Forty

I FACED THE HUGE CANVAS and shook my head. Everything was there. All I needed to do was paint it. I’d worked and refined the sketch, laid it out on the four-by-eight-foot surface. It was the biggest canvas I’d ever painted and it was really just a rendering. It was Tent City the way I envisioned it. It just wasn’t right and I was beginning to panic.

“It’s a beautiful sketch, Tony,” Kate said reassuringly. I could hear the doubt in her voice.

“What is it, Kate?” I asked. “Doc is going to be here in an hour and it just isn’t right.”

“I can see what you mean,” she answered, “but I can’t identify it. It really is beautiful. Maybe it’s just nerves.”

“Maybe Doc will just take it over and put me out of my misery. We’re supposed to be talking about mixing exterior latex, not hassling about whether the damn thing looks right,” I said disgustedly.

“I think it’s just the size. You aren’t used to working on a canvas that big,” Kate suggested. This was huge, all right. It had to be big enough for painters to expand the grid—each foot would equal ten feet on the wall. I’d hauled a full sheet of three-quarter inch plywood into the basement. Then I’d prepped it and glued the biggest, most expensive piece of canvas I’d ever used to it, stretching it and stapling it to the back of the board. Kate had worked with me to make sure the canvas was sealed tightly and that we didn’t bend the weave of the fabric.

PCAD provided the canvas. I got the feeling Doc had pulled some strings with the Theater Department and traded off some work for a piece of their ultra-wide cotton duck. They used it for scenic backdrops. I bet Doc’s freshmen were putting in double time for that trade.

“The focal points work,” Doc said. “The flow will draw people to it. The colors in your original painting will add drama without distracting from the composition. You want to avoid getting an area that is too dominant in one color, like all the blue tarps. They need enough variation and texture to not overwhelm things. You can’t be too subtle. But tell me about the concept again. Explain it to the Board?”

“The idea is not to simply paint a picture of tents, but to hold a mirror up to student life on campus and what we remember,” I said. I practiced this speech as much as I worked on the drawing. “The field is returned to a recreational state. We see the shapes of students playing, but overlaid on that is the reflection of what was there.” I still wasn’t satisfied with the concise explanation but it was getting better.

“That’s it, Tony,” Doc said. “You set the horizon line lower than in your first painting, but you are still thinking of people looking at it straight on. They aren’t going to do that. They are going to look up at it. You need to tilt the mirror.”

Oh my god! It was as simple as that. The perspective showed too much blue sky and the tents were all in the bottom half of the mural. I’d tried to adjust the view from about half way up the wall looking out at the tents, but I hadn’t tilted my head down far enough.

We spent the next half hour propping up the canvas so it was exactly vertical, then calculating the distance away that the average viewer would be in scale with the painting. Then we looked at the piece from a vantage point that put our eyes about ten inches up from the bottom of the canvas and ten feet away. The perspective was all off!

“We need to tilt it,” Doc said. I wanted Kate’s eyes with me so we called Lissa and Melody down and they tilted the top of the board away us as we watched until our eyes hit the horizon line. Once we got it into the right position, it didn’t look so bad, but it was tilted back about a foot. I couldn’t tilt the building, so I had to adjust the perspective, projecting through the canvas to a vertical surface behind it. I could see it all taking shape. I could actually see it.

We spent another hour talking about how to mix exterior latex. Doc brought over a selection of quarts of paint, based on the colors in my original painting and a couple gallons of white base to use for mixing. It was going to be amazing.

“Tony, this project is both time-consuming and energy eating,” Doc said as he was getting ready to leave. “It’s good and important, but don’t forget to do something for your soul. What are you painting for fun?”

I laughed. I was going to have three naked girls downstairs in about two hours. I showed Doc the sketches I’d done at the posing party and the development I was doing with them. He thought that it was good that I was putting humor into one of my paintings. I felt a whole lot better when Doc left. Kate and I hugged. We both understood.

“Tony, we’re taking the boys to that new movie and then eating dinner. You should have about four hours of peace in the house,” Lissa said. “Leave your phone on. I’m going to text you before we come home.”

“I’m a little envious of you this afternoon,” Melody said. “After her performance at the party, there are a couple of things I’d like to do to a naked Rio. Just experimental, mind you.”

“I can’t think of a naked woman you wouldn’t like to do a couple of experimental things to,” I laughed.

“Maybe, but Rio’s been asking for this and with Amy’s help, you are going to give it to her.”

“Somehow I imagine Amy giving her a lot more than I do,” I said.

“Maybe so, honey,” Lissa said. “But you’ve been under incredible stress lately and sometimes we add to it rather than taking it away. Rio wants to have fun. Amy wants to have fun. I think even Sonia wants to have fun. We want you to have fun. Nothing is off-limits. If you have willing partners this afternoon, be a willing participant, okay?”

“You mean... ?”

“Tony,” Kate whispered to me, “no reservations.”

It was a bizarre afternoon. Amy, Sonia, and Rio arrived soon after the family left. So soon, in fact, that I thought they might have been watching to see when Lissa drove away. Wendy worked Sunday afternoon and evening, so she was gone as well. All three women had different formal gowns than at the party as I wanted to not repeat styles. Amy told me they’d all gone to Ragstock and got the dresses for three dollars each. They’d ironed them, taken a couple of stitches and put them on with nothing under them. I was just wearing sweats and a T-shirt.

“It isn’t fair that we got dressed up and are going to take them off while Tony is sitting there in sweats,” Rio complained. “Take them off.”

“You are such a slut, Rio,” Sonia laughed. “Amy, put a leash on her.” They all laughed, but Rio was surprised speechless when Amy reached up and fastened a collar around our pudgy friend.

“What? You... ?” Rio sputtered.

“Now, my little pet,” Amy whispered, “behave yourself or I’ll have to punish you, understand.” I swear Rio came.

“I’ll take care of getting Tony ready,” Sonia said. Most of the times that I’d been with Sonia, she’d been slightly distant. Hanging out with Amy—well, more than just hanging out, I guess—seemed to have changed her. The dress, or rag, she was wearing was very slinky and almost transparent. I could certainly see her nipples prominently displayed. “There is no ‘no touch’ rule between the artist and models today,” she whispered as she approached.

Okay. I decided right then and there that I was following the family’s advice. I’d play.

Sonia very slowly pulled my T-shirt up my torso and over my head, never letting her eyes leave mine. I thought she might eat me alive. When the shirt was off, she raked her fingernails down my chest and bent to nibble on my nipples for a moment. Between the sexy treatment and direct stimulation, my cock was pointing straight out when she put her thumbs in my waistband and pulled it down. I didn’t assist her, so she had to push them all the way to my ankles and then lift my feet one at a time to get them off. Her cheek was about an inch from my bobbing cock, and it brushed all the way across her face from one side to the other as she turned. Even though I touched her lips, she didn’t make any attempt to kiss, lick, or suck it. She just let it glide across, leaving a little trail of pre-come in its wake.

Rio moaned and strained at her leash. I was thankful Amy had put the collar and leash on. It would make an interesting composition.

Sonia stood with both hands on my chest, lightly rubbing my nips.