Epilogue
Desmond couldn’t get the brokenness of Claire’s face out of his head. It was like it was etched there permanently, and he wasn’t sure if he could ever forget it. Since the image wasn’t going anywhere, he used it as motivation to get as many things together as he could, starting with her alarm system.
The very next day, he had the remnants of Athena cleaned up, removed, and the alarm company installing her new system. It wasn’t the most state of the art system, but he would rest assured she was taken care of, and if something happened, there would be plenty of documentation. Seven cameras installed, five in the main show room, two in the office, two for the back door – one facing the door and one facing the pavement – and two for the front door.
Unlike most retail security systems, this one actually saved the footage until someone deleted it. He was going to have to talk to Claire about whether or not she wanted to be in charge of reviewing the footage or if she wanted him to hire someone for her. Now was not the time, though, and he resigned himself to doing one more job until he had that talk.
The next task was the Athena statue. He could have just bought her a new one, but some of Claire’s words about energy and auras and intention had sunk in, and he decided to see if he could have the statue repaired, or maybe even repair it himself.
He distracted Claire with thoughts of reviewing security footage all day and went to visit where he had the statue remains delivered. He couldn’t decide if he wanted to repair it so that it looked new, or repair it so that the scars were plainly visible. Both ways had advantages, and both had their disadvantages.
After a little bit of internet searching, he thought he had the answer. Now it was just a matter of figuring out if Claire would be interested. Fortunately, for once, the universe provided the solution.
“Hey,” Claire answered her phone as though distracted, and Desmond realized he hadn’t figured out how to ask her which she preferred without revealing that he was repairing Athena.
“Hey, yourself. Do we want to talk about the engagement party?”
“Did you propose to me just to get me to plan another party with you?” she said, both amused and unbelieving.
“Of course not! It’s just a nice perk.”
“I can’t talk about it yet. I’m more focused on the fact that I have to look at security footage. I don’t suppose you hired a guy to be in charge of all this? If so, he should be doing this, not me. Going through it every day is the most boring thing I’ve ever done, and I’ll remind you that I do my own bookkeeping.”
“Hey now. Frank would have some things to say about bookkeeping being boring,” Desmond defended, just to hear her rant some more. He had never gotten around to asking her if she had wanted to handle the footage herself or not, but clearly, he was going to have to hire someone to do it.
“Yes, and he would agree with me. I’ve heard him call it boring once or twice. Either way, that’s what I’m doing right now, so I can’t talk. Did you need something else?”
“Actually, yeah,” he said, trying his best to sound casual. “The art gallery near me has a new thing on display, Kintsugi? It’s Japanese. You repair broken pottery with gold dust. I was planning to go check it out.” He could hear her waiting for him to ask, and he decided to take pity on her. “Do you want to come with me?”
“I really do, but I’m still playing catch-up from being closed. Bring me back a postcard or something?” She sounded different from when she usually turned down plans, wistful but also as though she was giving him space for something. He couldn’t worry about it now, not when he was on a mission.
The exhibit was amazing, and he bought a couple of vases to display in his home, as well as one for Frank and Violet. They needed an example of how to repair breakables now that they had kids, after all. Various artists were presented, and afterward, Desmond went to speak with the one whose work spoke to him the most.
“Hello, my name is Desmond,” he said, shaking her hand.
“Kin,” she said, bowing her head slightly.
“I like your work,” he said, nodding to the pieces between them on the table. “I’ve never seen anything like what you do before.”
“Most people haven’t,” she said, speaking concisely. “Feel free to look around. Everything here is for sale.”
He nodded and took her advice, making his way around the table to see her other small pieces. He watched her in between scrutinizing her pieces of art. It was hard to decide if it was original work since the pieces were broken and repaired via her technique.
He also made sure to get the artist’s card, and when the person before her walked away, he walked forward with the small heart-shaped stone to buy.
“That’ll be one hundred dollars,” she said, and he dug into his pocket for his wallet.
“Do you teach lessons?” he said, handing over the crisp bills. She was a quiet person, but in a way, that made him think of the calm before the storm or high-tension situations.
“Not usually. Do you have something you need repaired?”
“I do. I think it would mean more to my fiancée if I repaired it myself, at least a little bit,” he said, allowing her room to consider him doing it would not be as good as her repairing it herself.
“I can see that. How are your hands?”
Desmond glanced down at them, wondering what she was talking about. Some of his confusion came through to her loud and clear because she went on, “How steady are your hands? Forgive me, but you don’t exactly look like you do a lot of work with them.”
Desmond had to chuckle at that, and he agreed. “No, ma’am, but I like to think I’m a quick learner, and my hands aren’t all that shaky.” He held one up, but the lack of tremor didn’t really mean anything.
“Well, all right. Ordinarily, I’d ask to take a look at the piece you want repaired, estimate a cost for repair based on my current workload and how much time I think it’ll take. I feel like you’re in a hurry, though, and frankly, my price is going to go up if you’re asking to help.” He liked her no-nonsense tone and was nodding before she even finished speaking.
“Believe me when I say that money is no object. There’s no cost too high to make my sweetheart happy.” The artist looked at him suspiciously, and he smiled at her. “Really, she’d have my head otherwise. And trust me, I understand all too well what it means to have civilians meddling in your workshop.” Desmond laughed, and her expression lightened.
“My studio address is on my card. Meet me there tomorrow.”
Desmond all but skipped all the way back to his car. He’d bring the statue and repair Athena with gold and lacquer.
***
That afternoon, he settled in next to Claire while she skimmed the tapes from the day, noting anything odd down. A woman caught his eye, although he couldn’t figure out why. “Hey, who’s that?”
“What? Oh, that’s just Cynda. She came for the jewelry workshop and has become something of a regular. She seems lonely, or at least, particularly interested in love potions.” Claire didn’t seem worried, but Desmond had first seen Cynda on the arm of one of Frank’s stalkers, and that just didn’t sit right with him.
“Love potions, hmm? Aren’t you worried about that?”
“Not really,” Claire said in between a yawn. “It’s probably fine. Why are you so interested? It’s her chest, isn’t it?” Claire was joking, and Desmond figured he wouldn’t worry her and joked right back.
“Oh, you know me, always a sucker for a generous bosom.” He groped her playfully, and the conversation shifted. Desmond could worry about the mysterious blonde woman later.
***
As promised, Desmond met with Kin while Claire worked in her shop. He chuckled to himself while wondering what Claire would say if she knew he was secretly meeting a woman. Knowing her, she would cause a scene, and he would have to kiss sense into her.
“You are here,” Kin said, pulling her warehouse door open.
“As I said I would,” Desmond said, copying her habit of speaking in as little words as possible.
She nodded and gestured for him to enter. She pulled the door closed behind him and led him deeper into the work space. “Kintsugi seems easy. It is not,” she said firmly. “To look easy is to master the technique. I will teach you the basics, and you will work on a few smaller pieces before you are free to try what you learned on your piece. If you want my help, I will help. If you prefer, I will only oversee. I can do that as well. Either way, the price will be the same,” she said.
“I understand,” he said, pushing up his sleeves.
“Let’s begin.”
For hours, Desmond followed Kin, learning every little nuance of mixing tonoko powder with the right consistency, adding the right amount of lacquer, and fitting the broken pieces together.
“Real lacquer takes at least seven days to dry,” she said, setting aside the small pieces he worked with. “This is synthetic and only needs two days. For best results, you should use real lacquer. Since this is practice, I will see you in two days,” she said, turning to clean up.
Desmond nodded, following behind her to clean up the space, then walking to his car to get his checkbook. He wrote her a check for her time and agreed to meet her in two days.
The entire process of learning, practicing, and finally working alongside Kin to fix Athena took just under three weeks. Kin was impressed by Desmond’s steadfastness and willingness to take the time to actually learn.
“It looks good,” she said, looking at the final piece of Athena, all dried, fitted back together with white marble and gold lining the broken creases. “You did well.”
“I had a good teacher,” he said, surveying his handiwork.
“It was a pleasure working with you.”
“You as well,” he said, bowing his head to her. “I’ll have someone come by later today to box it up.”
“I will be here,” she said, turning to clean up.
Per their new routine, he followed behind her helping, and in a last attempt to make small talk, he asked, “What does Kin mean in Japanese?”
She wiped her hands on her work apron and opened the warehouse door, squinting at the bright sunlight and stepping aside for him to walk outside.
“Gold,” she said, and closed the door.
Once Athena was picked up from Kin’s studio, Desmond wrapped the statue in cloth and put it in the same crate that it had originally been shipped in. It would look like he had bought her a new one, but that couldn’t be helped.
“Claire? I could use your help with this delivery,” he called from the back door. She was used to him by now and wouldn’t think it was anything out of the ordinary.
They unboxed the statue, and Claire’s breath caught.
“Athena. You fixed her?” she said, turning to him with glistening eyes.
“I did. Do you like it?” He actually felt nervous.
“She’s perfect, Des. I was worried that I’d be sad when I looked at her if you got me a new one, but this is even better. It’s nice to know it’s okay to have a few broken parts. Looking at her is a reminder that her broken parts are okay now, and I think she likes being shined up a little bit. What girl wouldn’t want a little bit of glitter?” Claire rubbed Athena’s head, tracing down her neck over the gold lines where she was cracked and laughed.
Her whole face lit up with pleasure, and Desmond had never been so much in love with her as he was at that moment. Claire usually didn’t want any glitter, maybe he was rubbing off on her. He looked forward to seeing how she changed him over the next several decades.
***THE END***