Logos and Hammer

I walked in taking pictures of the ceremony, using the camera as a shield, it makes being in crowds more bearable. The whole day I’d been looking and waiting for some formal announcements or something. Maybe I missed it. I had a bag full of lenses, an extra body and about twenty five memory cards, when I found her in an arched column of identically dressed women, long white gauzy tunics with softly embroidered edges, black yoga pants, thong sandals and head wraps, kneeling to eye level of the children, arms extended and massive shallow reed baskets heavy with fresh fruits and breads rest on their palms. When their baskets were emptied an older woman would tap them on the shoulder and they were allowed to stand and leave. I had taken the last piece of fruit from her basket, a sad little bruised and scarred plum, said thank you and was walking away, when I realized it was Trulie. The prettiest little girl who I’d witnessed being harassed all afternoon by the neighbor boy Krishna, who simply will not stop pinching her whenever she stood too near. Every time he pinched the thick boned, dark skin girl, she’d turn and kiss him and Krishna would stomp away grumbling and rubbing at his face. Trulie stood to attention, tucked the basket under her arm and waited to be excused. I knew she was exhausted, but she appeared elated. I was just walking away when the little girl who responded to pinches with kisses starts walking up to her, I whipped out my camera and let the shutter fly. She tugged at Trulie’s hip. Trulie knelt back to the same posture that she’d been in at least as long as I had been there and faced the little brown girl in her dated polka dot dress and Mary Janes. The little girl, motioned to whisper, but almost yelled through her cupped hands into Trulie’s ear. “I want to be just like you when I grow up”.  The she runs off in a shrieking blur of joy, straight at and stops next to Krishna, stooping slightly, so that she stands below the top of his gaze. Trulie stood, turned to walk away, caught my eye and collapsed to her knees weeping.

And that’s how we got this painting.