The next Friday they talked about Christmas and beyond. Everyone was going home. Tom and Saul and Sigrid would fly together. They decided to return to campus a week early to ‘get a running start´.
Mary took the floor. “I´m going to be looking for houses when I get back. Has everyone got an okay for the money from their folks?... Good.”
“What are we looking for?” Tom asked.
Mary said, “Start with this, then let´s talk. Three bedrooms, two full baths if possible, living room, dining room, family room, two-car garage. Anything else?”
“Any chance I can get a studio?” asked Will.
“On the wish list.”
“When do we move?” Anne asked.
“If we find something, at the start of the new semester. Okay?”
“What if you find something all of a sudden? Won´t they want a deposit or something to hold it until we can all see it?” Saul suggested.
“I can give them something, I suppose,” Mary said doubtfully.
“Look, I´ve got about three thousand dollars from the work I´ve sold at the stables and to Saul´s dad, and more coming. Why don´t we use that if we need it?”
“You put it in your bank?” Saul asked.
“Uh, no. Not yet. I´ve just got the checks in my room.”
“That´s not too safe,” Tom said.
“Why don´t you ask Sigrid´s advice next time we see her? Or Tom can,” Mary suggested.
“Yeah. You see, I haven´t put the money in my own account in case we get the business started up. I feel like it kind of belongs to all of us. I´d really like to put it where it will do the most good.”
“Thanks, Will. That´s great. After all, it´s really your work and your money.” Anne said.
“Just the same, I want to do it this way.”
When we went to supper, Sigrid joined us at our table. The guys all introduced themselves. Will made a point of sitting next to her.
“Sigrid, has Tom told you about how we´re thinking of starting a business?”
“Some of it, yes.”
“We´ve sold a few things, and I have around three thousand in checks. We need to get a bank account, I guess.”
“Right. Are there any employees yet? Are the checks made out to you?”
“No and Yes.”
“Have you registered the business or do you have a name for it?”
“No. We´re going to call it Still Waters Art, got a whole list of names for divisions and stuff, just not a lot of business yet.”
“Then it´s simple for now. Just go to your bank and open a new account in your name, Doing Business As Still Waters Art. Get the best deal with the lowest rates they´ll give you. You can always upgrade it later.”
“Who signs the checks?”
“You do, unless you give someone else rights.”
“For now, Will, keep it in your name, sole signature rights,” Saul advised.
“I suppose. Okay. Tell you what, Mary, I´ll get the account and give you a signed, blank check in case you need it.”
“What´s that about?” asked Sigrid.
Anne said, “We´re looking to rent a house next semester. Get away from the dorm.”
Sigrid turned to Will, “And what is the business? I guess it has something to do with your art work.”
Tom leaned over. “We´re not saying much yet, Sigrid. Will does some great drawings of horses, that´s one part. . . “
Saul added in a low voice, “The other things are nudes of Anne and Mary and erotic art of various kinds.”
“Like the nudes I saw up in your room.”
“Right,” Mary said.
“If it´s all that good, you´ll make a fortune, if you want my opinion. But for now, Will, keep it simple. Let the bank do the work for you.”
“Good advice. Thanks.
“Uh, Sigrid?”
“Yes, Will?”
“Umm, wait a second. Tom, you mind if I ask Sigrid to pose for me?”
“Will, it´s not up to me. Just ask her, it´s her body, her life.”
“Thank you, Tom. That is the way I feel about it.”
“Okay, I tossed a coin and made the wrong choice. Would you pose for me?”
“No, not the wrong choice. You were thoughtful to ask Tom, and he was right to say it´s up to me. Nude?”
“Yeah.”
“Sure. Let me know when.”
.oOo.
Mary worked with the two horses again that week. On Saturday, she took The Bay for his usual workout in the big ring. Sarah came by on her way somewhere.
“Want to come in for a minute? Ride him for a while?” Mary asked.
“Sure.”
Sarah opened the gate, came inside carrying a lasso. The Bay stiffened. Mary felt it and tried to soothe him. Sarah threw the rope toward one side of the ring. The Bay´s ears went flat back and he reared, turned and ran. When he got to the end of the ring, he just kept on running around the edge. Sarah quickly climbed the fence.
Mary had kept her seat when he reared, now leaned forward and put her arm along the horse´s straining neck. She rubbed him and talked in his ear. Gradually, he began to calm down and before too long Mary had him under control again. She walked him to the fence where Sarah was sitting on the top rail.
“Is that what you wanted?” Sarah asked.
Mary laughed a little. “Yeah. Thanks, I guess. It has something to do with the rope in the air. When you walked in with it, he got worried, but he was all right until you threw it. And then, when he was running, he ran right past the coil of rope at least three times without spooking. I´ll bet someone whipped him with the end of a rope.”
“What now?”
“Well, not today, but over the next few weeks, I´ll get him used to the rope. See if I can get him to understand he doesn´t have to be afraid of it. I´d like to see if he would let me work with a rope while I´m on his back.”
“I don´t think I´ll ride him today.”
“Probably be all right, but maybe that´s a good idea. Do me a favor?”
“Sure.”
“Open the gate, let me walk him out past the rope. Don´t open up until I get there and he´s past the rope, though.”
Mary walked The Bay to the gate, passing the rope that lay coiled near the fence. The Bay seemed not to mind the rope on the ground. He went easily out the gate, and Mary took him for walk though the woods and a brief canter down the ride. When she returned, the rope was gone from the ring.
In the office, Sarah asked, “You´re going home for Christmas, aren´t you?”
“Yes. I´ll be back about a week before the end of vacation, though. If the weather holds, I´ll try and work with both of them. Shame you don´t have a covered ring.”
“Never had the money. This place was built as a stable, not for real training, and the kind of things I can offer just pay the rent and enough to feed me. Sometimes I wonder if it´s worth it.”
“I know. It´s hard to have to work your ass off and find out at the end you´re making coolie´s wages. I hope it changes for you.”
“You just have a good holiday. I get along all right, you know. It´s just sometimes I wonder.”
.oOo.
The day before they left for home, Will asked Sigrid to meet them in the room at North College. They were all there, relaxing, ready to celebrate the end of the fall session.
When Sigrid arrived, Will took her into the bedroom.
“Oh, Will! It´s beautiful. Have the others seen it?”
“No. You´re first.”
Sigrid put her head around the door. “Come look at what Will did of me.”
They all crowded into the bedroom. Tom put his arm around Sigrid and they settled at the head of the bed together, looking at the picture on the wall. The others tried to look and not obscure their view.
Will´s study in pastels of Sigrid was vaguely Pre-Raphaelite. She posed standing, looking upward. Her nude body stretched as she reached toward something unseen. Though the detail was explicit, Will had drawn her as a sensual virgin, her purity as evident as the beauty and promise of her body. Around her, Will had suggested a few vines and branches, and her feet were at the edge of a stream.
“Will, you´ve done it again,” Saul said. All of them agreed.
“Will, is this for sale?” Anne asked him.
“Well, I don´t know. I sort of wanted to see if I could capture this. I´m going to keep it for a while, and I won´t sell it unless Sigrid says she doesn´t want it. Actually, while I think the feeling is right for her at this time, the style is a little more derivative than I like. It just sort of came out that way. I think the Pre-Raphaelites missed the boat.”
Sigrid got off the bed and went to Will. There were tears in her eyes. “It´s beautiful, Will. I love it. Thank you.” She put her arms around him and kissed him. Then she turned to the others. “I ought to hate him, you know. He´s shown everything there is to know about me.”
“What?” asked Tom incredulously.
“Will, if I´m wrong, tell me. He´s drawn nearly every pore and hair on my body, I think. So it´s me in reality, today. He´s somehow made you see that I´m still a virgin. I´m reaching for something out of sight, but it´s either not there, or beyond my reach, and I´m standing on the brink of something, and it´s not really clear what. Will, if that´s not a Pre-Raphaelite allegory, nothing is.”
Will actually blushed. “Sorry.”
She hugged him again. “Silly. I love it, and you are right in everything it says. You´ve given me something to think about. May I borrow it, take it home over Christmas? I promise to bring it back right after. I want to be able to look at it a lot.”
“Your folks won´t have a problem with it?” Saul asked.
“No. No way. Mom was an art student, and Dad loves art.”
“But that´s their pure little girl up there wandering around in the buff. And you posed in front of a man in the altogether.” Mary pointed out. “My folks would go bananas.”
“Oh, Mary. That´s too bad. Especially when Will has done so many wonderful things of you. You can´t show them anything?”
“Hardly.”
“Will, will you let me borrow it?”
“Of course. Enjoy it.”