Rose VanDusenberg, parts 1014 - 1017

1014. But let's not forget about his dilemma. Last night he was on his knees praying to God to give him the necessary art supplies so that he could complete his God given task of painting pictures for Tallulah, and replacing the five pictures he had sold in the past week to the Pontormo family visiting from Italy. The Pontormo family that claimed descent from the great Mannerist painter Pontormo. Coromo pretended he knew about Pontoromo, although it could have been a brand of Olive Oil for all he knew.

1015. God answered Coromo's prayers that morning. Don't go asking me why God answered his prayers when there were so many other people in the world praying for stuff much more important that art supplies. God answered his prayers I suppose, because that is what God is like, full of mischief, delighting in a wry prank in one place while an entire continent is engulfed in a tidal wave in another place and millions drown or are buried in earthquakes. "God quacks in mysterious ways", commented the Duck.

1016. Here is the way God answered Coromo's prayer, he caused the catalogue for the art supplies to fall out of the UPS box and open up to the page where the art supply company offered a low interest credit card to their customers, and at the same time as he read the ad for the credit card, God put it into his mind to apply for that card using the prestigious address of the resort as his billing address.

1017. But you may object that there is a world of difference between God's mysterious machinations and the machinations of the credit card companies. God, you may say, fulfills the desires of the soul in ways that, over time, we understand the beauty of, and the credit companies strive to exploit those exact same desires, charging us more than twice as much for their fulfillment as God might have charged us in the first place.