273 Congress Portland ME, 04101 printbookstore.com OPEN DAILY 10:00AM 7:00PM (207) 536-4778 TO NOW AVAILABLE Keep Portland Weird. (Wee-id) Surbscribeto PortlandMonthly 207-775-4339 100 p o r t l a n d monthly magazine Fiction paintings by Linden Frederick - clockwise from top left: “takeout,” “Mansard,” “Dish” H e watches how gracefully she circulates from table to table, how she tenderly pats an old man’s shoulder and stops to ask a woman about a new litter of puppies. Everyone in the diner knows her, and they smile as she passes by, as if they’ve just glimpsed the sun on a winter’s night. Does the girl wonder about the world outside this café, this town? Her shoes are badly scuffed and she wears a cheap dime store wrist- watch. Does she dream about owning nicer things, a new dress, shoes from Italy? How can this be enough for her? A nd then his mind returned to his children. They were quiet, he thought. Too quiet. Were they angry with him? All three had gone to college, and his sons had moved to Massachusetts, his daughter to New Hamp- shire; there seemed to be no jobs for them here. His grandchildren were okay; they all did well in school. It was his children he wondered about as he walked. Last year at Denny’s fiftieth high school reunion, he had shown his eldest boy his yearbook, and his son had said, “Dad! They called you Frenchie?” Oh sure, Denny said, with a chuckle. “It’s not funny,” his son had said, and gotten up and walked away, leaving Denny with his yearbook open on the kitchen table. Tess Gerritsen, Takeout Painting: Takeout, 2016. Oil on linen. Elizabeth Strout, The Walk Painting: Dish, 2016. Oil on linen