Her morning routine consisted of eating, dressing, listening to morning TV, applying make-up and then lastly, drying her completely out of control hair. All of these activities took place in her bedroom. Gwen’s bedroom was 10’x10’ which is large bedroom by New York City standards. Her grandmother’s wrought iron bed was against the exposed brick wall. Above the bed was a copy of van Gogh’s Café Terrace on the Place de Forum; her cousin Oliver painted it as a graduation present for her.
In the reflection of her mirror, she saw the painting. It had been disturbed. Slowly, she stopped drying her hair and turned around. Gwen stared at the painting. She quietly grabbed her phone and sat on the bed, eating her oatmeal just staring at the painting and wondering if she should place the call.
Today, the rest of the world got busy with the morning rush to work. Gwen just held her phone in her left hand and stared at the painting. She never thought any of the stories were true. Her grandfather had made it all up. Right? Why her? Why now?
Finally, she dialed Max, her brother. He answered in his usually morning voice of a grunt.
“How is your van Gogh?”
“What?”
“Your van Gogh? What does it look like?”
Max pulled the covers off of his head, “What time is it?”
“6:55 AM”
“You are such a pain in the ass,” and he hung up.
The Road Menders was painted in 1889 by Vincent van Gogh; it depicts workers repaving Cours de l’Est, a road in Saint-Remy. There were several versions of the painting. One was painted en plein air; the other in van Gogh’s room at the Saint Paul de Mausole Asylum. That is the official providence of both paintings.
A third painting existed out of sight and knowledge of the public eye. This secret painting resided in the Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen in the living room of a fourth floor walk up belonging to Max Dumont.
Gwen sat on her bed and waited. Fifteen minutes later her phone rang.
“Gwenny, is your painting upside down?”
“Yes, Yours?”
“Missing”
