MORNING SERIAL

“GENIUS is important to human faith but it is not all-important. Imagine where the human race would be if we were all of us geniuses. Who would make the wheels turn? That is not the job of the genius. No. We need great men like yourself. Great artists, to make sure things get done and the world is explained.”

“And dreams,” I said, contentiously.

Illie tossed this over in his head for a moment.

“You think you are helping me interpret my dreams? You think that is what Francis was doing?”

“I’m not sure what you want my work to do, Illie,” I said, exasperation and fatigue easily overcoming my nervousness.

“I do not need this dream interpreted. I need it painted. There is something in it, and I need to focus.”

He had seemed to shrink before me, seemed to age, as if he was now some ancient creature afraid of the light.

“Somebody said to me you are looking for buried treasure.”

He looked up at me and that squint returned, but it was not a look of shock. Something was coming over him.

“Who said this?” he said. “A local,” I said. “An islander. I doubt you know him.”

“But he knows me, it seems.” I felt like I’d been hit with a bat.

“So it’s money. This is all about money.”

Illie shook his head sadly. “No,” he said slowly. “Not money. I am looking for my son.”

His tone belied the gravitas of what he had just said, and I wondered if Francis had ever gotten this far with him. My mind immediately returned to the dangers of this place.

“Illie,” I said, and I placed my hand on his forearm, “who was here last night?”

He curled his bottom lip and bobbed his head up and down, looking to the ground. “A bad man. Come to kill Evgeny, and the girls if he can get to them. He won’t get to them now.”

“Where have they gone?” “Come and paint for me,” he said, in a tone that did not suggest a change of subject, but he gestured with his head over to the tower and began to walk there.

> The Golden Orphans by Gary Raymond is published by Parthian www.parthianbooks.com