ARROW - 152. Chapter 152

School resumed, I finished painting Christen’s wife. Roger said it was better than the painting of Christen I did for Arnaud. I expected the knock on my door when it came one week later. I expected Christen but not Arnaud and Jean. I got a hug and before I said anything, Arnaud took off to the studio to see the painting. If I knew he was coming I would have put Nonna’s painting on the easel.

“We need to get up there.”

“Armand, before I go and see the painting, I want to pay you. I have opened a bank account as you wished and here is your pass port for the account.”

I put it into my pocket. “Aren’t you going to look at it?”

“No, you knew the fee, I trust you. And just so you know, I’ll paint your first child as a gift.”

“No, I’ll pay.”

Looking at Armand he had a smile on his face. I knew he wouldn’t charge and if Christen paid anything it would be returned to him in some form. Money for Armand was of second importance to friendship.

“What are you thinking Roger?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

Arriving in front of the painting, Arnaud had gotten a chair from the bedroom and was sitting in front of the painting. I watched Christen, his reaction was more important to me than Arnaud’s.

Christen looked at the painting, then he looked at me. He did this several times. It was Roger who broke the silence, “Well say something.”

Looking at Jean, “You can show it for one week, only.”

“Armand, when I look at Marie I think she is beautiful and as her husband I was afraid that she would take the complement because it was the duty of the wife to accept these comments. But this painting, if she doesn’t believe she is beautiful she must be blind. Dad, Uncle Phillip will blow his top when he sees this in the Hall.”

“The Hall is mine and soon yours. It is right that both of these paintings are hung there.”

I didn’t understand this conversation. I knew Arnaud’s family at one time was connected with French royalty. Comments made by Arnaud led me to believe he was the oldest living member of the family and that would pass on to Christen.

Arnold gave up his chair and offered it to Christen. We laughed remembering when Arnaud saw Christen’s painting the first time.

We went to the dining room where Peter had coffee and rolls. I invited them to have dinner at the club but we couldn’t go until the painting was crated. “Did you arrive ny private plane or commercial?”

“We flew commercial but I’ll hire a private plane to fly home.”

I looked at Roger, “Arnaud, you have paid me a great complement hiring a private plane for a painting of mine.”

Roger started to laugh, joined by Jean. Christen hugged his dad, “That painting is priceless and I agree with Dad, it should be treated as a princess.”

I was glad they were pleased, but I thought they overdid the praise a little too much. Colin just kissed me on the cheek.

Dinner at the club, they asked where was Marcel. I told them about his brother and Marcel taking over the school.

“Who cooked this dinner? It was excellent.”

“James is now head chef. He is assisted by Peter and Bill who have been trained by Marcel.”

“Have you been to MoMa?”

“No”

“This is the last week. Then it goes to London before returning to the Louvre.”

That suited me fine. I’m not sure why I don’t want to see that painting. I was hurting when I painted it and maybe that is the reason now.

The following morning, late morning, Roger, Colin and I accompanied our French quests to the airport. Marie told them goodbye at our home, after breakfast.

As they boarded the private plane, Christen said something, came and gave me a hug and kiss on my cheek, then boarded the plane. As the plane taxied and took off, I wonder what his wife will think about the painting. I guess I’ll have to wait until this summer when we visit Paris to find out.

With Christen’s painting gone, I focused on Nonna’s painting. I brought what I had done to my home studio.

When the boys found out I was painting her, they would come and sit with me as I painted. They would comment about her, the flowers and I should include wild flowers in the painting. I had 4 critics as I painted.

After one of my painting session, we would go and sit in our roof top garden. We didn’t talk a lot, we remembered Nonna.

One of the boys would say something that triggered a memory and then they would comment on that thought. In a way they were bringing Nonna back to life in our memories.

I had to tell them how I met Nonna, at least 10 times and it always led to questions. This sessions brought Nonna back to me.

When the painting was finished, we flew to the village. Arriving Saturday morning, I gave the painting to Geno and Angela. It was hung in the living room overlooking the dining table. The boys moved the table closer to the wall, they said that was Nonna’s place at the table. There was her chair she always sat in.

I told Geno we couldn’t stay long as the boys had school.

Arriving Saturday morning we left Sunday night. The boys slept as much as they could on the plane. They were still tired when we got home. I told them to go to bed for a few hours and they could go to school in the afternoon. They would miss their morning classes.

Life returned to some sort of normality. Carlos and Alicia arrived for Easter. The boys and Mary Ann entertained little Carlito. Carlos went fishing with the boys, leaving Alicia chatting with Marie and my mom and dad.

They left after being with us for two weeks. Carlos said they had to be back for the spring lambing. Colin said the sheep have their lambs in the spring and he needed to be there to help his father.

School seemed to occupy my time over the next few weeks. The older boys studying for finals, the younger boys and and Mary Ann were learning French from Marie beside their normal home work. I resumed my painting for the gallery. Mary said the walls were becoming bare, they really weren’t.

I made an attempt to spend more time at the Home during school hours. I painted a little in the studio on the fourth floor but there were a lot of distractions. I finished one of a little girl who had long blond hair. She would follow me to the fourth floor with a Raggedy Ann doll and sit on the floor watching me. I went and bought a small rocking chair for her. Now she sits there and talks to me. I can’t understand all of her words but she is turning out to be my companion. I told Colin about her, he just said when.

Colin is very supportive of me, I couldn’t ask for a better person to be in my corner. He never says no and because of that, I need to be very careful of what I ask.

Several weeks after Easter and Carlos and his family left, a new child was brought to the Home. He reminded me of someone but I couldn’t place who. I would swear I had seen him before. When I asked Colin, he said he never saw him before and maybe he triggered a memory of when I was a boy in school. I filed it away and continue my routine.

The boys finished school and now they were looking at summer vacation. They would be seniors when school started. I didn’t like that, particularly when they started to look at various colleges.

“Colin, why can’t they go to Yale? They could stay home rather than go off to some school where they would need to stay there.”

“Why didn’t you stay at Carnegie Tech instead of coming to Yale?”

I thought about that, Yale offered something Carnegie didn’t.

Richie was looking at his dad’s university and Ivan was looking at Ag schools. My boys were becoming men and I didn’t like it. GG told me I was being foolish. You are afraid of losing them and that won’t happen. This is their home and they are approaching the age when they are thinking about their own home. You are being silly. They will always be in your life.

When I told Colin what GG said, “I agree with her. You’ll see, we will have grandchildren running all over this place.”

That summer, we spent three weeks in the village. We didn’t go to Paris or Barcelona.

We returned home in time for Ronny to attend football camp and while he was gone, we checked out some universities relatively close to home. Richie want to go to his dad’s school, I couldn’t say no. Roger said he could take graduate courses in law at Yale. That meant he would be staying home when he attended Yale. I knew Colin had already made up his mind that Richie would be a partner in his firm.

The other boys I wasn’t sure. I would guess that Tommy would take over from Pat but I’m not sure where he would go to school. I was hoping Pat was helping him and it would be close.

I was checking schools that had degrees in Agriculture. They were mostly in the south and that I didn’t like. I did like the fact that when he had his degree he would still live close to the Home. That left Ronnie.

Colin said he will be going to one of the big ten in football. I knew he was being scouted, he told me and sometimes who.

I worried about them, GG told me not to be foolish. In the past I have never been scolded by GG, now I was every time I mentioned the boys leaving.