Joy Argento - Carrie and Hope (10 page)

Carrie looked through the viewfinder and snapped a few pictures. She moved around Hope and snapped a few more. Carrie moved the camera away from her face to look at Hope directly.
“How
ya
doing?”

“So far so good,” she smiled.

“You are doing great.”

Carrie walked over and stood by her easel. “I just need to get a few more from over here so that I have the correct view.” She pushed the shutter several more times. Carrie did a quick review of the photos and shut the camera off. She set it down and picked up her drawing pencil.

Carrie looked at Hope for several long moments before making a few broad sweeping strokes on the drawing pad, set upright on the easel in front of her. “Doing okay?”

“I am doing fine. Stop worrying about me. You just draw, and make me look beautiful.” Hope smiled.

“That won’t be hard to do because you really are beautiful, especially when you smile like that,” Carrie said.

Hope blushed, but continued to smile. “Thanks.” She looked down, breaking the eye contact with Carrie.

“Don’t be embarrassed. I have seen hundreds, maybe thousands of beautiful naked women and you rate right up there in the top one or two percent.”
Carried grinned as she glanced at Hope.

“Thousands, huh?”
Hope brought her eyes back up to Carrie’s. “And where did you happen to see all of these women?” Hope felt a confusing pang of jealousy, despite the fact that she knew Carrie was only joking.

Carrie continued to draw as she answered. “Okay, I may be exaggerating. It was probably more like nine or ten. They were models for my drawing classes in college. And now that I think about it, you are definitely the most beautiful one.” She paused for a moment.
“Really.”

Several minutes passed without any talking while Carrie sketched, her eyes traveling between Hope and her sketchpad.

Carrie broke the silence. “So, how is everything going? How is work?”

“I’m doing
good
. Work is fine for the most part, but I did something really stupid.”

“I can’t imagine that. What did you do?” Carrie’s pencil was still as she focused her attention on Hope waiting for the answer.

“They are starting a bowling team for our office and when they asked me to join it, I did.” She shook her head. “I told them no at first, but they kept bugging me about it because they were one person short. They wore me down and I gave in and joined.”

“And why exactly is that a stupid thing to do?” Carrie went back to drawing as she talked.

“Because I don’t bowl.
Not really. I haven’t done it since I was a teenager and then I sucked at it.”

“You are in luck then, because I am a great bowler. Not just a good bowler, I mean a great bowler. Do you know what a turkey is?” Carrie’s sketch was starting to take shape and was beginning to look like a female body.

“It’s three strikes in a row, isn’t it?” Hope’s nose was beginning to itch.

“Oh yeah, it’s that, too. I was thinking of the big heavy bird that we eat at Thanksgiving. I was just testing your knowledge of animals.”
Carried giggled at her lame joke.

“You’re a turkey,” Hope said laughing.

“Back to my bowling tales.
I really am a decent bowler and if you beg me I can teach you to bowl. So what do you say? Want to beg me?”

Hope thought about it for a moment. “Oh please, oh please, oh please teach me to bowl. How was that? Was that good begging?” Hope’s smile was wide.

“
Wow, that
was great begging. Okay, I’ll do it, seeing you asked so nice. When does the bowling league start?”

Hope scrunched up her face. “Next week.”

“Next week? We better get moving on this then. What are you doing tomorrow?” Carrie examined her sketch, moving her chair back, so she could look at it from a distance.

Hope tried to look over the top of the sketchpad to see if she could she anything that Carrie had drawn. She couldn’t.

“I am having breakfast with my mother and sister at nine, but then I’m free the rest of the day. What were you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that you didn’t invite me out to breakfast with your mother and sister.”

Hope laughed. “Believe
me,
I did you a favor not inviting you. A good time will not be had by all. I can take my sister and my mother each by themselves, but together they make me crazy. They don’t stop talking and they always have better ideas on how I should run my life than I do.”

“Then tomorrow when you can’t take any more you just tell them you have to leave because you have a date with a really good looking, really hot bowling coach and you come and get me. And then we bowl, baby. We bowl.” Pencil still in hand, Carrie made the motion of throwing an imaginary bowling ball.

“All right.
Let me get this straight so I can remember it.” Hope looked up as if she was trying to file the information away. “Good looking, really hot bowling coach.” She brought her eyes back down so she could look at Carrie.
“All right.
I think I have it. I can plan on leaving there around eleven. How about I come and get you around eleven-thirty?
If you are serious about helping me.”

“Of course I’m serious. When have you ever known me not to be serious?” Carrie crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out at Hope. “But seriously,” she said
,
 
”
I would love to help you become a better bowler. And eleven-thirty would be fine. Now hold your head still for a couple of minutes and then I’ll let you take a break.”

Hope stopped talking and held her head very still. Carrie tilted her head sideways looking at Hope. She
squinted
her eyes so all she saw as blurry shapes and values, without any of the detail.

“Tip you head up a little and slightly to the left.” Hope did as she was told. “Just a little more,” Carrie said. “And don’t look directly at me,
look
a just a little up and left.” Hope moved a little more.
“Right there.
Perfect.” Carrie continued to draw, working on the head and face. “Okay, that’s it for now. Hang on and I’ll get you a robe to put on.”

Carrie returned with a soft pink cotton robe and handed it to Hope.

“Thanks,” Hope said. Carrie turned her back while Hope unwrapped the long cloth from around
herself
and slipped off the stool to put the robe on. “All set,” she said.

Carrie turned back around. “Would you like some tea? I have regular tea and I have some flavored herbal tea. And of course I have fresh baked cookies.”

Hope followed Carrie out of the room and into the kitchen. “Tea would be great and I guess I could force one of your cookies down.”

Carrie surveyed the cupboard in the kitchen. “I have regular tea, Lemon/Ginger Twist, Raspberry Delight, or Oolong Tea. What is your pleasure?”

“Raspberry Delight sounds good.” Hope sat in the kitchen chair, pulling the bathrobe around her tighter. She retied the belt to keep it closed.

Carrie put the teakettle on to boil and took two cups down from the shelf. “Help
yourself
to the cookies,” she said, placing the plate full of chocolate chip cookies in the middle of the table.

Hope pulled a paper napkin from the holder on the table and took a cookie. She bit into it and her face lit up like a delighted child. “Wow, this is so good. I think I’ll give up regular food and just come over here and live on your baked goods.”

“Okay,” Carrie said pulling up a chair. “No need to eat yucky carrots when you can eat sweets.”

They sat and talked until the whistle on the kettle pierced through the air. “That is such an obnoxious noise,” Carrie said removing it from the burner and turning the knob to off. She poured the hot water over the tea bags. “Would you like milk, or sugar with yours? Or I think I have some honey.” She set the cup of tea down in front of Hope.

“No, this is fine just like this.” She reached for another cookie, letting her tea steep.

“How are you doing? Are you comfortable posing?” Carrie asked as she sat across from Hope.

“It’s fine. The time goes fast because we are talking. When I did modeling for the art class back in college, the room was totally quiet. No music or anything. The only thing you could hear was the professor’s shoes squeaking as he walked around. It drove me crazy and I felt like time stood still. This is so much better. I don’t mind this at all.”

“Good,” Carrie said, “I would hate it if you were uncomfortable posing for me.”

Hope took a bite of her cookie. “Even if it
was
difficult to pose for you, any pain of posing would be compensated by the taste of these cookies.”

“You make a great model. I think these paintings are going to come out nice.”

Hope smiled as she continued to eat her cookie.
    

It didn’t take long for them to finish their tea and cookies and head back to the art room. Carrie reposed Hope into the correct position and started again on her preliminary drawing.

They talked continuously as Carrie drew, her attention going between the drawing in front of her and Hope. After a while Carrie said, “It should be just about break time, but if you can stay like that for about ten more minutes, we can call it a night. I think I’ll have enough to start the under painting from this.”

“That’s fine,” Hope replied. She had been having such a good time talking to Carrie that she totally forgot that she hadn’t moved in quite a while.

It took Carrie another fifteen minutes to finish the drawing. “Sorry about that, took a little longer than I thought,” Carrie said as she stood. “Go ahead and get dressed. I’ll meet you back in the living room. Do you want some juice or something else to drink?”

“Sure, whatever you have will be fine. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

Carrie left the room, closing the door behind her. Hope was a little stiff as she slipped off the stool. She twisted her neck and shoulders to loosen them up. She folded the blue cloth up into a neat pile and left it on the stool before getting dressed and joining Carrie in the living room.

Chapter 11

Hope tied the bowling shoes on her feet. She scrunched up her nose as a look of disgust crossed her face, her features drawn tight. “Are you sure these are sanitary?” she asked Carrie.

“They spray them after every customer. At least that’s the theory. If you want, we can buy you a pair of bowling shoes before we practice next time.”

Hope stood up. “Yes. I want to do that. Can we go get them right now?”

“No.” Carrie laughed. “We can’t go now. You will just have to take your chances that you won’t catch some fatal disease from those, because right now we are going to practice bowling.”

“But they are so ugly.
Ugly, germ-infested bowling shoes.”
Hope followed Carrie to the hard plastic seats.

“Since when are you a
germaphobe
?
You play in people’s mouth’s all day. I would think you would be very used to germs.”

“I’m not a
germaphobe
. It’s just the thought of putting my feet into shoes that have been worn by millions of other people is gross.”

“I doubt millions of people have worn that pair of shoes. It probably wasn’t more than ten thousand.” Carrie smiled.

“You aren’t helping here.”

“Come on we have to get to work. Forget about the shoes for now.” She unzipped the bowling ball bag that she brought with her. She pulled out the sixteen-pound ball and handed it to Hope. “How does that feel?” She asked her.

Hope thought about it for a moment. “It feels hard and round,” she answered.

“Ha, ha,” Carrie said. “I mean the weight. Is it too heavy?”

“Yeah, I am thinking that this is too heavy for me.” She put her fingers and
thumb
into the holes and held it up with difficulty. “Yeah, I am pretty sure it’s too heavy. I feel like such a wimp.”

“You’re no wimp,” Carrie reassured her. “We’ll find you a ball that works for you. Come on.” She walked over to the rack of balls lined up by the wall. She picked up several balls and examined them, feeling the weight of each in her hands. She handed Hope a twelve pound ball with pink and white swirls. “What do you think of this one?” Carrie asked.

“It’s pretty,” Hope said, with a smile. “But that’s probably not what you meant, huh?”

“Smart-ass.
No, I meant the weight and finger holes.”

Hope slipped her fingers and thumb into it. They slid in easily. She held the ball for several seconds. “I think this one would be fine.”

“Let’s give it a try then.”
 
Carrie and Hope walked back to the lane.

“Okay, lady, show me what you got,” Carrie said, settling into the hard plastic seat.

“You aren’t going to show me how to do it first?” Hope frowned. She looked like a disappointed child.

“No, I want to see what you can do first. So, go ahead and I’ll watch.”

Hope held the ball up to her nose. Her left hand supported the ball from the underside while her right hand gripped the ball with the finger and thumb holes. She took three awkward steps forward, stopped completely and swung her right arm with the bowling ball, down and back. She bent slightly at the waist as she brought the ball forward, flipping her hand completely over so that her thumb faced down when she released the ball.

The ball traveled only a short distant before landing with a slight thud in the gutter to continue its journey down the alley. Hope stood there and watched the ball until it was completely out of sight. The pins were lifted in the air, and the pin sweeper did its job. She turned to face Carrie. “How many points was that?” she grinned.

Carrie tried her best not to laugh but a small snort escaped anyway. “Um, let me think. Gutter balls are zero points, I think.” She couldn’t hold back the laugh this time. Hope joined her.

“I told you I suck at this.”

“That’s why I’m here, to help you suck less.” Hope’s bowling ball made its rounds and was safely deposited back on the ball return to wait for her.