“Yes, I like him, too. And he makes me feel—closer to McCabe. Where are we having lunch?”
“It’s a French restaurant where Alice and I used to go. They collect local paintings and prints—there’s a drawing I want you to see.”
“Alice’s drawing?”
He nodded.“An early one.”
She stopped on the sidewalk, holding his hand.“Done when she was a child?”
“Yes, it was.”
“A drawing of a cat?”
“Yes,” he said.
“I think I remember it. I think I remember the restaurant. Alice—Alice had a birthday party there. It’s a small place—small rooms all connected, with skylights?”
He nodded. They moved on again along the sunwashed street, but she was shivering. He said,“Would you rather not go there?”
“I want to go. I want to see it.” But she moved close to him. Remembering the drawing too sharply. He glanced at her, holding her hand tightly.
She knew she could not avoid this kind of encounter. She knew she must learn to make such things a part of herself. But fear filled her.
The cat in Alice’s drawing in the restaurant, the same cat as in Alice’s diary, the same cat that had been buried years ago in the front yard of the Russian Hill house—the cat that died before she, Melissa, was born.
She knew that that cat, when she faced its picture in the restaurant, would look exactly like her own cat self. Its colors and markings would mirror exactly her calico patterns. Its face would be her face, the exact same white markings, the same green eyes. She glanced up at Braden, upset that he would take her there. But yet she knew that he must take her, that the last piece of the puzzle must be touched, and perhaps understood. She knew she could not have gone there without him, that she would not have had the strength without him. She smiled at him, striding beside him along the sun-warmed street, hardly aware of the cars that sped past them, cars that, a few weeks earlier, would have made her cringe with terror. And above them the unending sky rolled away, wind tossed. And everything was all right. With Braden beside her, it was all right.
Epilogue
San Francisco Chronicle, September 14, 1957.
The female figure is a time-honored theme in painting. The female figure reflected in shop windows, and those reflections woven through with abstract city scapes, produces a richness of subject unerringly right for Braden West. This is West’s best work to date, a difficult feat for one who has long been admired for the richness of his palette.
West’s show, which opened last night at the Chapman to a jostling crowd, was a smashing success. By the close of the evening, nearly all the work had been sold. The richness of this work is overwhelming. West’s entire Reflection series is of the same elusive young woman, yet not one painting is repetitive, except in the mysterious, symphonic mystery that graces them all. This fascinating show will remain at the Chapman through October 31. It will open in New York at Swarthmann’s in December in a group show with the work of Garcheff, Lake, and Debenheldt. The foursome will move on to the Metropolitan early next year.
San Francisco Chronicle, September 20, 1957.
A strange disappearance of San Francisco’s cats has led to complaints over the last week to police and to the Humane Society. Most of the disappearances seem to have occurred last Sunday night. Cat owners reported their pets acting unusually nervous, pacing and yowling. The cats that were let out were not seen again.
The same night, Marin County residents reported seeing groups of cats running into a garden near Sam’s Bar, a wellknown jazz cafe. Cats were seen by the dozens in the headlights of heavy traffic, and there were more than the usual number of complaints about barking dogs. About three A.M. the barking stopped. No more sightings were reported.
San Francisco Chronicle, August 8, 1959.
Business News:
Meyer and Finley appointed their first woman broker today. Anne Hollingsworth, brokers’ assistant with the firm for twelve years, was appointed head of the San Francisco office. And in another surprise move, nine previously terminated brokers and key personnel were re-hired, after their mass firing two years ago.
The firm has been completely restructured, though it will remain in its Union Square offices. It had been virtually bought out by the Lillith Corporation in early 1957, but that corporation has since filed for bankruptcy. Lillith’s extensive charitable branch has been sold to the new philanthropicAlice West Cat Rescue Foundation, named for the late and wellknown animal artist, Alice Kitchen West.