Page 38 of Nantucket Reflections
Julia thought about the CAT copycat mural, about Gregor. She didn’t know how much she wanted to reveal.
“I know it isn’t a coincidence,” Elena continued. “You’re here because you want someone to prove Lucia isn’t the real CAT. You think it’s going to be me who does that. But the problem is, I was never able to verify the real identity of CAT.”
Julia’s heart sank. “How is that possible?”
Elena’s eyes flickered.
“I mean, we know you painted the copycat in Paris,” Julia pointed out.
“It isn’t a copycat,” Elena said. “It’s real.”
Julia flared her nostrils and gave Elena her bestI’m a mother, don’t lie to melook. Elena’s eyes dropped. The silence intensified. Julia had no idea how to get Elena to say it was her, to admit a truth that wasn’t convenient.
“We aren’t going to tell anyone it was you,” Julia said quietly.
Elena remained silent. She was smarter than most thirty-year-olds, Julia realized.
A full minute passed. Julia was worried that Elena was going to tell them to leave, to get out of there. Julia wouldn’t blame her.
Suddenly, Charlie lent Elena a bit of kindness, asking her about her parents’ time in London. Her eyes brightened just the slightest bit. “They met going to the same art school that I’m going to now,” she said. “Some of their art is still here, in different exhibition halls, and I’m even attending lectures with a few of their professors.”
“Your dad works with clay?” Charlie asked. “We saw a lot of his stuff in Positano. It was incredible.”
“Yes. He gives classes to tourists in Positano,” Elena said. “He has an enormous workshop. He still makes his own stuff, too, and sells it around.”
The way Elena spoke of her father made Julia understand how much she loved him.
“And your mother?” Charlie asked.
Elena’s eyes glinted with tears that she seemed too proud to let fall. “Mama passed away a few years ago,” she said. “She was a painter. Mostly, she earned her money by painting coastal scenes and other Italian-inspired things for tourists. She hated doing that.”
Julia remembered the paintings they’d found at Lucia Colombo’s mother’s place. There had been an entire section inA Journey into the Nightwherein Lucia had written about how much she hated painting the same old stuff for tourists. Over and over again, the same thing.
It was a funny coincidence, she guessed.
“Lucia went to your school too,” Julia remembered.
“Yes, but they didn’t know each other,” Elena said confidently. “They weren’t really friends.”
Julia felt a spark of recognition. She inhaled sharply.
Before Julia could ask Elena anything more, Elena got up to blow her nose and drink a glass of water. Julia and Charlie looked at one another, having a nonverbal conversation before Elena returned to tell them she had to leave soon. It meant she wanted them gone.
Julia realized, as she got up, that she saw Elena in a brand-new light now. Like Charlie’s daughters, Elena had lost her mother too young. She was grieving. She would always be grieving. Julia had to fight the urge not to wrap her arms around her and tell her it would be okay.
Before they left, Julia spun around at the door and said, “You said you could never verify the identity of CAT.”
“That’s right.” Elena gave her a look that meant she was tired of all of this.
“But you know for sure that Lucia isn’t CAT,” Julia said.
Elena didn’t say anything. The steeliness in her eyes meant that she knew exactly who CAT was and refused to say so. Why did she want to hide her identity so much? Why did it matter now, now that her mother was gone?
“All I would ask of you,” Julia said, her voice wavering, “is to make a statement saying Lucia isn’t CAT, and you know she stole details of CAT’s life for her personal gain. You don’t have to say how you know.” Julia wet her lips. “Therein lies the threat that you’ll tell the world more details about Lucia, that you’ll taint her already tainted name. And if Lucia herself comes forward to say that she did in fact lie, that she isn’t CAT…”
Elena jumped for it. “Your publishing house will be in the clear again?”
Julia flinched. “Yes,” she said. “That’s true. But CAT will also remain CAT—anonymous and mystical and wonderful. The real CAT will have nothing of Lucia’s infamy attached to her. It means that you’ll preserve what was always wonderful about CAT and make sure she lives forever, in that way.”
