The hidden painting chapter 4

I twist my foot on the welcome mat, guilty for lying to the man standing in front of me. Unable to look him in the eye, I look at the ground instead. I see he’s wearing black, scuffed sneakers, and that his jeans are frayed at the ends. My eyes slowly rise up his body. He’s wearing an open black and red plaid shirt with a batman t-shirt underneath. As I work my way up, I notice he has a sallow complexion to his skin. I’m thinking him to be of Latin descent. He has the most perfect set of white, straight teeth I have ever seen. He shows them off nicely as he invites me into my childhood home. I hesitate until I reach his kind, deep, dreamy brown eyes, his hair silky smooth on top. I’m desperate at guessing ages, but he looks to be in his forties.

I haven’t, nor will I disclose why I’m here today. I figure whatever job he’s about to interview me for, will grant me access to the house eventually! I don’t care if it’s even a cleaning job as my soul focus is the painting and the promise I made my poor mother on her death bed.

As I enter the house, a wave of nostalgia washes over me. I don’t remember much, but I remember the staircase being bigger than it actually is. Then again, everything is bigger than when you’re three years old!

The tall, dark handsome man who introduces himself as Jasper is leading me into what I remember being my father’s study, a room which I was never allowed enter. I follow, open mouthed at all the books that are laying around the place…there must be thousands! He could want me to sell them, or even organise them alphabetically. The vast collection alone deems itself worthy of an assistant!

If memory serves me correctly, my father’s study had three brown leather chairs, one behind the enormous dark wooden desk, the other two for his clients in front of it. I’m surprised to see that the room is exactly how I remembered it in my head.

‘Is it the same furniture?’ I ask myself, but brush the idea off as I could only ever see the room through the keyhole or when my father needed the toilet and left the door open. I was a very obedient child and never went into the room for fear of punishment, making it a strange feeling to enter it now!

Jasper sits behind the desk, gesticulating me to sit on one of the two brown, leather chairs in front of it. I get shivers down my spine as my ass touches the leather!

‘Now!’ Jasper begins taking out a yellow legal pad and flicking through the pages until he finds an empty one, folding the used ones underneath the fresh page. He picks up what looks to be a gold pen and clicks it to life by hitting its bottom on the desk. ‘So…’ he’s reaching for a word. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t even know your name!’ he admits.

My face begins to feel hot as I introduce myself, ‘Cindy Spencer!’

Jasper gets up from his chair and extends a hand over the vast desk, ‘nice to meet you Cindy Spencer, I’m Jasper Ramirez!’

I stand up and take his hand, his grip loose but firm. We both return to our seats.

I’m thinking this guy to work in the house and not own it, simply by his attire. I mean, who takes themselves seriously wearing a batman t-shirt? And what would a man who’s dressed like him be doing with all of these books? Shouldn’t he be surrounded with comics and figures? I catch myself in my thoughts and realise that I’m literally judging a book by its cover, something you do not do in the literacy world!

His first question is, ‘do you like to read?’

This is the first interview I have been on since Mr Godfree died in which I feel I know the answer to the question!

‘Yes Mr Ramirez, I …’

‘…I’m sorry, but I have to stop you there!’ he says.

I stop in my tracks not knowing what I’ve done wrong or what he’s going to say. My brow feels as though beads of sweat are forming. That’s the last thing you want to happen in an interview, even though I still don’t know what job I’m interviewing for!

‘Please,’ he says, ‘call me Jasper! Mr Ramirez is my father!’

I close my eyes and let out a slow deep sigh of relief. That would explain the batman t-shirt, he’s interviewing on behalf of his father! ‘I’m sorry Jasper!’

‘May I call you Cindy?’ he asks.

I open my eyes and look at him, ‘of course!’

‘Great!’ he smiles, showing off his perfect teeth again, ‘so now we’re on first name terms, please continue!’ he encourages me.

‘Ok,’ I start with a smile on my face, answering the question with pride, ‘so I worked for the owner of a book store every summer and weekend when I was in high school. Mr Godfree, the store’s owner, offered me a full-time position once I got my high school diploma. I was teetering on going to college to study English, but what with tuition fees, it just suited my situation better to go straight to work. Mr Godfree groomed me into management material which turned out well as he promoted me to manager the day he retired four years ago. I stayed in that position until the day he died a few weeks back. His son is a property developer, and let me go to turn the fabulous, thriving book store into apartments!’

Jasper shook his head, ‘some people just don’t know the beauty of a good book!’

‘I agree!’ I nod my head, wondering does he?

‘So what’s your favourite genre in literature?’ he asks.

‘Oh I love romance novels, yet there’s nothing like a good thriller!’ I answer, unable to stop smiling. Something comes over me when I begin to talk about books. They are my first true love! ‘The last book I read was ‘Guilty Wives’ by James Patterson and I found it gripping even though I knew who the murderer was the whole way through. Seeing the primary character get justice after all those years was very satisfying!’

I notice Jasper writing away on his yellow legal pad and wonder whether he’s transcribing my every word.

‘I’m sorry, was I rambling?’ I ask, my hand to my mouth.

‘No, no. Keep going! I’m itching to find a book that is satisfying!’ Jasper smiles at me. ‘Are there any others you would recommend?’

‘I’m big into Coleen Hoover at the minute. I just started the sequel to one of her novels, ‘It Ends With Us’.’

‘Oh I think I heard about that one!’ Jasper rubs his chin with the end of his pen. ‘It Starts With Us,’ right?’

I nod enthusiastically. The last person I could talk about books to was Mr Godfree!

‘Its on my list of books to read in fact. I think I remember the prequel. In the end doesn’t the main character…’ I can see his eyes darting from side to side trying to remember her name.

‘Lily!’ I remind him.

‘Yes, Lily,’ he points at me as a gesture of thanks. In the end of the first book she gives birth to her baby girl! She had been a child who was affected by domestic violence and gets into a violent relationship of her own, but calls off the marriage when the baby is born. One of the last lines is ‘it ends with us’!’

‘Yes,’ I smile, ‘that’s exactly the one!’

‘I love it when the writer incorporates the beginning with the ending like that!’

‘Me too!’ I point at Jasper and let out a laugh.

‘So you read a lot then.’ Jasper more announces than questions.

‘I do!’ I confirm.

‘Are you a member of a book group or is it just you against the world?’

‘Mr Godfree, God rest his soul, introduced me to five, strong, young, independent women who fell through the cracks and couldn’t read. I took those five under my wing, and provided a service to help them learn. They in turn took five under their wing and so on!’

‘Wow,’ Jasper looks impressed.

‘Now they all love to read. They are starting to get their lives back on track for the first time and each of them received their GED just before Mr Godfree died. He sponsored a book club I had with them. We meet every Friday. Mr Godfree donated six copies of the same book every week. I continue the tradition by buying the books and giving them to the ladies. When they are finished with them, they pass them onto others who they know love a good read!’

‘That’s wonderful!’ Jasper sits back in his chair smiling.

‘These women can’t afford books of their own. I know that there’s library’s that do what I’m doing, but when you have no proof of identity to get a library card, it’s tough! Mr Godfree opened my eyes to them by gifting the shelter they belonged to with a hamper every month. Mr Godfree was a genius. He handpicked these five women in particular, for me to tutor because they were eager to learn and he knew I would get on with them. He shone on a light on them for me! I’ll be eternally grateful as they are friends for life!’

Jasper looks at me with a big smile on his face. ‘So you like to give back to the community then?’ he asks.

‘Oh absolutely!’ I answer, the words coming out of me a dozen at a time. ‘I think it’s imperative for anyone who can give their time to the underprivileged, and just spend that time with them, be it chatting around a table, of helping them with their chores! The women I have under my wing have all voiced that they feel ostracised for living in a shelter…they just have nowhere else to go!’

 ‘So Cindy, since poor Mr Godfree passed, how have you been filling your time?’

‘Well, I’m going from interview to interview and feel like I’m a kid again, starting out in life with no proof that I have been an upstanding member of the community for the past however many years!’

‘They don’t understand how big you were on the book scene!’ Jasper shakes his head again.

‘Exactly!’

‘So, between that, and spending every minute I could with my mother who had end stage breast cancer, I didn’t have that much spare time. I would read to my mother when she was in hospital receiving palliative care. I don’t know how much went in, but it gave me a sense of purpose!’

‘How long has it been since she passed?’ Jasper starts writing again.

‘A few days!’ I answer.

‘Well, firstly, I’m sorry to hear about your mother!’ Jasper looks at the page in front of him on which he has been scribbling notes as I was speaking.

‘Thank you! She’s going to leave a massive hole in my life!’

‘If I’m honest,’ Jasper continues, ‘an ex book store manager is someone I could really use!’ he says rubbing his freshly shaven chin. ‘I’m writing the biography of a local novelist, Arthur Waldron, and I need a research assistant! Have you heard of him?’

I nod my head and close my eyes trying to remember what I read on the man. ‘Isn’t he the author of ‘The Great Wall of China?’’ I almost look behind me to see who said that. I pride myself on books, but I hadn’t physically read that one.

‘Yes,’ Jaspers look of surprise is filled with wonder. ‘Have you read it?’ he asks.

‘No,’ I admit. ‘A guy came into the book store and asked me to order it in for him. I remember taking it out of the box and wondering if I bought a few of them would they sit on the shelf looking pretty, or would they sell. It spiked my curiosity into reading the book myself, but I never got that far!’

‘I appreciate your honesty!’ Jasper sits back on the brown leather chair, his fingertips touching.

I can hear the cogs in his mind turning as he looks me up and down.

‘Would the job be something you would be interested in?’ he smiles. Man do those teeth get me every time!

‘Actually, yes, it would suit me perfectly!’ I answer with enthusiasm.

Jasper gets out of his chair again to shake my hand. I’m aware that my hands are all clammy, but as I get up off my own seat to shake Jaspers, I notice his are too.

As I get up to leave, Jasper joins me. I point to the shirt, ‘you like batman then?’

He smiles childishly. ‘My nephew bought it for me for Christmas last year. It’s one of the most comfortable t-shirts I own! Let’s just say that I put on a bit of weight since the pandemic started. Between that and buying this place, I haven’t had much time for the gym!’

‘Just out of curiosity,’ I ask, ‘when did you buy this fantastic house?’

‘About a year ago now I think.’ He’s counting the months on his fingers, ‘yeah!’ he confirms. ‘I’d love to get it organised and put-up book shelves everywhere to show off my extensive collection, but that’s on the bucket list, the very long, extensive bucket list!

I smile at him, feeling comfortable in his presence.

As we begin to walk through the labyrinth of corridors, he asks one last question. ‘Do you own a kindle?’

‘No!’ I answer with a bit more gusto than I was aiming for. ‘I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with them’ I add, ‘it’s just the feeling I get when I physically hold a book gives me goosebumps. Every time I turn a page feels like such a tremendous honour!’

‘Do you tend to use a bookmark, or do you turn down the pages as you read?’

‘I am very pro bookmark. Turning down the pages is something, I feel, to be an insult towards the author. It marks the book forever more!’

Jasper nods, ‘I’m the exact same. You’d think that because of our age and all of our peers having one we would go against all that is sacred and deprive ourselves of the pleasure and honour to hold someone’s blood sweat and tears and turn the page rather than swiping left! I know its not as bulky and, I confess, I had one for a couple of months, but it took the joy of reading away from me!’

‘I’m the exact same!’ I confirm, noticing that we are at the front door. He opens it graciously and just as I’m about to cross the threshold, I ask, ‘when do you want me to start?’

‘Does tomorrow suit?’

‘Absolutely! Being honest it will be a change to think of Arthur Waldron than my late mother!’

Jasper nods his head and asks, ‘is 9am too early?’

‘No, that’s perfect!’ I answer and leave the big house and enter the world again!