LEFT OF SINISTER

CHAPTER EIGHT

Earl was very much engrossed with the paintings when his interest was interrupted by the sound of a thumping at the door. When he opened it he saw Candy standing there holding two mugs of coffee the steam of the brew swirling from the cups like soft gray serpents dissipating into the atmosphere. He had been tapping at the door with the toe of one of the sneakers he was now wearing. "Whatcha doin'?" he asked. Earl smiled broadly and turning indicated with his right arm the display of artwork he had found in the closet.

"Well I was just admiring your talent brother. These are quite good–why do you have them packed away in the closet? Heck man I bet you could sell many of these. They're as good as the one downstairs of the little Vietnamese girl. And it seems you have them in a numerical order. You got up number one why not put up the succeeding ones? What does the number mean anyway–the order in which you painted them?" he asked moving over to the bed and picking up the nude of the beauty queen's mother. "Like this one?" he said holding it out at arm's length.

Candy walked over to the dresser and placed his mug of hot coffee on it. He got up behind his admiring brother once more beside the bed perusing his endeavors. "The order I met them." he said almost in a whisper. "Oh yeah–what about the date, is there some significance to attach to that?" Earl asked looking over his shoulder at him. "Huh?" Candy asked. "The date, what does the date mean?" Earl repeated.

Candy turned away to retrieve his coffee for him. "You know I'm not certain, the date I met them maybe. They are people I've met over the course of my life until a few years ago. I was going to hang them all over the house now that it's empty, sort of turn it into a gallery of a sort you know, a gallery showing the depth of my work, my accomplishments. When I die I want to leave an account of what I've done. All these people have been witness to it, they were my unwitting subjects. I'll leave a written account too so I get the credit for all of it." he said urging his brother to take the mug of coffee.

"What do you mean they were your unwitting subjects?" Earl asked curiously. Candy took a sip of his own coffee. "Well just that they didn't know I was determined to immortalize them in paint." he said. And then as if to avoid any further conversation about it he said. "Listen I'm going to go downstairs and fix a sandwich and see if the cable is on. Out here in the boonies the service ain't so good when the weather gets bad. I been meaning to get a satellite dish, but then again if I had one of them the signal would likely get interrupted by this weather as well don't you reckon?" he said.

"Mine sure does. But I wouldn't have cable–they're even bigger thieves than the satellite providers." Earl said. "They're all thieves Earl–the world is run by thieves. They're the ones that need to be put down, but how could you–you couldn't get to them and so its people like these subjects who pay the price for the ills of society, ordinary people like you and me." he decided.

"Well I don't want to put anybody down Candy, lock them up til the cows come home maybe. There would be some profit in that I reckon. If you did something to a big shot they'd haul you in, in no time at all." he then said.

"But you know if they had done that to some of those thieves on Wall Street, some of those crooked bankers you wouldn't see them committing that kind of malfeasance again." Candy said walking to the door.

Motioning toward him with his cup now he said. "Look when you get through just put those things back in the closet okay. You want I should make you a sandwich too?" he asked as he opened it. "Yeah what you got?" Earl asked. "Just some deli cuts and cheese, that good enough?" Candy asked.

"Sure." Earl said taking a long sip of the now tepid coffee. "It'll taste good when you freshen up that mug. I'll see you when you get down then." he said now exiting the room leaving the door ajar behind him.