ARROW - 57. Chapter 57

Armand painted a large portrait of the flyer for the International Fund. Colin told him they were going to raffle off the painting. Armand wasn’t sure he approved of raffling off his painting. Colin convinced him it would be good publicity.

Opening night of the seminar, they announced the raffle for the painting. Tickets could be bought for 100 dollars per ticket. Armand was interested in the raffle but he wasn’t going to attend. Colin told him he had to attend as his firm was handling the promotion of the Seminar.

“I’ll stay here. When it is over, come and find me. I’ll be in the club.”

Colin came home late. The club was closed and Armand was on the roof waiting for him. “Here you are?”

“Yes, I knew if I wasn’t in our room, you would find me here. How did it go?”

“It was packed. A lot of business people where there. I think it was for public relations and not a true interest in saving animals.”

“Who won the painting?”

“One of the staff from the International Fund for Wild Animals. He had a big smile, but when he went to get it, one of the attendees offered 10,000 dollars for it. He said no, then it turned into a bidding contest. The final price was 60,000 dollars. The lucky man was from their International head quarters.”

I just looked at Colin. 60,000 dollars for a painting of a fund raising affair.

“What’s the matter?”

“I can’t believe that someone would pay that amount of money for that poster. I only contributed that small painting at the bottom.”

“I think you better rethink the selling price of your paintings.”

That night laying in bed, I kept thinking about the price of that poster. I must have laid awake most of the night. I finally fell asleep but it felt like it was only a few hours when Colin woke me. “You didn’t sleep much did you? You look terrible, go back to sleep for a few more hours. I’ll come home for lunch.”

A kiss and that is what I did.

I was in a deep sleep when Colin woke me. It’s odd but I never mind Colin waking me from my sleep. I don’t know if it is the kiss or what comes next.

Over a light breakfast and coffee, “I was thinking, the success of that poster was the boy watching the whale. I think I’ll do a few more paintings of animals being observed by a child. I’m not sure if it is the wonder of a child observing nature or the attraction of the animals which are in danger of becoming extinct.”

“I would have thought the painting of Carlo and the lambs would have sold for more.”

“I didn’t sell that painting. The one with the lambs we gave to Carlo. I only painted a picture of Carlo, which I still have.”

“When we come back from the wedding, maybe you can think of other paintings of people with animals.”

“Why wait?”

“Next week we fly to Italy.”

“That soon? I though we had a least a month.”

“No, we will fly over Monday morning, the wedding is Saturday. You’ll need to make arrangements for their trip to France and the cruise to New York. We are returning Sunday morning with Carmella.”

I looked at him. Where did the time go. It seemed we just got back from Europe. I knew we were back for some time, we finished the club gates, the mural, the gallery. As I thought all that was done since we came back from our trip, Colin was right.

Packing was different this time for our trip to Europe. We had tuxedos to pack, wedding gifts, and our usual clothes we wear during the day. Colin had his cameras and his photo backup sticks. Looking at everything we had to take, we ended up taking two large suitcases.

“Did you arrange for the Board to cover the club while we are gone?”

“Yes and I told Mom if there were any problems to call us. She has our cell phone numbers.

Booking flights, we left Sunday evening, arriving Rome in the morning. As soon as we passed through Passport control, I went to the airport hotel and booked the wedding night for Geno and Angela. Colin went and bought flight tickets on Air France for them.

Finished, we hailed a taxi to take us to the village.

We arrived a little before lunch, Carmella was surprised. She expected us in the evening but Angela was happy to see us. She went and got her painting which Colin had mailed. She wanted me to sign it.

“Angela, I have already signed it. Look here and here.” As usual I had my arrow on the frame.

She looked confused, Colin to the rescue.