Looking around rapidly he strode directly to the large easel in the center of the room. The studio smelled of oils and varnishes and wood, with a slight undertone of strong coffee. Years and years of creation and coffee had imbued this room with comforting sensations. So why was Peter terrified?
At the easel he stopped. Clara had draped a sheet over the canvas. He stood contemplating it, telling himself to leave, begging himself not to do this thing. Hardly believing what he was doing he saw his right hand reach out. Like a man who’d left his body he knew there was no controlling what was about to happen. It seemed pre-ordained.
His hand clutched the stained old sheet and yanked.
The room was silent. Clara desperately wanted to reach out and take Myrna’s hand, but she dared not move. In case. In case whatever was coming would focus its attention on her.
Then she heard it. They all heard it.
Footsteps.
The turning of a doorknob.
Someone whimpered, like a frightened puppy.
Then suddenly a horrible pounding split the silence. A man yelled, Clara felt hands clutching at hers from both sides. She found them and held on for dear life, repeating over and over, ‘Bless O Lord this food to our use, and ourselves to Thy service. Let us be ever mindful of the needs of others. Amen.’
‘Let me in,’ a voice outside their world wailed.
‘Oh, God, it’s an angry spirit,’ said Myrna. ‘It’s your fault,’ she said to Gabri, who was wide-eyed and terrified.
‘Fuck,’ wailed the disembodied voice. ‘Fuuuuck.’
A window pane rattled and a horrible face appeared at the glass. The circle gasped and recoiled.
‘For Christ’s sake, Dorothy, I know you’re in there,’ screamed the voice. It wasn’t what Clara had imagined would be the last words she’d hear on earth. She’d always thought they’d be, ‘What were you thinking?’
Gabri rose, trembling, to his feet.
‘Dear God,’ he cried, making the sign of the cross with his fingers. ‘It’s the pre-dead.’
At the mullioned window Ruth Zardo’s eyes narrowed and she gave him half a sign of the cross.
Peter stared at the work on the easel. His jaw clenched and his eyes hardened. It was worse than he’d expected, worse than he’d feared, and Peter feared big. Before him stood Clara’s latest work, the one she’d soon show Denis Fortin, the influential gallery owner in Montreal. So far Clara had struggled in obscurity creating her nearly unintelligible works of art. At least, they were unintelligible to Peter.
Then suddenly out of nowhere Denis Fortin had knocked on their door. Peter was certain the distinguished dealer, with contacts throughout the art world, had come to see him. After all, he was the famous one. His excruciatingly detailed paintings sold for thousands and sat on the finest walls in Canada. Peter had naturally shown Fortin into his studio only to be politely told that his works were nice but it was actually Clara Morrow the dealer wanted to see.
Had the dealer said he wanted to turn green and fly to the moon Peter wouldn’t have been more astonished. See Clara’s works? What? His mind seized up and he’d stared at Fortin.
‘Why?’ he’d stammered. Then it was Fortin’s turn to stare.
‘She is Clara Morrow? The artist? A friend showed me her portfolio. Is this it?’
Fortin had taken a folio of works from his case and sure enough, there was Clara’s weeping tree. Weeping words. What tree wept words? Peter had wondered when Clara had first shown him the work. And now Denis Fortin, the most prominent gallery owner in Quebec, was saying it was an impressive work of art.
‘That’s mine,’ said Clara, trying to get between the two men.
Amazed, as though in a dream, she’d shown Fortin around her studio. And she’d described her latest work, hidden under its canvas caul. Fortin had stared at the canvas, but hadn’t reached out for it, hadn’t even asked for it to be removed.
‘When will it be finished?’
‘A few days,’ said Clara, wondering where that came from.
‘Shall we say the first week in May?’ He’d smiled and shaken her hand with great warmth. ‘I’ll bring my curators so we can all decide.’
Decide?
The great Denis Fortin was coming in little over a week to see Clara’s latest work. And if he liked it her career would be decided.
Now Peter stood staring at the piece.
He suddenly felt something grab him. From behind. It reached forward and right into him and took hold. Peter gasped at the pain, the searing, scalding pain of it. Tears came to his eyes as he was overcome by this wraith that had threatened all his life. That he’d hidden from as a child, that he’d run from and buried and denied. It had stalked him and finally found him. Here, in his beloved wife’s studio. Standing in front of this creation of hers the terrible monster had found him.
And devoured him.