Conversation (3)

"Okay, what is this?" Joshua chuckled uneasily, "Some kind of intervention?"

The Curator didn't say anything, but he had a look in his eyes that told Joshua that he wasn't too far off.

"I don't believe this," Joshua mumbled as he paced, "I don't believe this. I can't believe this."

Joshua stopped pacing when he heard the Curator's footsteps move away from him, "Where are you going?"

The Curator didn't stop or turn around, "We don't have much time. Let's continue looking at the pieces."

When Joshua rounded the corner, he saw a picture he recognised. It was a normal picture, unlike the previous ones. He vaguely remembered the picture that his father kept hanging up on the wall of his childhood home after his mother died.

The photo was of their small family on a trip half a year before his mother started her first round of chemotherapy. Joshua could only vaguely remember the trip because he was seven years old when they went on the trip, but he remembered that it was a great one. His parents had saved up a little money and decided to take a trip to Hawaii for a week to celebrate their eighth wedding anniversary.

They were all dressed in beach clothes, and somebody had offered to take a picture of them during the last full day of the holiday. Aaron and Beverly stood next to each other, hands draped around the other's waists, while Joshua posed in a dynamic hero pose, smiling as wide as he could, in front of them. He was really into superheroes at that age.

Joshua couldn't help but smile as he stood in front of the enlarged family photo. The Curator was silent as he allowed Joshua to enjoy the memory.

Joshua stepped forward to read the plaque that accompanied the picture. He was excited to see what kind of insight was provided, but he froze when he read what was written.

"This was the last trip that we had as a family. It was originally planned to celebrate Aaron's and my eighth wedding anniversary and was booked almost a whole year in advance, but I had caught Aaron cheating on me the week before the trip and there was no way to cancel.

"I don't think Josh caught on that something was wrong during the trip."

"He cheated on Mom?" Joshua said breathlessly. Then the anger took over.

Joshua lunged towards the artwork and grabbed the frame off the wall.

"You cheated on Mom?!" Joshua screamed at the smiling figure of his father in the picture before slamming the picture on the ground.

"Why the hell would you do that to her?" Joshua yelled as he repeatedly slammed the frame on the ground. It splintered into multiple pieces.

The Curator stayed silent as he watched Joshua destroy the photo. Joshua didn't stop destroying the artwork till it was all ripped and torn. His breath was heavy and shaking when he stopped. He started to cry when he looked down at his feet and saw his mother's sad smile looking up at him.

He bent down and picked up the fragment of the photo. His tears stained the picture, "You stayed with him even after that?"

He felt a heaviness descend on him. His body started to feel lethargic and slow and while he was still crying, he glanced at the Curator who simply watched him in silence.

"Why did this make it into the show?" Joshua sobbed.

The Curator sighed and walked up next to the plaque and pointed at it, "You didn't finish reading the commentary."

Joshua frowned as he wiped his eyes.

The Curator started to read the second half of the plaque as Joshua stood back up.

"I don't think Josh caught on that something was wrong during the trip." The Curator spoke, "Looking back, even though spending time with Aaron and Josh seemed to be the last thing I wanted to do, I believe You had other plans for the trip. You gave my son this amazing ability to somehow make things seem better than they were.

"His father may have broken my heart before the trip, but Josh's pure excitement of the trip healed it some. In a moment of weakness, Aaron's unfaithfulness threatened the stability of the family, but Josh's innocence strengthened his love for our family.

"And though there was still a lot that needed to be worked through between Aaron and me, by the end of the week, You used the time spent with our son on that trip as the inspiration and strength that Aaron and I needed to work through the hard times together as a family. And for that, I thank You, God."

The Curator stopped and smiled kindly at Joshua, "Your mother was an amazing woman, wasn't she?"

Joshua looked back down at the piece of artwork that he had been holding onto and nodded slightly.

As Joshua calmed and reflected on his emotions, he realised that he had destroyed artwork and that the man that stood next to him was responsible for the whole gallery.

"I'm sorry for destroying this," Joshua mumbled, but the Curator offered to help him up, seemingly unaffected by the damage.

"It's okay," the man said as he heaved Joshua up onto his feet, "I only curated this show. What you do with it is all up to you. Let's keep going."

Unlike the previous hallways that Joshua found himself in, the one he and the Curator walked along was a long one. Just at the point that he noticed the odd layout of the gallery, the Curator spoke.

"Your mother was a strong woman, wasn't she?"

The question came out of nowhere and took Joshua by surprise.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, she really was," Joshua said softly, "Looking at these pictures now and reading these insights on the plaques has really shown me just how strong she was."

"She had a lot of faith," the Curator stated.

Joshua glanced at the man, but the Curator kept looking forward as he led Joshua to the next piece.

"Uh," Joshua started, a little uneasy since he didn't quite know what to say, "I guess so. I can't imagine being able to forgive my significant other and work through our differences if I found out they cheated on me like she did."

"Oh, I don't know," the Curator turned to smile at him, "I can see that you have a kind heart. Something your parents taught you well when you were growing up."

One parent more than the other, Joshua bitterly thought.

"Did you go to church when you were growing up?" the Curator asked.

Joshua slowed to a stop. The Curator realised that his guest had stopped walking with him and stopped as well. He turned and gave Joshua a questioning glance.

"What's going on, really?" Joshua asked him, "Why are you suddenly so interested in my mother's faith?"

"I'm just making small talk," the Curator said, "And throughout the pieces that we've looked at, your mother has spoken about her faith and God quite extensively. So, I thought it was quite appropriate."

"But aren't you the curator of this place?" Joshua said, his voice hardened as he struggled to accept the Curator's explanation, "Isn't the art show about me? Surely there would have been pictures of Mom going to church with Dad and me somewhere. Why are you asking me whether we went to church when I was growing up?"

Joshua scoffed, "And didn't you say that you wanted to have a conversation with me before? Is this the conversation? A — a questionnaire about my mother's faith?"

The Curator's response surprised Joshua.

"What if it was? Or at the very least, some of the conversation was about her faith. Does that change anything?"

"But why?" Joshua finally said after a moment of silence.

"Because she was a big part of your life when she was alive, and some would argue that she became a bigger part of your life after she died." The Curator said calmly.

The man gestured as if to ask Joshua to continue following him, and after a deep sigh, Joshua followed. He couldn't do anything else. The Curator didn't seem like someone that wanted to cause him any harm, and he didn't know how to exit the gallery.

"From what we've seen so far, your mother's connection to her faith has been quite prevalent in her life. Especially after giving birth to you," the Curator continued, "So much so that, looking at your life right before your accident in preparation for this show, I must ask, why that faith never continued over to you."

Joshua had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach when he glanced at the Curator and saw that the man was watching him as they continued walking. He had suspected that that was the direction the Curator wanted to head towards when he started commenting on Beverly's faith. Although he suspected the question coming, he still struggled to think up the right words to answer the question. It seemed so close, so personal. So private. It didn't feel right to tell anybody the reason.

"I — I don't know," Joshua stuttered at first, "I guess it never really clicked with the rest of the family the way it did with Mom."

Joshua cautioned a glance towards the Curator and almost tripped over himself when he saw the utter sadness and disappointment that he saw on the man's face. The first gut reaction that Joshua had was that the man was judging him, but before he could say something about it, the Curator stopped in his tracks.

They had arrived at the next photograph in the show.

And when Joshua saw what the picture was, he paled and almost fell to his knees.