Bon Voyage. . . C'est la Vie

Red is leaving, going to Europe to live with her boyfriend.  She is gone.  I don't wish to write some schmaltzy tribute that no one cares about.  She is trouble, but not more than she is worth.  She propped me up this past year a bit or a lot, depending on where she might have gone.  She is a gypsy and a rover and sweet as apple butter.  I gave her the keys to my studio and access to everything I have there.  All she did was make it better. . . organize things. . . clean it up.  We drank too much too often, usually with a dinner somewhere in the evening, either too early or too late, but we always had fun.  I think I looked like a client when we were out together.  Surely, you could see in people's eyes, that is the only way that I could have dinner with a girl like that.  The staff at the sushi restaurant were deeply suspicious for awhile, I think.  The Asian women loved her hair and pale skin.  They would compliment her much to my chagrin, for I am not good at letting others have the attention I so deserve, so I would say she was ugly.  Although I spend so much money there, however, they would never side with me.

But she is young and hates being where she grew up, and she has an opportunity to get out.  She says I made this place tolerable.  Maybe, but we never did enough.  There are a billion things to do anywhere, but there is work (at least for me) and the rest of life's problems to take away the time to do almost anything at all.  We almost had a few days in New York.  Oh, I would have looked grand there in the museums and galleries and restaurants and bars.  But, of course, that never happened.

She came over last night to say goodbye.  She was leaving she said.  When?  Tomorrow.  Just like that.  I was a disappointment, I guess, but we went to a nice dinner after which I did not feel well enough to do much.  We came back to my house and I sat and told her tales of past glory and even showed her pictures to prove it, boring stuff like going to a favorite uncle's house for a visit.  It was Halloween and she brought candy to give to the children who barely came.  Halloween with Red.  It passed pleasantly.

I guess, as much as I've tried not to, I've made a schmaltzy tribute after all.  O.K., then, that's the way it will be.  Bon Voyage, old girl.  C'est la vie.