"The next day I interviewed Stuart Raft to be the manager of the plant."
-0-
"You have good qualifications. I wonder why would you like to live in this place. You could be working in a big city, in a more prestigious outfit."
"I like the outdoors, the wilderness. I cannot get that in a big city. As for more prestigious… well, yes, but then the competition is fierce, too. I would rather be a big fish in a small pond."
"So, this place would suit you?"
"Yes… I must warn you that I have a condition that does not allow me to be available at certain times. But I learned how to arrange things that this not a problem."
-0-
There was something that bothered me when he said that. But it was just a vague feeling. And before I could think more about it, the phone rang. It was Professor Romney."
-0-
Miss Hoover, so you caught a traveling dream? Those are not easy to notice. And you tracked it down from person to person?' You are amazing!"
-0-
"Romney had it right. Traveling dreams are not easy to detect, because people usually do not compare dreams…. In the show they had to have the actress playing Irina go in full villain mode, going "mwhaaaa, ha, ha" and stroking her mustache as she explained how the thing worked. After all, they had written the characters as being clueless, and clueless people do not catch traveling dreams… Lord, they made me so clueless… But I guess I was the ingenue, and ingenues are supposed to be dumb... Well, I gave him the rundown."
-0-
"So, the last person to receive it was Louis Benchley."
"Danny had it two nights ago, and the door opened."
"So, Louis had it last night. That door will not open in the first night. It will be tonight. I will go there right now so that I can interrupt it then."
-0-
"And that would have been it, except that Louis liked to drink, and he went to the bar, where he met Albert Pruitt"
-0-
"There we are, Albert. Too men mourning their future."
"Why you say that?'
"We both wanted to be great painters…Instead, we are what we are."
"I may not be a great painter, and not the best father. But I am a painter, not as good as I thought I was, but I still can do good work. And my daughter… my daughter is OK, and she forgives me my failings."
"And I…"
"And you could paint to. Not as good as you imagined you were, but still quite good."
"It could not be."
"No reason why you cannot do it again. Nothing wrong with your eyes, nor with your hands. You just need to grab a brush and start on a canvas. Your sister is not here to forbid you, and then no one expects you to run the plant. So go ahead and follow your dream:'
"Maybe… after what I did…
"Yeah, you did a lousy thing to Eagleton. But that is no reason not to pick up the brush."
"I am a failure."
"Only if you do not grab this chance, only if you throw it away."
Pruitt left and Louis took another drink. His eyes became heavy, the afternoon sun hitting his face make him drowsy. He dropped his head…
-0-
"You killed me! And you are a failure! Failure! Failure!"
Louis ran till he reached the door. But then he had a paintbrush in his hand.
"I am not a failure yet!" he shouted.
The door opened, and Heather Mattox stepped out.
"I will take it up from here"