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Show Woodworth/68 Portraits in elegant silver jacket. The World of Picasso. colors and forms from a New York museum, from art history classes. Reds and blues and beiges that she had tried to.combine in painting senior year, and had only ended up with a hurricane of colors that refused to agree. She takes a copy of Ansel Adams' Photographs of the Southwest, and sits behind the art books display table, leaning against the base. She turns the pages slowly, imagines herself in Bryce Canyon, her skin brown and her body tired, or blinking in the sun light in Santa Fe, having someone take her picture as she, in red bandana and denim shorts, discovers Puye. She wanders in the sandstone, watched by lazy desert creatures, as the book store shadows settle silently to the floor. At home, Ned is sitting on the sofa reading "The New Yorker," absent-mindedly playing with his hair, patting the soft ridges into place with one hand. "Where's Mom?" Marty asks him. "Taking a bath, I think." He doesn't seem to know anything has happened. Up the stairs two at a time, Marty hears the bath water running, hears the television going. The door is open, and Marty sees Ruth sitting on the end of her bed, in front of the television. She is dressed in a white, lacey slip, cutting her toenails. Marty goes by her door without saying anything. In her own room, she takes the copy-of Ansel Adams' Photographs of the Southwest out of the bag. The bag is just to make sure it doesn't get dirty. She tells herself again that she only borrowed the book for the night; that she will return it the next day. She puts the book in her closet, on top of her shoes, and goes back downstairs to make dinner. |