Continuing with The Wishing Well

" Did I ever tell you about Irene?"

"No, " I said.

Les did not take his eyes off his work. By now, he was adding ivy to the sides of the well. This work was much too good for what they were getting for free.

"I was in Maine painting sea scapes. Have you ever been to Maine?" I had not, but I waited for the rest of the story.

"This one day, I decided that I had seen enough water to last me a life time. I wanted to paint something in a pasture, something with a cow in the picture and lots of grass and perhaps some trees scattered about in a meadow. I had seen such a place, and decided to go there and work on this new project. Les straighted up. I suppose you can only work in a crouch for so long.

"So, I take my paints, and my eisel and canvas to this meadow, find everything I want, and I begin to paint. All of a sudden, something falls on my head. It is not a nut, it is not that kind of fruit tree, I ignore it, and continue painting when again, something hits me on the head. That is when I look up."

"What did you see?"

" A girl. She couldn't have been more than sixteen, but hey, I was merely 20 or so. I gazed up into the most beautiful brown eyes I had ever seen. Her face was angelic. Although she had an impish smile on her face. "

"What are you doing up there," I asked?
"Thowing rocks at you," she answered.
"And , why would you be doing this?"
"She gigled in response to my question."

"Her name was Irene Dunn, like the actress, but no relation to the actress. I helped her down from the tree, she probably didn't need any help, she got up the tree by herself. I can still feel her in my arms as I helped her to the ground. She was light, and airy. She had substance, boy did she." A twinkle was in Les's eye as he said this.

Going back to work on the well, he again assumed the posture of an artist at work.

"So, what was the rest of the afternoon like?"

"I painted, she and I talked, we got to know one another. Eventually, we became lovers."

"Eventually?"

"Yes, I had to teach her to stay out of trees and not throw rocks on people's heads." Les roared.