Part 77

Paul didn't find it difficult or boring to be a model. He had to lean against somebody or other's motorcycle. Elizabeth had borrowed it from a friend.

"It's more challenging to be an artist than I might have thought without knowing you like this," he said. "It's not all paint and brushes, but also finding props. You've got to find a model. You've got to find somebody with a motorcycle. Somebody willing to lend you their motorcycle. Did you ride it here yourself?"

"No," she laughed, "the owner brought it here to the track. Helped me set it up just right."

She told him a little bit about her life, which helped pass some of the time.

"All physicians except you, in your family," he observed. "And your grandmother's a nurse. How did you manage to be different? Never mind. It's a good thing. Are you going to your grandmother's for Thanksgiving?"

"No, she's in Africa, doing some nursing over there. She will be back in the spring, but she wanted to go and do this, since she retired, for the good of mankind, you know. She raised my father who already has done a lot of that by working over in Bosnia for several years. And my mother is a doctor too, and being married to my father, she's the type doing good work in Bosnia, too."

"Haven't things settled down over there?"

"Not enough!"

"So when your sister graduates from medical school, do you think she will go to Bosnia? Or Africa? Or South America, or some island in the Pacific."

Elizabeth looked thoughtful. "I don't know," she said. "It will be interesting to find out."

"How odd for your parents to go over there when you were still in high school! Mind you, I could see going over there, but I think I'd have waited until you graduated from high school, or even college."

"Would you have? That's nice. Though the thing is, they didn't plan to be gone for more than a year, but then they realized we didn't want to leave Port Charles, you know, we were in high school then. So they thought it was just as well they stay there. My sister went to college over in England to be closer to them, and they have visited her there a lot, and I've been to London to see them there. They showed us pictures of the place they're staying at. I'm less worried now. Like you said, it's not so much of a war zone over there. My parents started this clinic or something that has been growing and doing well, so they keep at it."

"Do they have any psychiatrists?"

"They were talking about that. What people have been through over there is horrendous, obviously."

"What are you doing for Thanksgiving, then?"

"I usually go to one of my grandmother's friends, like Nurse Spencer's family."

"Drop by my place, if you can, later. My family is coming over my house."

"You and Quinn are 'doing Thanksgiving?'"

"Mostly me. I don't know how much help Quinn plans to be!"

He drew her a map to his house.