed and returned to the matter of the painting.

‘OK,’ I said, ‘I’m ready.’

I brought it into my office and stood it on the sofa facing me. I had to look away then and sit down because I lost my balance and almost fell over.

‘Obviously I’m not going at this correctly,’ I said. As I said that I could feel what the correct approach was but I wasn’t ready to commit to the relationship the tiny, tiny dancing giants seemed to want. Not looking directly at the painting I said to it, ‘I’m going to have to think about this, OK? I’ll get back to you.’ I took it into the bedroom again and leant it against the wall as before.