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James and Kath took the train early that afternoon.
The day had been tough, with Doberman making threats,
people running in and out of the office wearing gorilla
suits, and finally the entire computer network shutting
down halfway through the afternoon. Shortly before four
o'clock they threw in the towel. They took a cab from
the railroad station to James' apartment and surprised
Deb and Ben in the shed in the back yard.
When they leased the apartment the shed had been an
old dirty construction full of boxes, paint tins and
tools. Debbie worked her magic on it. There was almost
nothing that she couldn't do. She cleaned it, patched
it, ran power to it from the basement in a trench that
she dug across the yard. Once she had electricity she
brought out a heater to dry the empty shell out thoroughly,
added sheet rock to the walls and painted them, installed
skylights, and divided the space into two using a transparent
sheet. One side was for her, one was for Ben. She bought
rugs. She carried out some furniture and her easels.
She rigged up a television for Ben and a VCR so that
she could play him movies. With rare negligence she
forgot to run the cable TV wiring in her trench and
she didn't want to dig it up again, so videos would
have to do.
Now it was a cozy studio with a built in playroom.
The partition and powerful extractor fans kept fumes
from her airbrush away from Ben. At last she had somewhere
to work, her own practical, comfortable space. She'd
even installed air conditioning.
The afternoon was bright and sunny and she worked with
the door open, so she noticed Kath and James as they
descended the wooden steps at the back of the house.
"Still working?" called Kath.
"Hi!" she called back. "You guys are
home early. Come see this." She slid aside the
partition and
Ben ran to his father, arms lifted for a hug.
Debbie had almost finished a painting of a native American
in full tribal outfit. It was a commission for an advertising
campaign in some magazine. James lost track of her projects,
but he knew how much money they brought in. No matter
how hard he worked he could never find a job with an
income quite as high as hers, and while he sweated or
froze in the city, she had a happy life at home. Her
commute took less than a minute. He had no rancor, though.
He was proud of her, especially as he had no artistic
talent at all. He kissed her cheek.
"I have a surprise for you," Kath announced.
Ben looked at her. He knew all about surprises.
From her bag she pulled an envelope. "Theater tickets
for that magic show on Broadway. Will you come with
me? It's a sell out but I called the box office at just
the right time and got some returns."
"Would you like to see a magic show?" Debbie
asked Ben. The little boy nodded back.
"Rabbit," he said.
"That's it!" she cried. Every day she could
see her son getting smarter. He soaked up knowledge
like a sponge. "They make a rabbit appear in a
hat."
"Rabbit," he repeated.
"And they saw a lady in half and then put her
back together. How about that?"
"Rabbit," Ben said, patiently but firmly.
"And they do card tricks."
"No. Rabbit," Ben warned.
"We may have a problem here," James whispered
to Kath.
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