The real truth, maybe, and the real truth is...
The real truth, maybe,
and the real truth is red
"But enough of me, EdgarI called to ask a
questionAre you one who creates art for money,
or do you believe in art for art's sake? I'm sure
I asked when I met you - I'm almost positive - but
I can't remember your answerI believe it must be
art for art's sake, or Duma should not have called
youBut if you stay here for long
Clear anxiety crept into her voice
"Edgar, one is sure you'll make a very nice
neighbor, I have no doubts on that score, but you
must take precautionsI think you have a daughter,
and I believe she visited youDidn't she? I seem
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to remember her waving to meA pretty thing chanel earrings with
blond hair? I may be confusing her with my sister
Hannah - I tend to do that, I know I do - but in
this case, I think I'm rightIf you mean to stay,
Edgar, you mustn't invite your daughter back
Under no circumstancesDuma Key isn't a safe
place for daughters
I stood looking down at the recorder
Before she had said not lucky, or at least that
was my recollectionDid those two things come to
the same or not?
"And your artThere is the matter of your art
She sounded apologetic and a little breathless
"One does not like to tell an artist what to do;
really, one cannot tell an artist what to do, and
yet She broke out in the loose,
rattlebox cough of the chloe dior lifelong smoker"One does
not like to speak of these things directlyor
even know how to speak of them directlybut
might I give you a word of advice, Edgar? As one
who only appreciates, to one who creates? Might I
be allowed that?"
I waitedThe machine was silentI thought
perhaps the tape had run its courseUnder my feet
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the shells murmured quietly, as if sharing secretsThen she
began again
"If the people who run the Scoto or the Avenida
should offer you a chance to show your work, I
would advise you most strongly to say yesSo
others can enjoy it, of course, but mainly to get
as much of it off Duma as soon as you can She
took a deep, audible quilted chanel bag breath, sounding like a woman
preparing to finish some arduous choreShe also
sounded completely and utterly sane, totally there
and in the moment"Do not let it accumulateThat
is my advice to you, well-meant and without any
any personal agenda? Yes, that's what I mean
Letting artistic work accumulate here is like
letting too much electricity accumulate in a
batteryIf you do that, the battery may explode
I didn't know if that was actually true or not,
but I took her meaning
"I can't tell you why that should be, but it is,"
she went onand I had a sudden intuition that
she was lying about that"And surely if you
believe in art for art's sake, the painting is tiffany toggle necklace the
important part, isn't it?" Her voice was almost
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wheedling now"Even if you don't need to sell
your paintings to buy your daily bread, sharing
workgiving it to the worldsurely artists
care about such things, don't they? The giving?"
How would I know what was important to artists? I
had only that day learned what sort of finish to
put on my pictures to preserve them when I was
done with themwhat had Nannuzzi and
Mary Ire called me? An American primitiveThen: "I think I'll stop nowJust please think about what I've
said if you mean to stay, EdwardAnd I look
forward to you reading to me
That will be a treatThank you
for listening to an old hermes kelly handbag wom