The Bluestocking 2022-23

him for his interest in this story. I’ll do what I can do.”

His face lit up. “Oh, Quinn—”

“But,” I grinned, shutting him up at the right time, “if I really manage to pull it off, I’m asking for three of Maxwell’s paintings.”

“Deal.”

Three days later, I sat down with Billy at my living room table, with piles of artwork, family photographs, bank account balances, and emails scattered everywhere. “Where did you get all of this?”

“Jon left me his personal belongings,” said Billy. “By the way, how did you convince your boss?”

I stared at him in the eye. “Cost me two Maxwell paintings for the magazine.”

“Great,” he said, “Now let’s get to it.”

We flipped through everything. After days of hard work, the story of a young, doomed artist emerged from the pile of chaos—and of course, from his adequately talented paintings. “This one.” I tapped on a chunk of art. Dark blue and eerie gray brushstrokes filled the canvas, centered with the silhouette of a child. “It’s supposed to convey his unhappy childhood, which connects with the neglect he experienced?”

“Shadows of the Blues, yes.” Billy grabbed my hand and removed it from the painting. “And be careful with the art. It’s priceless.”

I shrugged. “Sure, whatever you say. But we need more than a so-called ‘sad’ story of a privileged artistic boy being forced into economic difficulty. We need something that

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