“Next he purchased small tubes of oils….”

“In the beginning, he first tried watercolors, but not knowing how to use them, and, thinking that their watery nature came ready from the tube….”

“And forever more, the ancient scripture and his parents had joined. The value of two or more. Two thousand miles northeast, still years before….”

“Where two or more come together in my name….”

“Evening masses were best remembered in the old wood church he grew up in.“

“Macario’s hotel was the modernized fortress playing visual counterpoint to….”

“The long afternoons with late evenings before the sun would set, meant the art show was….”

“On her third trip to Galveston to visit with Arturo, Rosetta….”

“They both grinned quietly, remembering their newness together….”

“…entering this apartment on the second floor, with tree views through the open wood windows….”

“Painting had just done the same thing for him.“

“… what he loved most about the original impressionists’ works.”

“Rosetta glanced down at the list of sandwiches and lunch dishes.“

“It took Arturo three days to convince Rosetta to go to lunch with him.“

“Lunch, for Arturo, had, over the years, become an art of patience and time….”

“One set of knowns helped reveal another set of unknowns.“

“Even with attention-seeking Sundance, Arturo and Rosetta were bees to….”

“The breeze whispered more, but too quietly to grasp. Arturo didn’t mind, his heart was filling with expectations….”

“Arturo grasped a small canvas, inlaid with soft overlapping rows of wide brush strokes. Blue-grey, like worn bolts on an old wheel….”

“ It would be lunch time soon Arturo sensed….”

“ …at the far end of the table, across from the side he had chosen to go down….”

“Her clash of ancestors….”

“Galveston, initially, proved almost as problematic as it did promising.“

“The sergeant reached down to the plain wood table beside him, pinched a small safety razor, and lifted it up to the room.“

“In the Air Force, shaving everyday is like the sun rising, expected.“

“In the early spring, with fog on the waves, Arturo moved to Galveston. History shows, he reflected, the weather is less predictable there….”

“After another try, with an artistically supportive woman….”

“Dancers, he quickly found, like himself as an artist….”

“‘They let you do that in school,’ asked his youngest, a boy.“

“‘See you at the show,’ he whisper-read, quietly remembering why he needed to shave.“

“In that instant, from the words of a kind stranger, Arturo made a decision.”