The Museum Show, parts 1494 - 1498

1494. Finally she worked up her nerve and went up to a women who appeared by her nametag to be one of the judges and with her most polite manner tried her best to articulate her concern. She received this pre-packaged response, "Just because you submit a work to the show, does not mean it will be in the exhibit, your piece was probably rejected and you should receive a postcard in the mail."

1495. Attempts by Agnes to clarify the situation were ignored, and even when she tried to point out that her piece was listed in the catalogue as item number 724, the person she was talking to simply walked away from her without any reaction. She made two more attempts with other employees of the museum and finally gave up in frustration. 

1496. The opening was on Saturday evening. Since the museum was closed on both Sunday and Monday, it was not until after school on Tuesday that she was able to find out what had happened to her picture. She went into the office and spoke to the secretary; it was the very same secretary who had pulled her by the ear three years previously. It was the same secretary whose face she would slap many years later.

1497. Like everyone else connected to the museum the secretary trotted out the same explanation about her work being rejected, and about the rejection post card, but Agnes could see for herself the explanation to what had happened to her picture. It was leaning against the wall in the office; the watercolor had shifted in the frame. The frame had to be dismantled and the painting re-positioned in the mat. She took it home and fixed it and returned it to the museum.

1498. The secretary said, "I am sorry about this, I had intended to call you about it but I was too busy with the opening and didn't have time." On the last day of the show her piece was put back up and on that day she went and paid it a visit, and brought it back home again. All these years later it sits on the mantle of her fireplace. The picture has shifted in the mat and is crooked but she prefers it that way and won't consider fixing it.