excerpt
With the gallery jammed, Rocco called the crowd to order and introduced
Dr. Antonio Tanger Correia who began his speech with, “A man
came to my office and told me that he loved my country and he loved
my countrymen. How could a man not fall in love with that? He may not
have Portuguese blood in his veins, but I can tell you that his soul is one
hundred percent Portuguese”.
The Portuguese Ambassador spoke next, then the Mayor, and then Lily
Munroe, the Minister of Culture. It was while Ken was standing beside
the improvised podium that he noticed the video cameras from both major
Canadian networks, as well as several local stations.
Red stickers continued to sprout on the walls until all ninety-six paintings
were sold. As the evening progressed Rocco’s face became almost as
red as the sold signs. “We’re safe!” he whispered to Ken.
“You were never not safe,” he said. “I’m the guy paying – why were you
so worried?”
When the last of the guests departed, Ken led a couple dozen of his
guests, including his son, Michael, to the restaurant downstairs. While
the others ate, he answered their questions. After all this time they finally
wanted to know about the Arctic. They cared. They were interested. They
listened.
Finally, he had the stage for telling his stories – how it had all happened,
why it had happened, where it had come from, and what was driving
it. He didn’t waste one second eating. He poured out his heart.
Later that night, he and Marsha walked into their house and sank exhausted
on the couch. “How do you feel?” she asked.
“I don’t even know where to begin,” he said. “I feel ecstatic. I feel profoundly
moved. I feel feelings that I don’t have words for, in combinations
that I have never imagined. If you could travel the biggest roller
coaster in the world… at a million miles an hour… it would not equal
what I feel. I’m going to need time to sort out what I feel… but right now
I don’t want to sort it out… I just want to feel it.”
“I would sure like to know what’s driving you,” she said. “What is this
thing? It’s amazing! How did you know it would work?”
“I didn’t even think about. It’s not something to think about – it’s something
to do. We think ourselves out of doing things. We scare ourselves.
If it feels good in my gut – if I get a hundred billion little ice crystals falling
there, that’s all there is to it – it’s right – and I haven’t a clue why. In
time maybe I’ll try to explain it to you but if I tried to do that now, I feel
I would disintegrate into a trillion particles and blow away like a wisp of
smoke. I am so close to the edge, I don’t dare go any farther.”
The next morning, he found Rocco standing in the middle of the gallery
gazing around at the red stickers with an enormous grin on his face.
Libros Libertad 