@@@@@Does it suit you,
father dear?"
"Down to
@@@@@Does it suit you,
father dear?"
"Down to the ground
"Here comes the coffee," she said"Now the
question is, how long until breakfast?"
ii
771
Wireman wasn't at the morning-after breakfast, but
he had reserved the Bay Island Room from eight to
tenI presided over two dozen friends and family
members, most from MinnesotaIt 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 volatileOn 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 it
does todayElizabeth, 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 timeMy 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 was getting
one of my headaches - the first in almost a monthI 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 flashin
