The MST, Ch. 7

Christian and Blair followed Tomas into the Gallery. Tomas gestured to Christian to join him in his office, he turned to Blair. "My dear, you might want to take a look at Samuel's latest piece. You'll find it hanging over there." Tomas pointed to a smaller side room.

He and Christian entered his office. "Mr. Vega if you'll excuse me for a minute I'll go and get a sketch pad and some charcoal and then we'll see if we can't get a likeness down on paper." Tomas left the office giving Christian a moment to look around. As he looked around he suddenly found himself face to face with another painting of Blair. Christian stood back and admired the painting, Blair was beautiful in the light of the fireworks. He couldn't quite place the staircase and he found himself very intrigued by the shadowy figure watching her. Once again Christian noted the signature was deliberately smudged to make it unreadable and the date on this painting was 2004. Christian felt the artist had definitely captured Blair. Hmm, I've never noticed but Blair is an excellent subject for portraits and whoever he is, this artist seems to know Blair exceedingly well. Christian thought. After I do the sketch. Blair should see this painting. I wonder if he's depicting actual moments in Blair's life? I'll have to ask her.

Tomas entered the office and noticed Christian admiring the painting he himself had purchased. "You've discovered my little secret. I too have come to greatly admire our Ms. Blair. Although until yesterday I never realized she was real. When Samuel brought in this painting I felt I had to have it for myself. I guess I envisioned myself as the figure watching from the shadow, for it seemed I had, ever since those first original portraits came into my Gallery. She is stunning don't you agree."

Christian smiled and said, "There is much to admire about Blair and I'm sure Blair would be flattered that you have one of her paintings as your own. She should see this. It is one more clue to our Artist. He's very talented and I see some raw passion coming through in his paintings. This man does know Blair, my guess is he is depicting himself as the figure who is watching her, but I don't want to overwhelm her. These last couple of days have been one surprise after another. Did I hear you direct her to another of Samuel's Paintings?"

Tomas replies, " I sent her into the smaller gallery. I hung last night's portrait in there. It is another lovely piece. We can view it later but perhaps we should get this sketch finished so we have that to show Blair. Am I right in assuming that you also are an artist?"

"Yes, but currently I'm teaching Art at Llanview University. Blair and I saw the first painting together and she came to me for help in finding the artist. Our investigation led us here to Paris and here we are. Now perhaps you can give me as much as you remember about our artist and I'll try to render it." At that Christian took the sketch pad and the charcoal and sat down as Tomas also took a seat. They then began the process of putting Samuel's likeness down on paper.

In the smaller Gallery, Blair was standing before another of her memories. Blair could hardly catch her breath as she gazed on the portrait in front of her. She remembered that night so well. At first, she and Todd hadn't planned anything special but she had gotten a call from RJ asking if she could help with the opening of Capricorn. She had talked Todd into going with her and had told him he didn't have to interact with the other people there, all they had to do was look at each other. It was Valentine's Day. Then she had surprised him with a song. A very special song. At the end of the song, Todd had handed her one single red rose. "My God...Who are you! This isn't making any sense, it's like someone was spying on Todd and me all during our first years together. It's unreal. Todd says he didn't commission the painting that Eli gave me. I wonder what he would say if he could see this painting." With her mind in a whirl, Blair sat down on the bench gazing at the painting but totally lost in her deepest thoughts.

Blair sat there lost in the memories of the past. Remembering her first encounter with Todd at Rodi's. She recalled those feelings of excitement and danger mixed with trepidation when she saw his ankle monitor and realized she was talking to a criminal. They kept running into each other and like kindred spirits they had formed a friendship that slowly grew to love. She and Todd had been through so many ups and downs. In those first months, she had saved his life, she had been possibly his only friend as he had been hounded by the police, and when he had been cleared; they had stayed friends, to the dismay of many but it had felt right. She remembered the first Christmas present she gave him, but with that memory came some sadness because in her own foolish way she had endangered that friendship. In her own desperation to keep her life afloat, she had used information about Todd to her advantage and ensnared him in a marriage based on a lie. That lie later came back to haunt her and threatened the happiness they had started to enjoy. She and Todd managed to find their way back to each other. They conceived their beautiful daughter and made their way back together only to once again be torn apart.

Blair sighed, Eli's picture had been of the Golden Balloon Wedding. To this day she wished Todd had never gone to Ireland for Marty. The next years had been dreadful in regards to their relationship, they had had custody battles over Starr and in the middle of it all, she had married Max when Todd disappeared for a couple of years. Who knew that Todd was going to drop back into her life, she had not expected it but once again they found themselves drawn to each other. Todd settled back in and helped her after she attempted to kill Max. They were working together so well and then Todd's jealousy got the better of him and once more their lives ended in turmoil.

Todd disappeared again and when he came back he looked totally different. Now Todd was happily married to Tea, his second wife, and things were pretty amicable between all of them. She had even felt happy when she had married Eli, none of them had known what Eli was capable of. The ugly truth had come out and the final result had been Eli's death. But he had left her something. Eli had left her the painting and it had led her here, sitting looking at a painting of her in the red outfit she had worn for Todd so long ago in 2002. "What is going on? Why is he painting all these pictures of my times with Todd? How could he even know of them?"

           Blair looked around. There was still no sign of Christian. She rose and headed toward the office. Once there, she knocked. "Yes, come in." came the reply from inside. Blair opened the door and entered. Christian was sitting opposite Tomas hard at work on the sketch.

"Dear Blair, do come in and have a seat. We're almost done. Perhaps you will recognize the picture." Tomas said and directed Blair to a chair.

Blair looked expectantly at Christian, "Well, Chris does he look familiar to you?"

" He looks pretty familiar, Blair, but you're not going to believe how familiar ." and Chris turned the sketch so that Blair could see it.

Blair could scarcely believe what she saw. Staring at her was a face she hadn't seen in 8 years. A face just as mesmerizing as she remembered. "My God, It's Todd!"

Blair's hand reached out towards the sketch and Christian handed it to her. Blair couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The sketch looked like Todd, only the Todd from her memory, the one from the Gold Balloon Wedding. The only thing different was a mask covering the right side of his face. That in itself was strange. Todd had never hidden his scar, he had worn it to remind himself of the awful things he had done to Marty. He hadn't aged much from the looks of the sketch. Wait a Minute, Blair snap out of it! This can't be Todd, you left him back in Llanview with Tea. Blair shook her head. She lifted her gaze to Tomas. "You say this is Samuel?"

Tomas nodded. " I assure you, that is the man who stood in this gallery last night. Christian caught his likeness remarkably well."

Blair looks at Christian, "What do you think? It's uncanny that he looks exactly like Todd. This whole thing is getting even more confusing." Looking at Tomas she explains " You see Tomas, this man looks just like my second husband, Todd Manning. At least he looks like Todd before my ex-husband had plastic surgery. This Samuel and My Todd could have been twins. But what is even more baffling is that Samuel is painting pictures of me and I've never met him. Also, my Todd doesn't have a twin." Once again she looked down at the sketch, her hand going automatically to his forehead and letting her fingers trace his hair as if she wanted to move it off his face the way she had done so many times in the past. She wondered softly to herself "Who are you? What is bringing us together?"

***

Several blocks away, Samuel stood in his loft looking at his recent painting. He reached out towards her face feeling a sudden urge to be able to hold her and touch that face. "There's something happening, it concerns you. I just feel like I'm getting very close to remembering and you're going to be the one who brings my memories back." But then he backed off and turned away reaching instead to his own cheek and feeling the scars there. Those scars were given to him as a reminder but to remind him of what. His fingers traced the older of the two that ran along his cheekbone he tried desperately to bring back the memory of how it happened.

Suddenly, he wasn’t in his loft. He appeared to be standing in some alley he heard this cruel laughter, someone screamed, and just as suddenly out of the corner of his eye he saw a pipe come at him and felt extraordinary pain. Samuel stumbled, then dropped to his knees for one brief moment the pain was intense, then it was gone. "My God, is that what happened? Is that how I got this scar?" Staying on his knees, Samuel slowly absorbed what he just saw. Something violent occurred in his past. Was he the one laughing? Why had someone hit him? Who was screaming? Although not knowing everything about the event, Samuel was sure of one thing. This was a real memory. As violent as it was, it was real.

Samuel stood back up "Okay, there's been violence in my past. I wonder if that is why someone has been watching me all these years." He headed for the kitchen to get another drink. He stopped and instead went to his two Muses. Looking at the older woman, he said, "What's going to happen next, suddenly I feel like I'm beginning to get caught in quicksand, I'm afraid of what I'll remember next." As if she was talking to him, he heard "Don't worry, we're here we'll keep you from sinking but you must take this journey. You must find yourself.”

Samuel stepped back and smiled at his girls. "You're right. You've kept me sane this long I know I'll be able to see this through. The memories are starting to return and I can't go backward. That black pit I went into almost destroyed me but you got me through that. I have to keep pushing through the pain this time.

At the same time, I need to be careful. I've been feeling that strange sensation again of being watched and it's gotten more prevalent in the last two days. This morning in particular, after that brief blackout or whatever it was, I could almost feel them right behind me. Someone doesn't want me to remember my past. I wish I knew who and why. Hopefully, I'll be able to make some sense of everything when I get that report from the hospital. I've got to find out more about that first night when they brought me to the hospital. I think if I read what shape I was in, it might trigger another memory. They are all there if I can break the barrier. Well, it looks like I'm not going to get anything done tonight and my head is once again pounding from remembering how I got one of my scars. If it pounds this hard after a partial memory, what will happen if I remember something big? Those two memories nearly incapacitated me. Not to mention what occurred when I saw that woman." Suddenly Samuel was hit once again with excruciating pain, doubling over he felt himself falling to the floor. Only this time he blacked out completely.

***

" Ms. Perkins! Ms.Perkins, he's out again. Is he here?" Tom yelled, "Where did she go, she doesn't usually leave us alone." Tom turned and looked at Pete, but Pete seemed to be knocked out too. “What's going on? I don't like this. Rodd are you around? Am I the only one awake. Maybe I can help in some way." Tom looked around and didn't see either Ms. Perkins or Rodd anywhere and Todd was still tossing around even more vigorously than before. Tom walked over to Todd and sat next to the bed, he put his hand on Todd's shoulder and Todd calmed down. Then he said "Don't worry Todd, I think I can do something. You'll see, I'll help Samuel.”

At that Tom closed his eyes and thought real hard about Samuel laying on the ground and pretended it was him, then he reached out and touched the solid floor under him and opened his eyes. All around were the pictures of Tea and Vicki and Blair. He got up slowly and walked and looked at all of them. He remembered how much fun he'd had playing games with Tea. Tom walked over to Vicki's picture on the mantle and smiled as he recalled meeting his sister for the first time in the hospital. He didn't feel very comfortable around Blair's pictures but he recalled Shorty and the time he had played camping with her and Tea.

It felt strange to be out again. But his head was hurting really, really bad and he knew he had to get Samuel to bed. He went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Poor Todd he had another scar. This one looked really bad too. Tom couldn't remember how Todd got it and it scared him to think of things like that. He opened the cabinet door and looked at the medicine, he found the Aspirin and took two of them. Then he made his way to the bed, took off his shoes, and got under the covers. As he laid there, he thought back to the time Tea sat with him till he fell asleep, and with that memory in mind, Tom closed his eyes and went to sleep.

Tom found himself back on the floor next to Pete. Pete still wasn't moving. But from across the area, Ms. Perkins came toward him.

"Thomas you did exactly the right thing. I awoke and found you had gone and Rodd and Pete were both knocked out by the same pain that hurt Samuel. I think it didn't affect you because you are innocent in mind and deed and the ugliness of the hidden truth couldn't touch you. Thank you, Thomas, you've helped us all tonight."

Tom smiled and felt great. Ms.Perkins was proud and he had done well.