Barbara L. Clanton - 1 - Art for Art's Sake

by Barbara L. Clanton

  “They’re tapping into their inner something-or-other, I guess. Ah, but Mikey loves it.”

  “And Dr. Robinson said he’s got to get more exercise, so off we’ll go.” Meredith took a sip of her orange juice. “Oh, Dad, do you want me to cook tonight, or can we just order pizza?”

  “Pizza’s fine. You have exams to get ready for. In fact, I’ll even call DiGiovanni’s myself.”

  “Whoa.” Meredith chuckled. “Don’t strain yourself, okay?”

  “Not a chance.”

  “I have to go get Mikey out of bed. If Dani calls—”

  “Danny? He would be the captain of the football team, hmm?” Her father loved to tease her about boys.

  “No, actually,” Meredith teased back, “the captain of the lacrosse team.” She got up to put their dirty dishes in the dishwasher.

  “Lacrosse. Is that a real sport?”

  “Oh, c’mon, Dad. I’ve seen you watch lacrosse on ESPN.”

  “Yeah, because there weren’t any real sports like football or basketball or baseball or golf on TV. Wait, golf isn’t a real sport, either.”

  “I’ve seen you watch golf, too.” Meredith feigned exasperation with her father. “I assume you’ll be watching some sort of sporting event this afternoon?”

  “Naturally. Pro bowling, unless there’s a Syracuse game on.”

  “What if Syracuse bowling is on opposite pro bowling?”

  “Oh, then I’ll be switching back and forth as fast as the clicker can take me.”

  Meredith couldn’t help but smile at her father. Syracuse sports, that’s all he ever thought about.

  “Hey, Dad, when I get back from karate, can you take over Mikey for a while? I want to go to the library to study.”

  “Of course, I will. Mikey likes bowling.”

  Just then, Mikey, obviously sleepy, lumbered down the stairs.

  “Hey, Mikey,” her father addressed his son. “What’s shakin’?” Her father twisted and bounced in the kitchen chair.

  Mikey laughed and twisted and bounced where he stood. “Dad’s shakin’.”

  “And Mikey’s shakin’, too.” Her father laughed with him.

  Meredith laughed at both of them. “Hey, Mikey Likey. Do you want some cereal?”

  “Yes, pwease.” Her brother stopped his twisting and turning and sat with a grunt at the kitchen table. His short dark brown hair was, as usual, wild and uncombed. His glasses had slipped down his nose, but he didn’t seem to care.

  “Mikey, could you get your bowl and spoon?”

  “Okay, Mewey.” He got up slowly, not fully awake, and pulled out his favorite bowl from the cupboard and then opened the silverware drawer for a spoon.

  “Don’t forget, you’ve got karate in a little while.”

  He mumbled something she didn’t understand. “More slowly, Mikey. What did you say?”

  “Taekwondo.”

  “Oh, that’s right. You take taekwondo, not karate. I keep forgetting. After breakfast get your uniform on. Don’t forget your belt this time, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Her father joined in. “Hey, Mikey, do you think you could put on a little deodorant today? You were Stinky Mikey last time.”

  Mikey giggled at his father’s teasing and grinned from ear to ear. “Stinky Mikey.”

  Meredith caught the wink her father sent her and smiled. She winked back at him and said, “By the way, Dad?”

  “Yes, daughter?”

  “Dani, the lacrosse captain that might call, is a girl. Dani’s short for Danielle.”

  “Oh, okay then. And she’s captain of the girls’ lacrosse team?”

  Meredith nodded.

  “Very cool.”

  Meredith sensed intrigue about Dani, not disappointment, from her father. She was relieved.

  Once Meredith got Mikey dressed and into her dad’s rusty old pickup truck, she cranked up the heat. The pickup was old, but thank goodness the heater still worked like new. Their five-mile trip to the Martial Arts Academy would take them down Center Street, the main thoroughfare through Whickett. Meredith marveled how the bedroom community for the city of Albany still managed to maintain a small town feel. Many of the homes were older, but people seemed to take pride in their town and, for the most part, kept their houses up. Greenspond, where Meredith’s family used to live, was smack in the middle of the Catskill Mountains. To get to the closest grocery store they had to travel about fifteen miles to Deposit, although they sometimes went to a small convenience store a few miles down on the Quickway in a pinch. She missed the mountains, but there were definite benefits to living near a big city, and Meredith definitely liked the convenience of the nearby stores.

  “Scawey house,” Mikey said as they came to a stop in front of the house that time forgot.

  “Scary, isn’t it, Mikey? I wonder who lives there.”

  The old Victorian house with its lacy ornamentation around the windows, doors, and roofline looked out of place along Center Street. She had learned about Victorian architecture from an art book she’d read at some point. She wondered what the four-gabled Victorian house looked like in its heyday. Meredith was sure that the peeling rose-colored paint had looked grand at one time. Three steps led up to a small landing surrounded by a darker rose-colored banister. Meredith admired the arched windows and the myriad geometric shapes that gave the house its old-time character. The trim surrounding the front picture window seemed to be waiting for one more snowstorm to smash it to its final resting place. She looked up at the second of three stories and imagined having an old-fashioned tea party on the balcony. She laughed. The balcony, overlooking the hustle and bustle of Center Street, would make for a noisy tea party, indeed.

  Although Center Street was zoned for commercial businesses, the old house seemed to have dug in its heels refusing to budge. Meredith wondered if people still lived in the old house, and if they did, they probably hated having an auto parts store on one side and a Mexican Restaurant on the other.

  The traffic light turned green, and they continued toward the Martial Arts Academy. Meredith pulled the old pickup truck into the parking lot.

  “Taekwondo, taekwondo.” Mikey mushed the words together.

  “All right, Mikey Pikey. Are you psyched?”

  “Psych!” He shrieked.

  She put the truck in park and was reluctant to turn off the engine because that would cut the heater and they would have to brave the mid-twenties temperature. She did it anyway. A sister’s duty. “Okay, little brother. Let’s do it. Take off your seatbelt and watch out for cars, okay? Ready?”

  “Yeah.” He said with excitement. Once he got his seatbelt off, his hand flew to the truck’s door handle. “Weddy, Mewey.”

  “Okay.” She grabbed her handle and yelled, “Go.” They both jammed opened their doors and jumped out of the truck. Mikey slammed his door first. He was beating her. Meredith slammed her door and ran after him into the Academy.

  “I win. I win.” Mikey giggled inside the Academy door.

  “You always win, Mikey. I have to get in better shape if I’m going to beat you next time.” Meredith shook her head. He really had beaten her that time. Usually she let him win, but this time she had all she could do to keep up. She wasn’t in the best of shape, and she even thought of herself as a little soft. Dani always looked strong and healthy and for the briefest of seconds, Meredith considered joining some kind of organized sports team. She rejected the idea just as quickly, though, because sports were as foreign to her as art seemed to be for Dani. She found a seat with the karate moms who sat in a line of fold up chairs along the mirrored wall of the workout area.

  One of the academy instructors helped Mikey take off his coat. The bulky karate uniform underneath made the task more difficult than usual. Mikey adjusted his belt. He had been so proud when he earned the yellow stripe on his white belt. Meredith was glad that her mother had found a positive and healthy way for Mikey to interact with other kids, especially because the other stude
nts in the class seemed to accept him. Too bad her mother couldn’t help Meredith with that, too, but there were less than one hundred school days left, and Meredith figured she could hang on until Syracuse. She’d fallen in love with the idea of attending Syracuse after sitting through hours of the school’s athletic games on television with her dad.

  Some of the karate moms were reading magazines.

  Meredith couldn’t concentrate when all the yelling started. She was never ready for that first spirit yell from the fifteen or so students. Their high-pitched voices almost tore her ears off, but she couldn’t leave because Mikey would get panicky if he didn’t see her. In fact, she loved when he looked her way and smiled. She always flashed him a thumbs-up, which he of course, returned. Sometimes they would keep flashing hand gestures, like the peace sign or the hang loose sign, until they were both giggling. One time she pretended to pick her nose and flick the imaginary booger at him. They had both cracked up. This, of course, garnered a gentle reprimand to Mikey from the instructor and amused smiles from the karate moms.

  The instructor worked the students through their warm-up moves. A collective spirit yell accompanied each move. Meredith cringed and readied herself for forty-five minutes of not-so-quiet torture.

  “Am I stinky?” Mikey put his armpit in Meredith’s face after his class was dismissed.

  She playfully swatted him away and held her nose. “Phew. You are stinky!” She scrunched up her nose and made a distasteful noise. He was sweaty, but he wasn’t really stinky. He still had that innocent smell of youth, that innocent smell that made Meredith fall in love with her little brother in the first place.

  Mikey laughed, obviously pleased with the effect he had on his sister. “Show Daddy.”

  “Where’s your coat?”

  Mikey retrieved his coat from the hook and put it on. Meredith started the zipper for him, and he zipped it up by himself. Winter coats back on, they raced to the truck and this time Meredith wasn’t playing. This time Meredith had something to prove. This time Meredith won.

  “Cheat.”

  Meredith unlocked Mikey’s door. “I did not cheat, Mikey. I won fair and square. You’re just tired from all that karate. Oops, I mean taekwondo.”

  “Yeah. I tired.” He got in the truck and snapped his seatbelt closed.

  As they passed the four-gabled Victorian House on their way home, she noticed the spotty front lawn and the mailbox out front as if it were in a suburban neighborhood. Meredith shook her head. What was such a grand house doing on a busy commercial street? Maybe she and Dani could research the house for their history project. Maybe they could find out who lived there and why the house was empty. Or was it empty? Maybe Dani knew about this side of town since Dani had lived in Whickett all her life. But then again, Dani probably had a project already worked out for them. Meredith decided that she wasn’t even going to suggest the scary house, unless Dani hadn’t come up with anything, and there was very little chance of that.

  When she pulled into their driveway, Mikey ripped off his seatbelt, leaped out of the truck, and bolted toward the house before Meredith had a chance to get the truck turned off. She shouted out her now open driver’s side door. “Hey, who’s the cheater now?”

  “I won. I won.” Mikey did his famous happy dance on the front porch.

  “Oh, c’mon, Mikey. You didn’t even give me a chance.”

  Their father opened the front door. “Are you two going to come in or just argue in the cold?”

  “I won,” Mikey told his father.

  “I gathered that. Good for you.” He winked at Meredith who slid by her father into the warmth of the house. He asked her, “How was karate?”

  “Taekwondo, Dad,” Meredith corrected with a smile. “We had a good time. He did really well today.” She thought about the Victorian mansion on Center Street. “Hey, Dad? Do you know that old house next to Fiesta Loca? The one on Center that doesn’t belong?”

  “Next to the auto parts store?”

  “Yeah, that one.”

  “Scary old thing. What about it?”

  “Do you know anything about it? Like, do people still live there?”

  Her father laughed. “Why? Are you going to buy the place?”

  “No, Dad,” she said with sarcasm.

  They walked to the kitchen and Meredith’s father opened the refrigerator to get a cold juice box for Mikey. “Want one?” He held a juice box out toward Meredith.

  “No thanks. We might research the old house for our history project.”

  “Oh, yes, the history project. Your captain of the lacrosse team called.” He went to the kitchen table and picked up the sports page. “Her number is right here next to the Superbowl predictions.”

  Dani called. She actually called. Meredith’s heart raced, but out loud she said calmly, “Okay. Can I take the whole sports section to my room?”

  “Yeah, I’m done. She seemed very nice.”

  Something in his voice made Meredith suspicious. “No, Dad. You didn’t...”

  He feigned a hurt expression. “What? What could your old man possibly do to embarrass you?”

  “You didn’t tell her that lacrosse wasn’t a sport or anything like that, did you?”

  “Of course not. I don’t know her well enough...yet.” He smiled.

  Meredith thought, and you’re not going to get to know her because as soon as Dani can swing it, she’ll be out of my life. Out loud she said, “Okay, good. Please don’t embarrass me if she calls back, okay?”

  His tone turned more serious and he said, “Okay, I’ll be good. I promise. I just asked what her season looked like this year. She said they had a tough schedule but they should finish in the top two in their division.”

  “You’re such a sports nut.” She shook her head and went back into the living room and hung up her heavy winter pea coat on the hook by the front door. She headed to the stairs and called back. “Hey, Dad, I’ll call her from upstairs, then in about an hour I’d like to go to the library. Okay?”

  “Okay. The pro bowlers’ tour is on. Me and Mikey are going to watch a couple of games.”

  Meredith rolled her eyes at the prospect of her father and brother spending their afternoon watching bowling on television. She could think of a thousand more interesting things to do. Of course, she was planning to go to the library by herself. She laughed at the irony. What an exciting life, she thought.

  She went upstairs to her room and wasn’t sure what to do about the fact that Dani had actually called her. She wasn’t sure if she should call her back right away or wait until after the library. She decided not to decide and plopped down on the bed. The early afternoon sun streamed through the window behind her and made it a perfect time for sketching, but then again, anytime was a good time for drawing.

  She pulled out her sketchbook and turned to the first page. The first few sketches were quick, simple drawings of people who had posed for her along the way—her mother, her father with more hair, and a couple of kids from her old school in Greenspond. Each of them had a rather bland, almost bored, expression on their faces. The AP Art curriculum required that students not only have an in-depth exploration of something, but that they also demonstrate growth in the pieces included in their portfolios. She had decided to explore facial expressions and the emotions displayed. Sure, “bored” was an emotion—an emotion that could be sustained in the face for a long period of time. What about happiness? The smile she had seen in Dani’s eyes the day before, just after the senior class meeting, had only lasted a few seconds. How could an artist capture a fleeting expression like that? And Dani’s anger at Ben—that, too, had come and gone quickly. If she intended to show growth in her portraits, she would have to capture all those meteoric emotions like happiness, anger, and love.

  Love. Meredith sighed. How was she going to capture love if she’d never experienced it? Well, that wasn’t really true. Her parents loved her and Mikey adored her, but she had never felt the all-consuming-grip-you-by-th
e-heart love she’d heard about in love songs or read about in senior English. Love. Maybe it wasn’t for her.

  She took out her sketchbook and grabbed a few colored pencils. On a clean sheet of paper she sketched a collage of images she had seen at the Martial Arts Academy. Mikey, face determined, making a high kick. The little girl with blond braids, face concentrated with effort, punching forward with one hand, pulling in with the other. She sketched the instructor, expression patient, leading his students through their rounds. Meredith was lost in her sketches when the phone on her bedside stand jangled her back to the real world.

  She looked at the caller ID. Lassiter. She took a deep breath. This whole partner thing was going to be nerve-wracking.

  “Hello?” Meredith said as if she didn’t know who was calling.

  “Meredith? This is Dani. Dani Lassiter.”

  Meredith almost laughed. How could Meredith not know who “Dani” was. As if the entire school didn’t know who “Dani” was. “Oh, hi,” she said coolly. “How are you?”

  “Oh, great. I hope I’m not interrupting anything. Your dad said you’d be home from karate by now. What belt do you have?”

  Meredith laughed into the phone. “Me? Oh, no. I’m not the one who takes karate. Actually, Mikey does. He takes taekwondo on Saturdays.”

  “Oh.”

  Meredith sensed the hesitation in Dani’s voice.

  Dani continued, “Mikey...that’s your brother?”

  “Yeah, he’s in sixth grade.”

  “Oh, okay. That’s nice of you to take him to his class.”

  Meredith stayed true to her decision to simply follow Dani’s lead. They would talk about whatever Dani wanted to. If Dani wanted to spend the next three hours talking about Mikey, that would be fine.

  Meredith said, “Yeah, he has a good time in the class.”

  “Well, uh...” Dani took a big breath. Dani sounded as nervous as she was. “We should talk about our project.”

  “Okay. What did you have in mind?”

  “Oh, well, I don’t really know. I’ve been so busy. The Winter Ball is tonight, and exams are coming up so I haven’t spent much time thinking about it. Well, except for thinking about calling you.”