Page 53 (1/2)

"We’ll start with Albert" Tina pointed to his painting of the castle, waves now frothing up against the walls The blue-gray ruins were cast in shadow on one side, and the blackness spread out in dissipating swirls, like dark spirits escaping "What is this castle to you?" Tina asked

"My heart," he answered prohosts"

"I think most of our hearts feel like that at tie "Is it how you feel now or most of the time?"

"I will feel this way until I die," Albert said, his thu

"Was this castle once filled with laughter?" Tina asked

Albert cleared his throat "A long tio"

"Do you think you can find one small room in it to hold some joy? Just a tiny space?" Tina pushed the paper back at hi his head, but Tina picked up a new brush, dipped it in the damp red paint, and passed it to him "I think it’s already there I think you refused to color it in"

Even Cle brush over the painting I stifled a little gasp behind ht In one small , the shape of an erays of the shadows

"Light it," Tina said, but I couldn’t see how Albert could paint so of his hand

He didn’t seem to think so either, but then he ai the space inside the laray With another gentle swish, the color spread in a halo above the shadow, di the dark in a rosy haze

It was just one siant castle, but the effect of the se was to draw your eye and focus your attention The painting changed co with that one addition Instead of leaving you feeling desolate and alone, it gave you hope

25: Gavin

We couldn’t pull this day off without Jenny I waited downstairs in the lobby for her to appear in her Kermit coat She would head up first and take Corabelle’s parents to the apartot discharged

Then Corabelle and I would coo to the lab on the first floor, just outside eency, to have the test done

I didn’t knohat Corabellethe boy if he would prove not to beto deny her, not no that she knew And truth be told, I was glad to have her

Rosa would be going back to Tijuana after this, although I didn’t kno she was going to e the boy if her brother kicked her out of the apartment

God, it was so screwed up