Page 84 of The Backup Plan
“Cameron. Thank you.”
She plucked carefully at the paper as she pulled it away from the spiral binding. “Why aren’t there any flowers in front of those pretty palmettos?” she asked. “Magnolias, maybe, in the little gardens facing the water?”
He poked the simple shrubs in front of several houses. “I was tired of this picture before I turned it in. I overthought it and screwed up the perspective a half-dozen times, which you’ll see in those pages. I didn’t have time for flowers, so I decided it’s late fall. The magnolias and camellias and all the bees are gone.”
TWENTY-FOUR
Under Advisement
AVERY
Avery rapped on the door of Mindy’s office on Monday afternoon, the pastel sketch of Charleston looped loosely under her arm, and waited for what sounded like the end of a phone call.
“Come in.”
Mindy straightened her spine when Avery entered, and didn’t smile or invite her to sit.
“Professor Scheer, I am not here to make anyone’s apologies or excuses,” she said quickly. “That is not my business. I just came to bring you something.”
She nodded stiffly. “Please sit, Avery.”
Avery unrolled her drawing. “This is what I meant by coloring in the sketch you let me have,” she said. “I wanted to show it to you, because your encouragement meant a lot to me. It means a lot to me. I think that when I get all hyped up and chatty about things, people don’t think I’m serious. But that’s how the ideas just happen sometimes, and I appreciate how you understand that.”
“I think it makes you very serious. Your brain and your mouth work pretty fast, and sometimes it’s all hard to follow, but you obviously put a lot of thought into your art. And into your life.” Mindy scrutinized the drawing. “I see what you meant about the watercolor washes behind the charcoal. This is a fun take with the pastels and the minimal shading. Just a little depth. I like that.”
“Cameron liked it, too. He told me about the picture.”
Mindy smiled and didn’t look up. “He asked me about it a few weeks ago when you took the sketch and said he’d tell you himself.”
“It’s funny how things like that circle around. I have that picture pinned up at my desk, and it makes me think about the water every day.” She pointed at the blue and green whirlpools on the paper. “There’s about an inch of smudge under all that, but I think I finally got it the way I want it. I was thinking of going to Chicago over Thanksgiving and visiting A Sunday Afternoon, and using that as my next project. The people are all so peaceful, and that little strip of the Seine just flows and flows behind them. And it has boats, which is important. I would focus on the people, like he did, and let the water and the boats just be. That’s what I need to do, right? I need to let it be.”
“Only you can decide what you need to do. I think Seurat captured the placidity of water so well in that piece, and if it calls to you, try it.”
“A little island in the middle of busy Paris. I want to go. And I want to go to Versailles. And St. Petersburg.”
“Have you planned time in your program for a semester abroad?”
Avery fidgeted with her fingers. “I think so, junior year in the spring, maybe. Or summer. But I guess I’ll work that out with Toya. Look, I just wanted to bring you the picture as thanks, that’s all. I’ll get out of your hair.”
“You don’t have to go.”
“I promise, I am not here to say anything for him or about him. I won’t.” She made a zipping motion across her lips, and Mindy laughed.
“Avery, I never thought that you had a hard time seeing your brother with a girlfriend. Some initial confusion with the circumstances, sure, but that’s reasonable. I know for a fact he is having a terrible time watching you grow up.”
She pretended to unzip her lips and got another smile. “Why?”
“Before you came here, he could tell himself you were the missing piece of every puzzle, and that once you two were back together, life would be perfect and you could heal and move forward.”
“But that’s why I came here.”
“And when you got here ready to dive head-first into fighting your fears and healing from your grief, suddenly he was behind in the game. You’re so bright and independent, and that scares him. I think he thought that pushing his friend at you would keep you a little closer.”
“I was never going anywhere. I don’t want to lose him, ever.”
“This is just my interpretation.”
“Of course.” Avery searched for her next words. “I told you I wasn’t here to make his apologies or excuses. But, I am here for you if you have any questions about the things he and I said. Maybe some of that was news to you. I don’t know. But if you’d like to know anything and don’t want to have a whole big conversation with him about it, I’ll tell you. And if you don’t want to know anything and never want to see him again, I don’t blame you, and I hope that in that case you won’t reassign me.”