I selected two paintings from among the group he laid out for me. As he pulled them out one by one, some I had seen before and some I had not, I let my heart be the judge. It lurched forward when I caught the first cursory glimpse of a sad, alienated man in a room with an upright piano. Everything about the spirit of the piece resonated with me, and though I did not say so immediately, I knew immediately that I wanted it.

Gordon left me to make my selections without him, so I gingerly pulled the piece from behind the others in the stack. On the back of the canvas he had written "Only the one who knows longing knows what I've suffered." (Goethe) Obviously, I had not seen that quote that also functions as the title before, but it seemed to confirm all that I intuited in an instant.

The other piece, equally tender in its rendering, is for a dear friend, so I don't want to describe it here. I will say this, Gordon's empathy with the "other" as expressed through his work is really remarkable. My sister commented to me on this last night. She told me how much she values his ability to paint in something other than "his own image."

We got together "on the fly," because Sarah and Michael were having a rather serious conversation, and I didn't want the weight of another presence in the house to hem them in. I also didn't want to have to stay scarce, so I called up G and asked him if he was up for hanging out with me for a bit.

So I got to see the house where he's staying for the first time. One of his two roommates, Jack, was around. I noted the atypically sparse introduction Gordon provided. "Jack, this is Kate. Kate, Jack." I shook Jack's hand, said the requisite "It's nice to meet you, Jack," and started to walk away.

Jack then asked if me if Gordon and I are coworkers. I told him that we aren't, so he asked how it is that we know each other. Normally Gordon would have taken care of that by adding the detail in his initial introduction (i.e., This is my friend Kate), perhaps adding that he knows me through a mutual friend. Or maybe he would have said "Kate is here to look at some of my paintings" as an explanation of what I was doing there.

In any case, there I was having to explain something basic and fairly common, and all I could come up with is "We're old friends." Jack accepted that, though he seemed to be waiting for more details.

After giving me the grand tour of the place, Gordon and I sat out on the stoop of the house--He wanted to smoke a cigarette. I drank one of Ralph's root beers while he did so, and we talked amiably enough. He was very tired, so he was less engaged than usual, though not fully detached.

Before leaving we went back up to his bedroom so I could look at the alligator satchel he wanted to show me. While there, I took the fortune cookie fortune I had in my pocket and placed it on his desk. It read "Don't be hasty. Prosperity is about to knock on your door."

It will give him something to wonder about when he finds it.