ARROW - 49. Chapter 49

There was no better gift that Colin could have given Armand. Knowing that he now had his own art gallery, he spent his time in his workshop painting and making his frames. He still like to paint on the third floor of the club except for the times you would find him on the roof.

Colin, left a small place in the garage where Armand could make his frames. Armand was happy, he could paint in the morning, he had his own gallery where he could show his paintings, he could also determine which ones he was going to sell and keep. So for the next two weeks, he delivered all of his finished paintings to the gallery. Mary was in charge, with the Professor’s help, she arranged Armand’s paintings on the gallery walls. Those items that the Professor’s students created, where placed and tagged with price. Mary was surprised at some of these articles. She never really understood what the art program at Yale included. She wasn’t sure about some of the paintings.

At the club on Sunday afternoon, she invited Armand to visit the gallery. Except for his first visit, he hadn’t been back. Monday morning when Colin went to work. Armand and Mary went to the Gallery.

Arriving, Mary parked on the side of the building. Walking past the large glass window, Armand looked and saw a large stone with a sword sticking out. “So, what happens if someone pulls Arthur’s sword from the stone?”

Laughing,“They become the new owners.”

Upon entering the gallery, Armand proceeded to the stone and tried to pull the sword. To his amusement, the sword came out. “I guess I’m the new owner.” Laughing he placed the sword back into the stone.

Mary led him through the galley. He saw a lot of paintings and more sculptures. What he didn’t see was his paintings.

“Mary, where are my paintings? Don’t tell me you sold them all.”

“No, I haven’t sold them all. Follow me,” she pointed to a wall. There was an arrow pointing to the right. Following the direction of the arrow, they were in a large room that had ceiling lights shinning on his paintings.

“I don’t remember seeing this room.”

“This was the warehouse. We had it redone as your showroom.” He just smiled.

Walking though the first floor, I saw Mary’s office and a small room off of her office. She said it was the crating and mail room. I wonder how she would mail some of the sculptures .

Walking back to main show room, we passed a door. “Mary, where does this door lead.”

“Nowhere, I don’t know what this room was used for, but you can open the door it isn’t locked.”

I opened the door, there was a ‘U’ shaped room. Walking around, “Why are you smiling?”

“Do you know that small Italian restaurant that Colin and I have visited.”

“Yes, John and I have eaten there.”

“When Colin and I were in Italy, we stopped at the village where the owners of the restaurant lived before they moved here. I wanted to recreate that village for them. He didn’t want me to do it, I’m going to do it here.”

That evening, sitting on roof, I told Colin about the room. “Armand, you still need to paint for the gallery as well.”

I wasn’t worried about paintings for the gallery, I still had paintings in some form of completion that wouldn’t take long to finish. I did have one painting I wanted to finish, I just had to decide what form it was to take.

The following day, I bought several bright lights to allow me to paint in that room. With the photos that Colin had taken when we were in that village, I was ready to create my village.

I prepared a white paint as a base. For the next two days, I applied two coats of paint to the walls. Mary looked in while I was painting the base coat. Once I started to paint the village, no one will be able to see the work in progress until it was complete.

Between making my paint, and only painting when Colin was at work, I estimated it would take me at least two months.

Painting the walls was only one part of the project. I needed to establish lighting which would duplicate the sun in the village. I also needed to paint the floor.

Four months after I started to paint I was finished. Now I needed to rope off the area as I did for the mural, including the alarm system.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Mom and Dad arrived. They would stay with John and Mary. Colin had a surprise for me, Carlo arrived as well.

In Spanish, “I didn’t know you were coming. This is a great surprise.”

“Colin said to not tell you, this is a surprise, no?”

“Yes, and your English is better than when we saw you in Spain.”

“Colin, take his suitcase the bedroom across from ours. Carlo, come I’ll show you our club.”

Walking into the club, I saw Carlo smile and head toward the mural. “Did you paint this?”

Before I could answer, “Yes, it is our trip in Europe.”

I watched as Carlo, more or less, followed the route as I had painted it. I smiled when he saw his painting with the lamb.

He turned, “Armand, I guess I’ll always be here.”

“Yes, and hopefully, you will be here for many years. You will always be welcomed here. You can look upon this as your American home.”

“Armand, here comes the band.” I checked my watch and we would open in 30 minutes. We watched the band set up, Jimmy came and set up his bar. I knew the kitchen crew was at work. I stood at the bar and watched as everyone went about opening up the club.

Paul walked in, seeing me he headed in my direction. “New member?”

“Paul, this is Carlo. He’s Colin and my friend from Spain. Take him to sign in and use my membership number.”

“Follow me Carlo, we’ll get you signed in.”

“Colin, we need to make sure Carlo has a good time.”

I no sooner said that when Carlo came back with a young lady on his arm. Paul’s girlfriend had taken him under her care. I needn’t worry about him.

I took my usual place at the bar, watching the crowd, particular Marylou. She had a change of attitude thanks to her mother, Jane. Mary told me that even Jane’s attitude had changed.

“He’s having a good time.”

“Yes, you should have told me he was coming.”

“I wanted to surprise you. You’re not mad are you?”

“No, I was just surprised. I hope he has a good time.”

“So far I’d say he’s doing fine. I don’t think he has missed a dance yet.”

“You need to take some photos of him.”

Colin left and was back in a few minutes. “I had my camera in the office.”