Chuckie's distant cousin EC,
a devoted tanner came to the
villa for a long vacation; the
sun beat down on her like a
boulder & she turned dark
brown & then purple; Eli was
compelled to paint her portrait,
as if driven by a demon toward
the sentient darkness; Chuckie
looking the other way through
their affair; Eli's Israeli baby-
mama taking a second guest
house of three. EC laying
on the sunny private balcony;
Eli lathering brown paint in
thick impasto on the open-air
easel painting...thinking not
all brown women are black, the
woman before him was blacker
than that and steadily growing
blacker, beyond deep purple, her
skin should have been erupting
in fiery melanoma but she sat,
old-fashioned reflecting visor
beaming the rays to her underside,
tan lines a mere myth as she
rose and stripped her thin string
bikini...her bright blazing blue eyes
catching his, she smiled, lips red as
the Goddess Kali & poured herself
an ice cold tall mohito from the
pitcher...Eli was mesmerized...the
sun seemed boring compared to the
dark light of the girl, tall & willowy,
lanky like Chuckie; hair burned
blonde long ago, EC was a human
black hole, a living vanishing point.

As the painting melted in the summer
sun, Eli got on his cell & called NYC
to negotiate a lucrative modelling deal
for the clueless Russian trendy.