Since I Met You
It had been a long old road, that was right. Or was it?
That's what he loved. The air of mystery that that painting had brought him.
He bought it back in 1963, in the middle of the depression, little 'd' because, so far as he could tell, it was only effecting him. Well, him and his brother, whom he had borrowed a couple hundred dollars off and hadn't paid back, thus sharing the depression around a little.
He saw her downtown at a little street market where the goons were out in full force. He called the people that sold cotton candy 'goons.' Ever since his childhood, when he and his brother visited the circus and caught the cotton candy guys. They were a weird bunch. Throwing cotton candy at each other. And there were these elephants, all stomping around and going "Wheeerrrrrgh! Wheeeeeergh!" They were lucky they weren't stomped to death by the rampant elephants. But he digresses. Cotton candy guys. Crazy goons. No, wait, not back far enough. He saw her downtown at the street market.
It was like she was smiling at him, which she was, in a way. She was perched on an old fender from a Cadillac, buffed to near blinding shininess. Of course, it wasn't old then. It was 1963 and it was... what, a 1962 Cadillac fender? He wasn't sure, he wasn't one of those types of guys who memorised cars details. Or many details at all, come to think of it. One detail he did remember was a Ted Williams baseball card taped to the fender, along with a Bobby Doerr, a Honus Wagner, a Jackie Robinson, and a Spitter McGee card. Spitter was one of his favourites, as a kid. Couldn't throw the baseball to save his life. He was about 5'6" on a good day, and many people thought he had a club foot, though he didn't. But he was a trier, and you had to give him that.
Digression, again, sorry. Back to the painting.
She was smiling at him. Whether she was supposed to be the Virgin Mary being taken up to Heaven (ascending, that is) or Janis Joplin with a very conservative haircut, possibly Marilyn Monroe dressed up as Janis Joplin, he wasn't sure, but he loved it, straight away. All those yellow streaks shooting up out of her, as she stood oblivious on a cloud of... something... it looked a little like cotton candy, come to think of it.
So he bought it, with a couple of buttons, a stale peanut, and a silver dollar coin valued at near $300, he would find out later. Shortly after handing it over, in fact. When the person selling the stuff leapt up and ran around the market like you see those soccer players do, with their shirts pulled up over the head, arms out to the side. Thing is, with soccer players they never have to dodge carts of dusty and dirty merchandise while running around with their shirt pulled up over their head. If they did, you would be sure you'd see a lot less of the running around like that. As evidenced by the seller's near death on the spindle of a spinning wheel.
And he got it home, and placed it on the wall, just facing the entrance way.
And he sat there, in the hallway, eating cotton candy, feeling mysterious, and slightly sick, actually.
disclaimer:
Thank you. And good night. You little readers, you.
Check back next week for more stuff. Like this. Possibly. Or not, if it gets a bad reaction. Like a baby's bottom to the wrong kind of powder. Or like anyone's bottom with a liberal application of poison ivy.
At any rate, till next week, till we meet again.