It was one of those events people remember and...
It was one of those
events people remember and talk about for decades,
partly because of encountering so many familiar
faces in an exotic setting, partly because the
emotional atmosphere was so volatile
On the one hand, there was a very palpable sense
of Home Town Boy Makes GoodThey had sensed it at
the show, and their judgment was confirmed in the
morning papersThe reviews in the Sarasota Herald
Tribune and the Venice Gondolier were great, but
shortMary Ire's piece in the Tampa Trib, on the
other hand, took up nearly a whole page and was
lyricalShe must have written most of it ahead of
timeShe called me "a major new American talent
My mother - always a bit of a sourpuss - would
have said, Take that and a dime and you can wipe
your ass in comfortOf course that was her saying
forty years ago, when a dime bought more than cartier watches it
does today
Elizabeth, of course, was the other handThere
was no death-notice for her, but a boxed item had
772
been added to the page of the Tampa paper carrying
Mary's review: WELL-KNOWN ART PATRON STRICKEN AT
FREEMANTLE SHOWThe story, just two paragraphs
long, stated that Elizabeth Eastlake, a long-time
fixture on the Sarasota art scene and resident of
Duma Key, had suffered an apparent seizure not
long after arriving at the Scoto Gallery and had
been taken by ambulance to Sarasota Memorial
HospitalNo word of her condition was available
at press time
My Minnesota people knew that on the night of my
triumph, a good friend had diedThere would be
bursts of laughter and occasional raillery, then
glances in my direction to see if I mindedBy
nine-thirty, the scrambled eggs I'd eaten were
sitting like lead in my stomach, and I new chanel bags was getting
one of my headaches - the first in almost a month
I excused myself to go upstairsI'd left a small
bag in the room I hadn't slept inThe shaving kit
contained several foil packets of Zomig, a
migraine medicationIt wouldn't stop a full-blown
Force 5, but it usually worked if I took a dose
early enoughI swallowed one with a Coke from the
bar fridge, started to leave, and saw the light on
773
the phone flashingI almost left it, then
realized the message might be from Wireman
It turned out there were half a dozen messages
The first four were more congratulations, which
fell on my aching head like pellets of hail on a
tin roofBy the time I got to Jimmy's - he was
the fourth - I had begun punching the 6-button on
the keypad, which hurried me on to the next
messageI was in no mood to be stroked
The fifth message was indeed gucci clearance from Jerome Wireman
He sounded tired and stunned"Edgar, I know
you've got a couple of days earmarked for family
and friends, and I hate like hell to ask you this,
but can we get together at your place this
afternoon? We need to talk, and I mean really
Jack spent the night here with me at El Palacio -
he didn't want me to be alone, that's one helluva
good kid - and we were up early, hunting for that
red basket she was on about, andBetter late than never, right? She wanted you
to have it, so Jack took it over to Big PinkThe
house was unlocked, and listen, Edgarsomeone's
been inside
774
Silence on the line, but I could hear him
breathingThen:
"Jack's severely freaked, and you got to prepare
for a shock, muchachoThough you may already have
an idea-"
There was a beep, and then the sixth message
startedIt was still Wireman, now prada replica handbags rather pissed
off, which made him sound more like himself
"Fucking short-ass message tape! Chinche pedorra!
Ay! Edgar, Jack and I are going over to Abbot-
Wexler A brief pause as he worked to
keep it togetherthe funeral home she wanted
I'll be back by oneYou really ought to wait for
us before you go in your houseIt isn't trashed
or anything, but I want to be with you when you
look in that basket and when you see what got left
in your studio upstairsI don't like to be
mysterious, but Wireman ain't putting this shit on
a message-tape anybody might listen toAnd
there's one more thingOne of her lawyers called
Left a message on the machine - Jack and I were
still up in the fucking atticHe says I'm her
sole beneficiary
iii
I punched 0 for the hotel operatorAfter a short
wait, she gave me the number of the Abbot-Wexler
Funeral gucci hobo Parl