Books & Art

By Gregory Payette

Artwork by Gregory Payette

LEONARD REMOVED THE NOZZLE from the gas tank, gave it a little shake, and placed it back on the pump. He looked through the station wagon’s rear window. He couldn’t believe all the bags Claire had packed. How long did she think they were going for?

He went inside the brick building and handed cash to the man behind the counter, then left and walked across the lot back to the car. He smelled gas, along with exhaust from a pickup truck left running by...

by Gregory Payette

Artwork by Gregory Payette

EDGAR PUT ON THE TV and turned the UHF dial, tuning it to channel 38. It didn’t come in very well, as was the case with most of the channels lately. It’d been like that for a while, and Edgar kept meaning to go up on the roof and see what was wrong with the antenna. But he hadn’t.

The picture was snowy and the image kept rolling, but he could still see it was Carlton Fisk up to bat.

The Red Sox were playing the Tigers.

Charlie was asleep on the couch,...

When I wrote “Want” as a poem, it was seven stanzas long, but it wasn’t very good.

What I did have in my head, however, was the exact painting I wanted to paint to go with it, even if the poem was a bit raw and unfinished.

So to set up the scene I’d paint, I went out to Goodwill and found the exact blue mug I had in my mind, and after going to numerous locations luckily found the perfect glass ashtray I pictured. (The book is an Elmore Leonard novel, minus the hardcover wrap.)

For some reason,...