2. Art Shop
2339 Words
Saturday morning, I tease Collin until he gives it to me. I love him. Then we get dressed and go over to the house. Lindsay and Mario are already there.
"Sleep in too much?"
"We're almost on time. I just need to burn the bedding before we go."
Mario chuckles. "Jack didn't stay here. He took Ann to Egypt last night."
"Oh... I guess I won't have to sanitize everything then. We can go."
We go to Tre's resort and tell him we're there. Then we're free in Egypt. We show them the art stores we saw before. But we don't spend a lot of time on that. We track down the sculptor. He's in a building that looks like it's about to fall over. There are candle holders everywhere. All different shapes and sizes. Holding different amounts of candles. But nothing is painted.
"What can I do for you kids?"
I look at the little old man. "Wow."
"My wife teaches a painting class for 200g. You'll get to paint a couple of them. If you're interested, she is amazing at it but can't keep up with all of these."
"YES."
"I'll get her for you. You hold on." He walks off slowly and hunched over.
Collin pulls a holder off the shelf. "They're like 2 or 3g each. How is he even making money?"
"He's selling to the stores. I bet he's making good money doing that."
"Hello girls. Earl told me you 2 are interested in painting?"
"Yes, we want to learn." She's so old and sweet. She's beautiful. Her hair is white and she's wrinkly. Something we never get to do. She's amazing.
"It's 200g each, and I can teach it out in the garden. If I can get those young men to carry some stuff out anyway."
Collin smiles. "Of course. You point us in the right direction."
The next hour, Lindsay and I spend with this little old lady. She teaches us so many techniques for painting the candle holders. We paint 4 of them each. Then we sit and talk about her life. Her kids and husband. How he chose to get into the field. She said at times it's hard to be married to an artist. But they make the best lovers and always seem to get through everything.
We tell her about Collins' shop and how he's starting out. We saw the flowers at the store in town and fell in love with them. Then we tracked down the artist to see if we could buy some for his store.
"We didn't expect all of that when we walked in. This whole place is amazing. So much talent here."
"Thank you, sweetie. And yes. My husband sells the candle holders for about 2 to 3g each to stores. It's the same price we sell them for. But, I'm getting older and can't make the holders anymore. I'm afraid what we have here is the last batch. However, they are not pottery like you think. They are made with molds. My husband made the molds. I fill them with clay and let them cook. Then I take them out of the clay and shine them up. They are ready to sell after that. Now that being said, I don't see well enough to even shine them up anymore. We are trying to sell the molds. We are getting out of the business completely. There are about 30 molds total that he made me. We're asking 30k for them. And I will not split them up. I want them to stay together."
I smile. "We'll take them if you can show us how to cook them. And use the clay and stuff. This is new to us."
Lindsay nods. "I'll go half with you."
"Ok."
"I'll get Tre." She runs away.
"You boys go get in that shed, and bring out a couple small molds and a bag of sand."
An hour later, I have a butterfly sculpture and Lindsay has a little flower. Tre is sold on the idea, but we have to pay him back when we get paid. So, we end up with the molds. Then she throws in her sand mix and baking thing. She even gives us what little paints she has. She's been trying to finish off what she had. We send it back to our game room and continue on our journey.
"I think they're happy to be out of business."
"Yea. Seems like they're happy to move on with the money. Now we can have the brains figure out all this stuff and make more molds for us. We can make all kinds of stuff."
Mario laughs. "What are you 2 going to do with the molds?"
"Make stuff." She rolls her eyes. "What did you think?"
"But I mean, go into business together?"
I shrug my shoulders.
Lindsay nods. "Thora would love them in her candle shop."
"So, you're going to?"
We look at him. "Separate them."
"Like 15 each?"
"No." I shake my head. "We'll sell them out. 1k each. Thora will buy a lot is my guess. I want the flower though. Nadine might take 1 or 2 for her store. I'm not sure. She doesn't use candles, so that might not work. Collin might want a few if he has time to paint them. Anything else we can pay for and donate to the mountain."
Lindsay nods. "I bet those little girls would love painting butterflies. OR... I have an idea. We can teach a class to them at Collins art shop. How cute would that be? They never get out."
I shake my head. "I'm already unsure about having a bunch of little kids run around an art store."
"That's true. I didn't think about that. They'd be painting over everything."
"Hand Marcus a 500k bill. We're going to need that paid today."
Lindsay cracks up laughing. "He would s**t himself."
Collin smiles. "I like the idea of the class. Just not for little kids. That stresses me out thinking about it."
Mario nods. "Why does Thora get first choice and not Collin?"
I stare at him. "She has a candle shop. They are candle holders. Everything about that screams Thora. Not Collin. However, once we figure out the molds, the brains might be able to make different types. Like actual statues and figurines. That would be more Collin and less Thora. He may even be able to design a few that would work better for his shop."
"I guess that's true."
Lindsay nods. "Ya think? She actually has a candle store. Did you not think about that?"
"I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking about...."
"LOOK." I point at a life-sized bear made out of a tree.
Lindsay's eyes about pop out of her head. "We need his molds too."
I check the price. "He only wants 500g for it. This is crazy."
"Well, look where we are. We're pretty far away from the center of the village."
A man walks out of the house with a limp. "How are you kids doing today?"
I point at Collin. "He's an art dealer. He's got a store. You need to put your stuff in it."
He has a belly laugh. It makes me smile. "Oh I ain't good enough for no art store. I do this in my spare time. This out here is all I have. Took me 3 years to get that big bear done."
Collin picks up a little bear. "What would you take for all of it?"
They're all bears. About 5 of them are a foot tall. Then he has the big bear. Behind that is a momma and her cub sitting together.
"The big bear is 500. The momma and baby are 400. The littles are 100 each. I suppose I would sell all these for 1.2k."
"I'll take them."
"Do I need to get Tre again?"
"Maybe." Collin gets out his money. "I got 1.1k on me." I give him the last 100g, and he hands the money to the man.
We get them to our game room then make our way back to the resort. Tre sends us home, and we eat lunch and get more money. Then we go to Rome. We learn about mosaics there. They are black and white pebbles made into different shapes. But they come out neat. Collin buys a few of those and steals some of the pebbles to show the brains. Lindsay and I steal 2 life-sized naked men statues. Not sure why. They're neat though. That gives me an idea. So we go to China next, and they have bronze art and stone carving. Collin gets someone who does bronze art interested in his shop.
In Switzerland, he finds someone who makes big bowls and vases. Then they paint them. He buys a few things for the shop. Then we find a maker of pirate treasure chests. I become speechless and nearly die. They are expensive. 2k each. 2.5k each if they're painted with a lock on them. But they're carved out of wood and designed pretty. Collin talks him into putting 3 in his shop for 100g a month and 10% of sales.
Then Lindsay drags us into a furniture store.
"Why?"
"Inspiration can come from anywhere. And he still doesn't know how to set up the shop."
I walk around with Collin. The furniture shop is set up room by room. Sitting room. Sitting room. Sitting room. Each with a different theme and design. 1 sitting room will be fancy. The next is modern. It is neat how it's set up. Collin loves it. "Nobody is paying the slightest bit of attention to us. Take anything that's interesting. I'll stage rooms like this with the paintings and resell it all."
And that we do. We take so much s**t. Then Mario gets us. He found the back room. Lindsay sends a bunch of weird couches and cushions. Then some throws. Then we get more chandeliers. The lady behind the counter sleeps through it all.
"I don't even know if we'll be able to get into the building now."
I smile. "We'll climb through the windows."
Lindsay nods. "We sent s**t everywhere. Our house is going to be a disaster too."
Then we go to Paris.
"Maybe we can save Paris for tomorrow. We've gotten so much and my feet hurt."
"Yea, let's take a break for the night." Collin puts his arm around me, and we go home instead.
Lindsay looks at the brain. "Take the mold oven to the porch. Make 1 of each mold and put it on top of the mold. We'll check them in the morning."
"Yes ma'am."
We sit on the porch. Mario gets us some coffee. I snuggle into Collins' side.
I wake up with him lying down in bed with me. "We're going to sleep a couple of hours baby. The brain is going to get us up for dinner."
I am out.
After dinner, Lindsay leaves talking about a sister visiting. The rest of us go to the house. Me and Collin snuggle up on the couch and Mario lies on the other side of it.
"When the hell did you 2 get so boring? You used to go out."
I hear something in the kitchen. I go out and Angela is standing there.
She whispers, "Come to the party behind the barn."
"Fine, but I'm not staying." I go back to the sitting room while she sneaks out.
"We do stuff."
"Nothing other than each other."
"We were out all day."
I pull on Collin. "Let's go see that party behind the barn. Then we can come back here and be able to say we went to the party."
Mario stands up. "Finally."
Everyone is sitting around in the field. I have no idea where Angela is. Collin gets us a couple of drinks and Silvia runs up. "YOU NEVER COME TO THESE."
"I had to make Mario stop complaining."
Mario rolls his eyes. "When the hell did you 2 get so boring?"
"They're not boring. They just like spending time together. Come on." She pulls me and the boys follow us.
We get over to a group of girls and they giggle. Collin shrugs his shoulders. I think he's about as done with this as I am. He sits on the ground by the fire with Mario. Silvia pulls me over to the girls. They're talking about how cute boys are. Every time a boy looks at them, they giggle again. I scratch my head and glance at Collin. He's sexy sitting there.
Angela comes over to me and Silvia. "What's going on?"
A boy walks by and waves at the girls. They giggle. I rub my eyes.
"Yea, that's annoying."
I go sit by Collin.
"Anything fun with the girls, baby?"
"All they do is giggle and hide from boys. They are annoying."
Him and Mario laugh. Then Angela comes over. "They are giving me a headache. Why are they so dumb?"
"I have no idea."
Silvia runs over and tries to pull me and Collin up. "You 2 have to dance."
"Why?"
"Because if you start, then more people will join."
Collin shakes his head. "If you want to dance, ask someone to dance."
"No you start."
Angela jumps up. Then she pulls me up. "We can dance."
"Fine."
She says something to the brain. Then it starts playing belly dancing music. She dances but pretends not to be that good. I give her a couple of pointers. Then Silvia does it and I give up. She can't dance.
Collin watches me and his eyes grow dark. Then he wraps me in his arms. I smile up at him, and he gives me a sweet kiss. The girls change it to a slow song, and we dance by the fire.
"I think they tricked us into dancing, baby."
I hug him. Then I get so many more of his sweet kisses.
- Writer
