ARROW - 197. Chapter 197

It took Jean several days to get the supplies we needed. Getting the paint was easy, his biggest problem was getting a large board

Walking into the basement of the Louvre where we painted the first angel, brought back memories. I looked at Carl, he was smiling,

“Are you ready?” His smile answered that question.

Jean followed me into the room. He was carrying a bundle of cloth. “I think this is enough to get you started.”

Carl took the cloth and started to place it on the board. After pretreatment, this cloth will be the canvas for our painting. For the next several days, we would apply diluted white paint to the cloth twice a day. As the paint dried, the cloth would shrink a little. On the fifth day, we began to paint our angel.

This angel was going to be different. I had painted the angel at the Home as an inviting angel offering hope and love. That was done for the home in Paris as well. as the angel on Grandmere’s mausoleum. This angel will be guarding all who sleep there.

When we decided to put an angel on the mausoleum, I asked Carl to make some sketches of a guardian angel, Now I had to select one. My problem was each sketch had an attribute I liked but there wasn’t a sketch with all of the attributes I liked on it.

“Carl, I need you to make one more sketch. I have circled on each of these sketches an attribute I’d liked to see on one sketch.”

He looked at me, smiled, and went to a corner of the room as I applied the final base coat of paint to our canvas. Up to this point, we were adding diluted paint now this was the base coat of paint, and our painting will be on this base coat.

“How’s this?”

“It’s perfect. Tomorrow we will start.”

“Dad, we haven’t eaten since this morning. Can we stop at the restaurant for lunch?”

I put my arm around his shoulder as I guided him out of the building. As we were walking I heard, “Hey, painter boy.”

Turning and seeing the young man, “Carl your friend from the restaurant the other day.”

“Hey, model boy.”

Then they both laughed. The outcome was three for lunch instead of two.

This reminded me of my friends and how we would meet for a glass of wine. Through Carl, I was reliving my early days in Paris when I was here as a student.

We had lunch, and model boy drank our wine. I was afraid if all he had was the wine, he could get hurt. I called the waiter over and ordered a plate of cheese and bread.

Carl tasted the cheese and bread. “Dad, why didn’t ’ we order this instead of the sandwich? Say no more, I told our waiter to bring two more plates of cheese and bread, our model boy held up the empty wine bottle. The waiter looked at me, I nodded okay

As the waiter brought our cheese and bread, with another bottle of wine, Jean pulled up a chair.

“I went to the basement to look for you.”

“One of us was hungry,” I said that looking at Carl. He just smiled. “On the way here we met model boy, one of Carl’s friends.” I looked at Jean when I said that.

“Sounds like he’s following in his father’s footsteps.”

“Dad, what does Uncle Jean mean?”

“When I was a student I spent my summer here, I met some people who were art students. We would meet here for lunch.”

Model boy, “How many bottles of wine did you drink? I’ll bet more than one.”

“There usually were about five of us. We would have a bottle before ordering and a couple of bottles while eating and chatting. We were students and didn’t have much money.”

“Dad, are they still around?”

“I don’t know I haven’t seen them for several years. Jean, have you seen them?”

Just then someone grab me from behind. I tried to turn but I couldn’t.

(The following conversation was in French)

Then I heard being whispered in my ear, “Your money or a bottle of wine.”

I started to laugh, I recognized Luis’s voice. Turning I hugged him.”Luis. I didn’t expect to see you.”

I heard you were in town and I took a chance you would be here. Where’s my wine?”

I signaled the waiter, “Luis, I want to introduce you to the next Arrow, my son Carl and his friend, model boy” I didn’t know model boy’s name.

“Are you a painter as well?”

“Yes, sir. I take after my dad.”

“He is already as good as his dad. He even has a painting in the Louvre.”

“Thanks, Uncle Jean.”

I watched Lous’s eyebrows go up when Carl said, Uncle Jean.

With more wine, we had to eat something. We must have sat there for at least 4 hours, bread and wine. I did ask for a small plate of cheese. I should have asked for a large plate as we refilled that small plate several times.

I was proud of Carl. He commented on the subjects he was familiar with.

Carl whispered to me in English, “Dad, we need to put Michael to bed.”

I looked at him and mouthed the name, Michael. Laughing he mouthed back Angel.

So now I knew our angel had a name.

“Jean, we have a job to finish. If you are still here when we get back, we can order dinner.”

Now I would bet they would be there. “Dad, will they be there?”

“Yes and if I know Luis, he will have my other three friends there. This may turn into a party. You ready for a late night?”

“I’ll be with you?”

“Of course”

“Then I’ll be alright.”

Walking into the basement, looking at our angel it in deed was Michael, the Arch Angel.

“Sorry Michael, Dad met some of his friends.” I would swear the painting smiled. It had to be the light.

We continued to work for the next two hours. “How many bluebirds?”

“I think one should be enough. Grandmother will tell you when she visits you tonight.”

“Dad, who is she? She knows you. Told me to listen to you and I’ll be a great painter.”

“She is my great, great grandmother. She would come to me in the night. Sitting in her rocking chair, she would tell me stories. She told me I have the potential to be a great painter but I must practice straight lines and circles. Each night she would visit. I always knew she was close when I would hear her creepy rocking chair, as I do now.”

“She’s here?”

“Yes, she said you’re doing a great job with the bluebird.”

‘It’s hard without a model.”

I knew what would happen, GG would create a model for him.

Two hours later the bluebird was gracing our canvas.

“Goodnight Michael. I hope the bluebird doesn’t bother you. Let/s go eat son.”

Walking to the restaurant, I had a happy boy by my side, “Dad, will your friend still be there?”

Just as we turned the corner, I saw six people sitting around the table. “There are three more men there, the rest of my friends. Lois must have rounded them up. They are going to tell you stories about me. Watch Uncle Jean, if he shakes his head no, they are teasing me and it didn’t happen. They are good men but they like to tease.” I would make sure they didn’t tease Carl.

“Armand, is he really your son?”

“Yes and before you say anything he has two paintings hanging in the Louvre. At 15teen that isn’t a bad feat. There is a portrait of an angel hanging on the front door of a boy's home, check it out.”

“He did that?”

“He worked with me on it and I’ll challenge anyone to tell me what he did and what I did. I know he’s my son, but he will be better than me, you’ll see.”

“Why don’t you show us what the two of you are working on now? Jean said you were here and left to attend to your painting.”

Carl just sat there listening. I looked at Jean, he nodded yes,

“Ok, you buy the wine.” Jean and model boy would wait for us to return.

Walking into the basement, Carl went and turned on the light. I would swear Michael stared at the four and the bluebird flew from Micael’s shoulder to its branch. I looked at Carl, he had seen it as well. Then I heard the rocking chair. I got the message no one was going to put Carl down.

I turned to look at the four. They were still staring at the painting. I heard Carl tell Michael he had to show them. They can’t make fun of him. Looking at Carl, “You okay?”

“Yes, Dad,” He was smiling. I looked at Michael and he had a twinkle in his eyes, Now GG was scaring me. If Michael stepped down from the canvas I wouldn’t have been surprised.

“Gentlemen, I’m thirsty. How about you Carl?”

“And hungry, Dad.”

Walking back to the restaurant I tried to listen to what they were saying. I heard a few words, creepy, did that bird really fly, it was looking right at us.

When we arrived, “Well what do you think?”

Luis said it was creepy, Claude said the painting looked at us, and Alain said I swear I saw a bluebird fly.

“It must have been the lighting.”

“Dad, I’m hungry.”

I signaled the waiter, “I buy the food you can buy the wine. Model boy, you still here?”

The waiter came with two bottles of wine and clean glasses, Carl, Lois, and my glass were taken from the table when we left. “I would like to have a menu please.”

“Armand, just get the special for the day.” Looking at Jean he nodded yes.

When the waiter came, “We will have the special of the day. For everyone and that one will do the dishes.” I pointed to model boy.

Carl whispered, “Dad, really?”

“No, they wouldn’t let a guest do dishes.”

I saw him wink to model boy while shaking his head no.

Waiting for our food, over the wine I asked if any of them had married and had children.

Luis said he was dating a young lady but wasn’t ready to take the step. He asked me about Colin.

Before I could answer, “Pop is doing great. He has a gigantic boat and my brothers, the boys from Angel’s home go fishing. Then Uncle James cooks the lobster and shrimp for Sunday dinner. Oh, it is so good.”

“Is this true?”

“Yes, except it is a little weather dependent.”

“What’s Angel’s home?”

Before I could answer, “That’s where I lived before Pop and Dad adopted me. Right, Dad.”

“You bet.” I was hugging him as I said that. In his ear, “Go easy on the wine until you get some food in your stomach”

As I was saying that bread and cheese arrived. I took a piece of bread, added some cheese, handing it to Carl, “Eat this before saying anything else.”

“I’m sorry”

“You have nothing to be sorry about. People don’t need to know why you were staying with my angels. Because you are one of my angels now.”

I got a hug out of that. I know Jean understood English not sure about the rest.

Food arrived and I knew the talking would stop. This is France, food and wine set before you is serious business. Model Boy was beginning to be happy. I had noted how much wine he had drank but his headache tomorrow will tell him.

When you are surrounded by friends, with good food and good wine, and relaxed, there is always story time. And so it was tonight, Everyone had a story about each of us. I knew when it was time to go. Model boy was sleeping, Carl was leaning into me with my arm around him and when I looked, he was sleeping.

Gentlemen, I do believe our beds are calling us. I saw a taxi, actually, two taxis heading in our direction. Jean took the first one, I helped Carl and model boy in. The second taxi had my four friends. I made sure our bill was paid and I gave the waiter a tip.

The ride home was quiet. “Armand, what did happen?”

“When we switched on the light, it appeared that the bluebird flew from the angel’s shoulder to its branch. But when you looked into the face of the angel, there was a sign of danger. We wanted that fierce look. The message being he was guarding those that were sleeping inside. I hoped we would be able to get lights. We will mount the painting this weekend. The question in my mind do I tell or show the painting to Arnaud before mounting or after.”

“Let’s ask Christian.”

“You can do that tomorrow. All we have to do is put a protective clear coat on the painting. The last coat will be Friday night so we should shoot for Saturday.”

“I have a request. Let me show it. After the first coat and I’ll let you put the second coating on while it is hanging.”

“Okay, I’ll put a coat on before you open and after you close. It would be best if you made sure no one touches it. Rope it off.”

I would figure out a way to be sure no one can mar it or destroy it.

That night lying in bed, an idea came to me, put it behind glass.