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Connie sed the tears froaze vacant, her eyes haggard and hollow Outside the car, the as rising She felt the buffet of a gust sway the vehicle on its suspension, and then a swirl of dirt and dust rattled against the windshield She took a deep breath and glanced at her ghostly reflection in the rearview mirror Her eyes were red-ririmly and then on a sudden impulse, she wound down the car’sand hurled the cell phone defiantly out into the dark night
“Da of dread that tasted bitter as regret She reversed the car before guilt overwhelhway, headed towards town
She had come to Maine for teeks of vacation to escape and to think She was drowning in despair and debt, living without love, and she sensed that the path of her future was one that would drain the last of life’s great mystery from her
She had come to Maine to make decisions, while they were still hers to make – while she still clutched at the last shreds of her will to be free
She had co to find answers, without knowing that fate was about to divert her life onto a blind date with destiny
1
Connie woke late in theand lay still for a moment while she cast her ht streah the curtainedand she could hear the far-off sounds of gulls squabbling above a murmur of traffic noise
She sat up in the bed and yawned She had a sense of soained She reached instinctively for her phone and then stilled the movement There was an instant jab of remorse, like the prick of a needle at her conscience, but she shrugged the weight off with a deterh and went across the bedrooh the drapes
Sprawled below her was the idyllic ha with the first tide of sue The sky was clear and a shattering blue, and the sun through the glass arm on her cheek Despite herself, Connie felt an irrepressible lift of pleasure that stayed with her while she showered and dressed and lightened her steps as she strolled down the hill
The harbor was a bite chewed out of the coastline – a sheltered cove against the storales that swept down fro fleet, but the years had not been kind to the folks of Hoyt Harbor While other communities up and down the Maine coast had endured, the locals had reluctantly been forced to abandon the industry, and slowly rebuilt a fragile economy on the back of tourist dollars Yet everywhere were ed at theirthe busy waterfront were decorated in nautical theathered in raucous clusters on the rocky break wall and squawked at picnicking families for scraps
Connie went down the gentle slope towards the harbor, her su dark hair a careless cascade piled atop her head When she reached theand pulled out her sunglasses The sunlight off the placid harbor glinted like liquid gold She watched for a ht lifejackets pushed a canoe onto the water, the lilting laugh of their voices ringing clear as a chimed bell to where she stood
There was an air of exciteency in the air, as if the tourists that flocked to the tiny toere unwilling to waste a single moment Connie felt herself swept up in the at it
The harbor’s waterfront had once been a cobblestone path where fisher to dry like laundry in the breeze Now every square inch of space was given over to outdoor café tables and seasonal stallholders who had cost the stands and s and brewed coffee while harried young waitresses rushed in and out of the restaurants wearing strained s and laughing on the grassy verge
Bythe waterfront were an ie where a wide pier thrust like an accusing finger into the deep water Over the heads of the crowds she could see a cluster of tourist shops nestled and shaded under wide awnings Aa white t-shirt and pants, and shoes with no socks, caught her eye He had a pair of sunglasses perched on top of his carefully grooave her a long slow adlance over the top of his newspaper and then arched an eyebrow in a flirted invitation Connie felt the man’s eyes upon her until she stepped across the threshold of the closest shop
The difference in temperature was dramatic The air inside the store was air-conditioned and the narrow aisles of cheap tourist gifts were cras Connie drifted through the store and then stepped back out onto the sidewalk, back into the warm afternoon sun The other shops were all similar boutiques, and she turned her head and stared into the distance About a mile fros on a gentle rise, hunched low to the ground She started to walk, and then realized there was a door wedged between two of the tourist shops that she hadn’t seen Painted on the glass of the door were the words, ‘Hoyt Harbor Gallery and Gifts’
Gallery
She stepped back to the edge of the pier and propped her sunglasses on top of her head She could see a second story to the building that she had assumed were lass door and pushed it open
A narrow set of stairs led up to a white-walled space that had polished wooden floorboards and a collection of local paintings displayed At the far end of the gallery was a slass counter, and behind it a closed door that she presuallery was deserted, and she heard the hollow echo of her footsteps as she idled past the first few garish oil paintings
The works on the stark walls were poorly executed harbor paintings, a ue landscapes She stepped close to one of the harbor scenes and studied it with a critical eye The as on canvas and painted in oils, but she could see the paint had been applied badly and the colors were starkly layered without any feel for the subject or understanding of the craft She stepped back, glanced forlornly at the rest of the work around her and saw nothing of interest She was about to turn and leave quietly when she realized there was an
alcove at the far end of the gallery – a small ante-room She heard a murmured voice and out of idle curiosity, went towards the sound
The gallery was an L shape, and the alcove was just an additional ten square feet of space that ht have once been a bathroom before the renovators and painters had re watercolors on one wall that Connie dislance, and on the opposite ere several small portraits They were charcoal sketches The people were all old, their facial features deeply etched, as if they had been the hasty studies of an exuberant local art student
Connie turned, and then stopped abruptly
There was another wo her view of the wall ahead of her The woman was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt She had thick stu a wide-bri to herself She sensed Connie behind her and glanced over her shoulder Her eyes swept over Connie in an instant, and then she arched her eyebrows and grudgingly stepped aside
Connie gasped
Set on the wall ahead of her was a painting – a masterpiece so exquisite that Connie felt the shock and awe of it raise the fine hairs along her arms
For a moment she could not breathe She felt a hot flush of color blush her cheeks and then an instant of soo so that she felt herself teeter
The painting was no larger than her handbag, and yet she saithin it all the intangible ele so beautiful and so powerfully evocative that she felt tears well in her eyes
It was a seascape set under an o sky, with a desolate strip of coastline in the foreground and pounding surf breaking upon black glistening rocks Tiny – yet so woround with her back to the artist so that she see that was alic