Widow Basquiat by Jennifer Clement Read Free Book Online

first took him to Barbetta, a fancy restaurant, he was very intimidated and awkward. He didn’t know what to order, or what fork to use, etc.
    Once Rammellzee noticed that my shoes were worn out so he took me out to buy some. He was all dressed up in his white leather trench coat with his bug ski goggles on and leaning against a two-tone brown and tan stretch limousine. He opened the door for me. I said, “Where are we going?”
    He said, in his best sinister Donald Duck voice, “Wherever you want to go as long as I can buy you a pair of shoes there. That’s where we are going, my little chickadee ha ha ha ha.”
    We ended up at Fayva. Rammellzee didn’t know this was a tacky shoe store. It was just a shoe store to him. Then he took me to Tony Roma’s Steak House on 6th Avenue for dinner, which he considered a very fancy place. We had wine by the glass and salad and steak and baked potatoes and dessert. It was very lovely. Then we drove around so that I could show off my new shoes. They were simple little black high heels. At the shoe-shop counter we had bought red clip-on bows for them. I wore them until they fell apart. They were my Minnie Mouse shoes.
    Like almost everyone, Rammellzee had a falling-out with Jean. I got the impression that he thought that Jean had sold out to the white art world. But I know that deep down he always loved Jean.

THEY DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DRIVE A CAR
    Shortly after Suzanne moves into the Crosby Street loft Jean-Michel takes her to Italy. He is having a show at the Emilio Mazzoli Gallery in Modena. Neither Jean-Michel nor Suzanne knows how to drive a car so Jean-Michel pays to bring Kai Eric along to drive them around.
    In the airplane Jean-Michel continuously gets up to do some coke in the bathroom. He says he has to finish it up before he goes through customs in Europe. He says he wants to open up the emergency door exit and jump on the clouds.
    Suzanne has hepatitis. She cannot lift up her arms.
    Jean-Michel sits beside her; he kisses and licks one of her arms.
    “Beautiful arms,” he says. “Venus, I have to paint your arms.”
    He takes a blue marker out of his pocket and paints on Suzanne’s arm. He paints her humerus, ulna, radius and carpus. He writes “animal cell” on the inside of her wrist. He draws a ring around her finger.
    “Now you are my wife,” he says.

MODENA, ROME, FLORENCE AND VENICE
    Jean-Michel, Suzanne and Kai Eric travel to Italy. They stay in the houses of gallery owners and rich art collectors. Jean-Michel finds drugs wherever he goes. He and Suzanne are very happy.
    One day in Venice, Jean-Michel says he has not listened to Charlie Parker in two weeks. He says that if he doesn’t listen to Charlie Parker he will go crazy. He says he needs to hear the music or he will not be able to breathe. He says that Italy is just like the United States and everywhere else: there are no black men in paintings in museums.
    “This is why I paint,” he says. “To get black men into museums.”
    They spend all day trying to find a Charlie Parker tape but have no luck. Jean-Michel ends up buying some opera arias sung by Maria Callas. When he gets back to New York he plays the music so loud everyone can hear it outside on the street. People walk past looking up at his windows. He paints “AAAAAAAAAA” onto his boards and canvases.

THE HOSPITAL IS VERY WHITE
    When the fever begins she thinks it is the coke. When she starts to vomit she thinks it must be the heroin. She cannot stand up. She cannot sit down.
    “I feel like there is blood inside of me,” Suzanne says.
    Jean-Michel never goes to visit her at the hospital. The doctor says that she has pelvic inflammatory disease. He asks her who she has been sleeping with.
    Suzanne says, “Only my boyfriend.”
    The doctor says, “I’m sorry, but your boyfriend gave this to you.”
    He tells her to sleep. He says the IV is carrying the antibiotic into her body. He tells her she will feel better in six days. He tells