“That was what the piece was about.” Alynn was pleased at Bette’s extensive knowledge of her work and how readily she included Alyson and asked for help.

“Mother Bette is right. In a retrospective it would be a glaring omission.”

“Exactly. There has to be some way we can reference that work. I feel incredibly privileged to have seen it.”

“You saw Season in Hell?” Alyson asked incredulously as she’d only read about it.

“I wrote my graduate thesis on it.” Bette said somewhat shyly.

“That was you? You wrote that piece that was published in the Art Forum?” Now it was Allyn that showed incredulity. Bette was nervous that maybe she shouldn’t have revealed that tidbit of information. She didn’t want Allyn changing her mind or showing some of that hot redheaded temperament.

“It was crude. I think I’m a better critical writer now.”

“I was furious. You were the first person in eighteen years that had penetrated my anonymity.”

“Well I had to scale three fences just to get close to it. I thought I was going to get shot at.” Bette chuckled.

“You almost were shot at but it was the best article that’s ever been written about my work. I mean you really understood what I was going after.”

“I attended your lecture series the semester you taught at Yale.”

“So you must have studied with Sy Stillman?”

“Oh my God he hated me.”

“Did Sy give you that exercise where you had to write about a Vasarely after a story by Borges?”

”Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius that was the story I chose. Reality and perception labyrinth of time and space.”

Bette and Allyn reminisced about their time at Yale. Without realizing it Bette had finished everything on her breakfast plate. Maria was pleased when she came out to clear the dishes and she gave Bette her best smile.

Alyson and Allyn enjoyed the silent interaction between Bette and Maria. They smiled at each other conspiratorially knowing that Maria would be forcing healthy meals on Bette the entire weekend. She had a penchant for cooking and she was overjoyed to have a house guest to cook for and an extra mouth to feed.

Alyson loved seeing her mother so engaged in the conversation and hearing her laughter when Bette regaled them with more stories about her nutty professor. She’d worried when Allyn became reclusive, and for the past twenty years had hardly let anyone into her world but somehow the charismatic Bette Porter had managed to infiltrate the barriers. Alyson was impressed with the mocha beauty and had no worries that Bette was the right choice for an undertaking of this magnitude.