CHAPTER 2

NINE YEARS AGO

There wasn’t anything Jodi wanted to do more right now than to take off her shoes, propped them on the couch and light up a smoke. That wish seemed unrealizable at the moment, for she had been stuck for the last hour on a lavish office, going over last minute details for the opening of her latest exhibit, Devotional Impressions on Steel.

She wasn’t particularly fond of grand openings, but she had unwillingly found herself on the spotlight when a popular magazine had done a cover feature on the home of a famous Hollywood actress. The actress admitted that three sculptures from a young and unknown deaf artist were her favorite pieces in her entire art collection. Suddenly, every gallery and private collector wanted a piece of Jodi.

But only the Fey Steinman Gallery had managed to secure her newest exhibit, mostly due to the efforts of one Lucia Martinez, its newest curator. It was almost embarrassing for Jodi to admit that the reason she decided to go with them in the first place was because Lucia reminded her of a slightly older Rita Moreno circa West Side Story. The fact that Ms. Martinez was so good at the business of art had been a welcomed bonus.

It was Miss Lucia herself that was, at the moment, sitting on the other side of the mahogany desk. She had by now run by Jodi almost every minute arrangement for the evening: from the names and bios of the critics invited to the opening, to the choices of paper and fonts for the printed invitations.

Jodi had difficulty reading Lucia’s lips because the woman kept lowering her head to write on her old fashioned paper pad. Thankfully, Tom was there to interpret for both of them.

“Okay… the doors will open at 7:00 PM. Now, we can do this one of two ways: a) We’ll restrict access to your wing until 7:30, when you will proceed to give your speech and then welcome the guests in or b) They’ll have access to the wing as soon as the doors open. We’ll let them mingle and socialize for two hours, and then comes your speech.” Lucia looked up from her notes to ask, “Which one do you prefer?”