“Then you’re a far better person than I am, I guess. I don’t know if I could do that for someone who had decided to ignore me for my entire life.”
“It’s not for him, though. It’s for Parker. He’s my brother.”
“Half-brother.”
“Whatever. He’s someone that I’ve known now for a while, even though I didn’t know we were actually related. That’s kind of crazy! It’s a trip.”
“Life is crazy, isn’t it,” she said. She shrugged. “If you’ve made this decision on your own and your father isn’t trying to pressure you into it, then I’d have to say it’s a pretty admirable thing you’re doing.” She patted my knee. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, because I always knew you were that kind of person.” I waited for her to say that I had gotten that characteristic from her, but she didn’t. “I’m proud of you,” is what she said.
“Thanks, Mom. Also, I wanted to tell you that Chloe’s art opening is tomorrow.”
“Is it?”
“Yes. It’s at Harborside Art Gallery. It starts at 6 o’clock.”
“Is this an invitation?”
“I think it’d be nice if you went and showed your support. I know she’d be happy to see you.”
“Well, I’m actually working.”
“Okay. I wasn’t sure if you would be or not, but I wanted to let you know that it was happening.”
My mother smiled. “I appreciate it. You know, I think I might try and see if I can get the night off.”
*****
That night, Chloe was a bunch of nerves. I left work early because she called and I could hear that she was kind of freaking out. I stopped and got a pizza on the way home, but she was only able to pick at it, despite saying how hungry she was.
“I just keep thinking that I’m not really seeing the sculpture, since it’s my own. I mean, I’m seeing it one way, but really, it’s not as good as I think it is.”
“You’ve just got to take a deep breath,” I said. I slid her plate of pizza closer to her. “And maybe eat something. You said you were really hungry.”
“I know, I thought I was. But now I’m not. I really just want tomorrow to be over with.”
“It’s fine to feel nervous, Chloe, but I bet it’s going to go a lot better than you think. You’re kind of psyching yourself out over it.”
She ripped the crust off the pizza and nibbled at it. “And you want to know something else? Claudia asked me if I wanted to keep the sculpture, or if I wanted to sell it,” she said. “I hadn’t even considered that.”
“Yeah? What’d you decide?”
“Well ... she said unless it was something I had 100 percent decided on keeping, then I should at least put a price tag on it. I told her I had absolutely no idea what to charge for something like that. So she told me that she could give me a starting price, if I wanted. And she did.” Chloe’s eyes widened. “It was way more than I could ever consider charging for a piece!”
“But I thought you said it came out great. I thought you were really happy with it.”
“I am. I still couldn’t imagine charging that much, though. I would feel ... I don’t know. I would feel weird, I guess. Like a fraud or something.”
“You’re not a fraud, though. And if someone wants to buy your sculpture, for whatever price you set it at, they should be able to.”
“That’s what Claudia was saying.”
“She’s right. I, for one, cannot wait to see how it turned out.”
“I do appreciate your vote of confidence, even if you’re probably obligated to tell me that it’s good, even though it’s not. Can we talk about something else? How’d it go with Parker?”
“Good. We hung out for a while and that was cool, and we’ll be setting up the appointment for the surgery soon. But I wanted to wait until after your opening. The recovery period for me shoul
dn’t be that long.”