Fineas sat, ready to add the final brush strokes, ready to tell the model to cease posing. He made it his signature to finish her eyes last, despite scrutinizing their sincerity, their luminous intensity for the last month. He wondered if she wondered. Were the eyes really the “windows of the soul”? Could they also be portals to one of many possible futures where she would stare at him as much as he had stared at her?
Fineas was told to add just a smidgen of lavender to the collection of blue that would highlight her most intriguing highlight. He could have included the heliotrope or the royal azure, but Fineas opted, as always, to follow instructions. The lavender tied to the lilacs in the background. It contrasted with her blond locks. Her husband insisted he wanted this portrait to reflect the reality of her beauty. He became adamant on this singular point. Fineas understood the customer was always right. Fineas also understood it was his name on the canvas.
By noon, he relieved the model of her duties and thanked her with the lilacs from the sitting. Her smile graced her face in such a manner to make Fineas assured he had made all the right choices.
By morning of the next day, the customer, the model’s husband, the man who financed the entire enterprise came calling for what was rightfully his. Fineas escorted him to his gallery and revealed the results of his work. The customer was indeed pleased. The lavender drew the viewer’s attention and held it fast. Such was Fineas’s notoriety among his peers.
The client wrote the final check and waived the formality of a receipt. Upon shaking hands, he departed for home. Fineas would soon depart for the bank.
That is, after he gazed once again at his true masterpiece. The model had seen that look of love in the eyes of Fineas from suitors all of her life. This time, she acquiesced to his plea and sat for a second painting (while sitting for the first), one in which she permitted Fineas to finish as he felt best.
Being married, she was averse to permit any further encroachment upon her wedding vows. But, upon witnessing the excellence of his talent, she gave into him, and thus gave him a reason to justify all he had learned, all he had accomplished.
The model’s husband gave thanks for having a wife he could grow old with and moreover, never see grow old, even a single day. Fineas had the public payment that made this happen and the private payment that made him even happier.
The model had two men who would adore her forever. Her smile verified this.
Rarely do so many get everything they so wanted.
Andy Betz has tutored and taught in excess of 40 years, lives in 1974, and has been married for 31 years. His works are found everywhere a search engine operates.