Narciss Gully’s store.
S 27
“I know,” I said for no reason, “she sells quilts.”
R 28
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1
“Sells?” he sneered. “It’s not a hot-dog stand. This is art.
2
She collects, she shares, she teaches. Sometimes someone 3
might pay for learning something, to live with beauty.
4
But she does not just sell quilts.”
5
I’ve never really gotten the knack of talking to artists.
6
You can’t talk to them about how much it pays or about 7
what you think you like. If I think a painting is ugly, 8
somebody just tells me that I don’t understand. If I think 9
a painting is good, they tell me the same thing. It’s like 10
artists see a different place, a higher place, whereas I’m on 11
the level of some stray dog who only knows how to hunt 12
for pussy and food in a world that’s black and white.
13
Geraldo sneered at me again and turned to his work.
14
I considered kicking him out of my house but then 15
thought better of it. I didn’t want trouble with Narciss 16
Gully. Just the opposite — I had begun to have deep feel-17
ings for the antique dealer. Every night after talking to 18
Bethany, I would have lascivious dreams about Narciss.
19
In those dreams we always started at the dinner table, ei-20
ther in a restaurant or at someone’s house, maybe a bar-21
becue or a picnic. No matter where we ended up, we 22
always started out eating. I’d bring the wine and she was 23
barely dressed. She was shy about her small breasts and 24
slender thighs, but I would console her by stroking her 25
body and rubbing my face against her magnificent skin.
26
In these dreams my excitement grew and grew, but always 27 S
before we could embrace, something happened to inter-28 R
rupt. The waiter would arrive with the check, a down-92
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pour fell on our picnic, someone would come to the 1
door — her mother or Clarance wanting to apologize.
2
No matter who it was I’d get so angry that I’d wake up 3
