Page 77 of Something Like Forever
“No matter what,” Bensaid, “it’s very flattering. Thank you.”
“I am inyour debt!” Marcelo said. “You might have wondered, during theselong weeks, why I did not send someone else to Japan in Tim’splace. Nathaniel possesses more than enough competence for such atask, and his husband, Kelly, has the artistic vision he sometimeslacks. They could have gone together, and I have no doubt theywould have enjoyed the experience.”
“Okay,now I’m starting to like you less,” Ben joked. He did wonderthough. “How come you chose Tim?”
“It allcomes back to Eric. I wanted to continue the work that he began.No, that’s not accurate, is it? You were the one to start it all,the first to recognize Tim’s talent and to coax it out into theopen.”
“He’sreally gifted,” Ben said. “Isn’t he?”
“Ibelieve so. Ever since his reunion with you, his work hasflourished, which is unusual because the quality of art is oftenproportional to how much the creator suffers. Somehow he hasmanaged to channel his happiness into truly compelling pieces, butyou and I are biased, aren’t we? Our affection for Tim blinds us tosome degree—”
“Orhelps us see him clearer.”
“Ha! Youmay be right. Either way, Tim is aware of our bias, and I don’tthink he takes our words of encouragement to heart. Not as much ashe should.”
“My momstill insists I have the best voice in the world,” Ben said.“Literally. Name any famous singer you can think of and she’ll sayI’m better without blinking an eye.”
“Are youcertain that she’s wrong?” Marcello said generously. “It’s an aptexample, one that I suspect encapsulates Tim’s own viewpoint. Welove his art because we love him. So when the opportunity arose toprove to him that others appreciate it just as much, if not more…What’s most crucial is just how divorced from him these newadmirers are. Had it been a friend of mine praising his art, hewould assume it was done so out of politeness.”
“Yup!Tim has gotten compliments from people you know, and he alwaysmakes some comment about how they’re more into his body than hisart. I know that sounds like him being vain, but he’s dismissivewhen people are nice to him, thinking they’re only interested inthe superficial.”
“Exactly!” Marcello leaned forward. “Now he’s on a completelydifferent continent in a culture alien to him. One that, like allpowerful nations, tends to ignore the creative efforts of othercountries. The odds are stacked against him there, and yet, his artis succeeding.”
“Do youthink he really believes that? He told me a lot of foreigners areon game shows over there, like it’s a novelty.”
“He’llfind out the truth tomorrow,” Marcello said. “His exhibition willbe well-attended, but it’s money that speaks loudest. People don’tpay four million yen for a painting by an amusingimbecile.”
“Four million?” Ben askedincredulously.
“Yen,” Marcello stressed.“That’s only forty thousand in our currency.”
“Onlyforty thousand,” Ben repeated,chuckling madly. “For all of them combined?”
“For the central piece ofthe exhibition, the crown jewel.”
“Which one is that?” Benasked.
“Youknow, I can’t seem to recall, but I hope Tim’s reaction to theprice is as equally awed as your own. He has talent, and hispaintings have value. Monetarily, yes, but also true value asartistic pieces. If he returns from Japan having learned thatlesson, his confidence buoyed enough to encourage his continuedefforts, well then… I suppose it’s not up to me to decide if hisabsence is worth a paradigm shift. Only the two of you can decidethat, but if you don’t mind humoring me, if we’d had thisconversation before his departure—if you had known then that hewould be gone even beyond the estimated four weeks—would you haveagreed?”
“Yes,”Ben said. “Part of me always wants him here, no matter how good acause, but I’d like to think that the selfless part of me wouldhave won out.”
Marcello smiled.“Considering what a large piece of you that is, I have no doubtthat we still would have ended up here on your birthday. Speakingof which, the first course is about to arrive!”
The food couldn’t bedescribed as good or even great. Those words weren’t sufficient.This cuisine was on an entirely different level! Ben felt like hehad been eating fast-food his entire life and this was his firsthome-cooked meal. The difference was that great, leading him to anew theory. The reason Tim never brought him here was because itruined normal food by comparison. After three courses, Ben wascertain he didn’t have room for more. That’s when the birthday cakearrived. A single layer and perfectly round, it looked as thoughsomeone had scaled down a normal cake until it was the ideal sizefor two people to share with nothing left over. The surface wascovered in rainbow sprinkles, which Ben loved, mostly for the burstof color normally absent on a white cake with buttercream frosting.Boringly basic, but that’s what he preferred. These weren’tsprinkles, as it turned out. He sampled a few and discovered theywere shavings of white chocolate in six different hues.
His only complaint was thepresentation, since the candles weren’t even lit, and while thewaiter wished him a happy birthday, he disappeared again withoutsinging. Marcello wasn’t very interested either, attention on hisphone instead.
“Ah!” he said. “Here wego. If you’ll be so kind as to excuse me.”
Marcello stood and handedhim the phone before leaving. Any questions Ben had were silencedwhen he saw the screen. A video call was open, Tim grinning at him.“Happy birthday, Benjamin!”
Ben opened his mouth torespond, but emotion got to his throat first, leaving him unable tospeak.
“Are the candles lit?” Timasked.
Ben spotted long matchesnext to the cake. He set down the phone to pick one up, his handsshaking slightly as he focused on lighting the candles. Luckily heonly had ten to light instead of thirty-six. Once his task wascompleted, he picked up the phone again and smiled, havingrecovered somewhat. “Okay.”
“Youmight want to plug your ears,” Tim said. Then he broke into song.Just the usual birthday one, and yes, he had a terrible singingvoice, but right now Ben could have put on headphones and crankedthe volume to the max, just to hear it better.
