I'm Normally Perfect (re-upload)

Chapter Twelve

'Loads of work.'

'Is that one of yours?'

She nodded. 'I usually work in clay now. But yes, that's one of mine.'

I stared at it, 'Wow. It's beautiful. Must have taken ages.'

'Couple of years. I have a studio here so I could work whenever the mood struck. I do miss that. Being able to get to it the moment I want to.'

'Can I see it? Your studio?'

'All right.' We entered a door on the west wing that led straight into a stairwell and climbed four flights to the corner of the uppermost floor; we walked a short way down a dark hall then she opened the door to reveal a room full of light. Two of the walls were comprised of large panes of glass, as was the majority of the ceiling. The entire back garden and most of the western grounds were visible. Paintings in various stages of completion leaned against the two solid walls, smattered smocks hung on pegs on the wall, a large table was loaded down with tubes of paint and various other accoutrement and there was a blank canvas on an easel. 'This is where I paint, great for light. My sculpting studio is downstairs, but it's currently empty.'

I walked toward the back wall of glass, 'How do you get any work done? I think I'd just stare out the windows.' She came up and stood beside me. A little ball of fur ran about near the statue we had been discussing a few minutes before.

'There's Cate, I think she can smell where we were.' The dog did seem intent on the spot where we'd been standing. 'You get used to it, like anything else you see regularly. It's good for inspiration, though in the summertime it can be like being under a magnifying glass. I keep the paints in another room then.'

I gestured to a stack of paintings leaning against the wall in the corner, 'May I?'

She nodded, 'Of course. Don't feel you have to be kind if you don't like them.'

I carefully flipped through a few; they were intricate renderings of tarot cards done in various styles. 'These are amazing. They're the kind of painting you can look at a hundred times and see something new each time. Are you going to do the entire major Arcana?'

She looked surprised, 'Eventually. I've completed ten, and am working on three others. You know what the major Arcana is?'

I smiled, 'Yeah, I was very into that sort of thing as a kid. I mean, a younger kid than I am now. You've incorporated runes and astrological symbols into them.' I pointed to the marks in The High Priestess' dress.

'Do you think it's too much?'

'No, unless a person knew what they were looking at they'd probably just think it was a design in the fabric.' I lifted out her paintings of the cards for The Sun and The Moon. The Sun was mustard yellow and its rays were outlined and highlighted in metallic gold on a white background; The Moon was a cool blue, in a navy sky surrounded by multifaceted stars in white and silver. They were both highly stylised, but not cartoonish. After I replaced the paintings in the order in which I found them she asked, 'Would you like to see the weapons room?'

'There's a weapons room?'

Rather than taking the stairway down we continued along the hallway, following the patterned carpet, which lead into the darkness. Dark wainscoting ran along the bottom three feet of the walls, the top was painted a darker colour and decorated with more paintings, their subjects veiled by the dimness. It had the empty feeling of a place that is never used. The quiet was beginning to creep me out so I asked, 'What made you decide to go with the tarot card theme?' She opened a door to our right and we descended one floor and entered another hall.