Bette called Jurgen in Geneva and reminded him of their agreement from his visit.  He was putting together a show of Nordic designers that would definitely want to travel and be seen in the U.S.  She arranged for that show for next summer.  When everyone was sizzling from the stifling summer heat, people could come to the CAC and get Nordic cool with these edgy works.

In between arranging the major seasonal exhibitions for the next eight to ten seasons, a job that really should have been left up to her replacement, Bette was also writing her 500 words for Margaret Hannon.  She had spoken on obscenity, pornography, and art numerous times, but she really wanted to talk about how the works weren’t decadent, but censorship would undoubtedly lead to the general decay of art.  Her text was a comparison of the darkness of censorship and the light of art.  She was quite pleased with what she had written and faxed it to Margaret Hannon’s office. 

The last thing she did for the week was send a $5.00 check to Eileen Strickland.  After she had spoken with Bert and the Porter family lawyer, she learned that she’d have nothing but problems and would be paying taxes through the nose on its actual value if she accepted the Calder as a gift.  She had to buy it.  Bette talked to Eileen and explained the predicament.  Eileen kept laughing and saying she had no idea the value of that ‘little picture.’  They spent forty-five minutes haggling with Bette making an initial offer of $5,000, probably about a quarter of a million less than its worth and Eileen settling on $5.00.

* * * * *

Two and a half weeks had passed since their first session together.  Between Tina’s weekly individual counseling, Bette’s twice a week therapy, and now couples’ counseling, they were spending a fortune, but both agreed that it had been well worth the cost.

Bette and Tina were seated on the patio of a nearby Pan-Asian noodle restaurant.  Bette held her bowl Chinese-style and used chopsticks to pull the contents from it.  She chewed, then placed the bowl on the table.  “Tina, I’m not ready for that.”