The Shadow Catcher

“Let’s just say I know my brother. Better than you do. He takes what he wants, when he wants it, as if it is his due. As if all the years at Father’s beck and call earned him the right, now that he’s free, to finally be the selfish cur he was cut out to be—”

“—he puts food on this table, Asahel, and a roof over your mother’s and your sister’s—”

“—and you think I don’t? — is that what he’s told you?”

“He hasn’t ‘told’ me anything about you, your sister or—”

Asahel threw his fork down, pushed his chair back and stood up. “That’s because he’s a kingdom of one, Clara.”

He picked up his plate, left it in the basin and started for the door, not meeting her eyes.

“—and I’ll do anything for you and Hercules. Anything you ask.”

He turned and finally looked at her.

“—forget what I’ve said. I haven’t slept for two days. I’m working double shifts at the sawmill…mine and Edward’s.”

Still, she sat in judgment of him, and he felt it, so he told her, “Maybe you will change him — maybe love will change him,” then he left.

Love, she couldn’t tell him, the word love, had never been spoken as an avowal between herself and Edward — nor did it need to be, she reasoned. They had an understanding, a workable arrangement, shared interests, a sympathy and need for each other, an enjoyment in the other’s company: but, foremost, they had Edward’s work. And Edward’s work was all-consuming. Once they were situated in their first residence in Seattle — four rented rooms in a brick Georgian house on 2nd Avenue — Clara rarely saw him. He never ate at home. He hardly slept. If she woke when he came into bed in the middle of the night then she struggled to wake again to see him off before the dawn. She had read of ancient Spartans’ regimens of work but she had never known a single man to set himself the task assignments of a regiment: he was teaching himself to become a master printer, and at the same time he was teaching himself to become a master engraver, setting for himself levels of perfection that he, alone, could judge. He was joining Clubs, appearing in public to lecture with his signature gold nugget tie pin: he was lobbying for influence. He was leading the Mazamas Club, after only one meeting with them, up Mt. Rainier, following in John Muir’s renowned footsteps but also making innovative forays of his own. Within the year he had outgrown his use for Rothi, sold off his share at profit and entered into a second partnership with an established photoengraver by the name of Thomas Guptill, becoming the most sought after engraver north of San Francisco. He persuaded Asahel to leave the sawmill to come and learn darkroom techniques and by the spring of ’93, when Clara first suspected she was pregnant, Edward had sold the homestead on the island and all the Curtises — Edward, Clara, Asahel, Ellen and Eva — were reunited under one roof once again, this time in Seattle. Hercules had long since gone to Touhy’s ranch in Tacoma and although she saw him several times a year, especially at Christmas, Clara thought a great deal more about him once her own son was born, that November. They named him Harold, after Clara’s father. Edward lavished his attention on him and Clara believed the child’s birth might be a turning point in Edward’s emotional devotion, that following on the birth of their son, he would forswear some of his projects to stay at home more often. But his reputation as Seattle’s first-rank society photographer was just coming into bloom, even as his scenic landscapes of Puget Sound and the Cascades were gaining notice in national publications. He won a competition with his studio portrait of Princess Angeline in her faded bandanna, and his moody studies of the Suquamish clam diggers were the favored wall art in Seattle banks and law offices. For her part, Clara had learned early in her history with Edward that if she was going to capture his attention she had to do it on his terms, putting herself somewhere he would be reminded of her, somewhere he could see her and that meant putting hours in at his place of business, catering to clientele, overseeing the employees, holding up her end of the social ladder he was so determined to climb. She was active in the Arts Club, active in arranging musicales, even active, for a while, in his mountaineering outings until successive pregnancies and the effort of the frosty climbs with ice picks in those mandatory skirts exhausted her.