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"Her own paintings are worse Do you re? They were everywhere for a while Bright-colored and flat-feeling Empty"

Anna shivered "My dentist had them all over his office"

"Like that," Charles said

"Maybe she should paint scenery," Anna suggested

"The background of the Verested that once, but she wasn’t interested She wants to paint the kinds of subjects she likes to view-lovers and dreaood auto insurance?" Anna asked, looking in the rearview lanced behind them and narrowed his eyes

The Ferrari suddenly dropped back

"Jeez," Anna said "You are handy to have around"

"Thank you"

Anna thought of Dana as she weaved her way through the traffic, her opinion e earlier

What would it feel like to loveor play? Or worse, to be proficient but never cross the line between a collection of notes and pitch and rhyth it by just a hair but have no idea how to take it from metronome correctness to power and true beauty

She’d known a few people like that in school Some of them had made the transition, soe had forced her to drop out, she’d been a music major Her primary instrument had been the cello

The first violin in the quartet she’d played in at school had been a precise ood he fooled the professors into thinking he was playing ht he was oblivious to it until one night, after a perforone out to a local bar and toasted the concert in beer and ale The others were dancing, but she’d stayed at the table with hi to drink the pub dry when it had been his nated driver and stick to ice tea or coffee

"Anna," he’d said, staring into the ae, "I don’t fool you, do I? Those others"-he waved a vague hand to indicate theircomrades-"they think I’m all that-but you know better, don’t you"

"Knohat?" she’d asked