[36]

A picture is worth a thousand words,^* 1990

Colin’s three-story house, named Sunnybrook, had a formal dining room, a great room, a kitchen, and one bathroom on the main floor. Upstairs, there were five bedrooms and three baths. On the basement level, there was a game room, a laundry room, and Brittany’s studio. Except for the basement, the ceilings were high, the rooms well lit, the walls white. The first thing Colin hung on his stark walls was the Yeatesville photograph he’d bought from the Belle Tara Gallery. He hung it above the mantel in the great room.

Next, he hung reproductions of children’s artwork from Terezín, Brittany commenting, “That’s morose.” She jingled, walking from one room to the next. Sometimes he heard her bubbling. His therapist said he was projecting his want of verve and life onto her. His therapist said, “No woman actually bubbles.” He wanted to hang his vibrant wife’s art on the walls. She does bubble! But Brittany wouldn’t let him enter her studio.

He hired a photographer to take Brittany’s picture. He hung those pictures on the white walls. He hung paintings by lesser-known artists Thomas Van Auken, Anne Chamblin, and Melinda Thacker on his walls. He hung his mother’s picture. Quickly, he filled the bare walls with the images he loved.

In 1990, Susan Cruisenberry (Sue of Sue’s Gallery) sent him the program for Lightning Fish. Right away, Colin purchased Fish, Number Fourteen, hanging it beside his mother’s photograph and requesting Becca’s contact information from Susan Cruisenberry. She said, “I can’t do that, but I will tell her you inquired.”

Colin didn’t want to seem weird, like a stalker. Telephoning Susan right back, he said, “Forget it. Please send me any future programs.”

“You bet.”

Colin touched Becca’s brooch to his lips. He hadn’t mentioned Becca Burke to his therapist. Maybe he should do that.

When Colin became suspicious of what Brittany was doing all day in her studio, he used a screwdriver and jimmied the lock. On a white stool, he found a stack of eight-by-ten photographs of his naked wife; his naked wife and the naked photographer, his naked wife, the naked photographer, and the photographer’s naked wife; his naked wife having sex with the photographer’s naked wife; and his naked wife having sex with the naked photographer. Colin was not interested in making it a naked foursome.

Aside from the photographs, Brittany had also completed some stick-figure drawings. He imagined he’d save one as a testament and reminder to why this marriage was a mistake.

Brittany got a good attorney. She assumed she would need one, with the damning pictures, but she didn’t. Colin didn’t care about the money.