Page 41 of The Lies We Play

Creed: I had time between skate and game. I went to the Smart Museum at the University of Chicago.

Liv: The SMART MUSEUM?

Creed: Yes.

Liv: Creed Lafontaine, you went to a museum called the Smart Museum.

Creed: The name is unfortunate. The collection is not.

Liv: Did you do this for me?

Creed: I did it for me. I thought of you while I did it.

Creed: [photo of a small dark painting with figures in a candlelit interior]

Creed: Teach me.

Liv: I need a higher-res photo.

Creed: [higher-res photo of the same painting, plus a photo of the museum placard]

Liv: OH.

Liv: Creed, that's a follower of Caravaggio.

Liv: The placard says "circle of," which means the museum thinks it MIGHT be by someone who knew him personally, but they aren't going to commit. It's the most cautious wall label in art.

Creed: What am I looking at?

Liv: Tenebrism. The light is the subject. Caravaggio invented this. The figures emerge from total darkness like the painting is deciding what to let you see. Notice the woman in the back left is barely visible but her hand is in the light. That hand is the whole painting.

Creed: The hand is the whole painting.

Liv: The hand is the whole painting.

Creed: Okay. I see it now.

Liv: Do you?

Creed: Yes.

Liv: . . .

Liv: I wish I were there.

Creed: I wish you were here too. Maybe next week we can go wherever you choose to take me.

Liv: That is a dangerous offer.

Creed: I’m aware.

Liv: I could make you look at frames for three hours.

Creed: I can take it.

Liv: You say that now.

Creed: I’m a professional athlete.