Peter was a slight, affable boy, small and thin but wiry, and in quite good shape. He, too, was very blond. In fact, he and Theresa looked quite alike.

“Are the two of you related?” Anna asked.

They both laughed. “Heck, no!” Peter said, taking a step away from the girl. Then he looked at the stack of lumber in the middle of the floor. “So what are you doin’ here, ma’am?” he asked. He actually rubbed his hands together as if anxious to get started. “How’re we gonna help you?”

The three of them sat down at one of the tables and Anna showed them her sketch as she described her plans for the cartoon and mural. They’d never heard of a cartoon and both of them asked intelligent questions about the process of creating it, but it was clear to Anna that Peter was the more invested of the two.

“I want to be a serious artist someday, ma’am,” he said.

“Peter is really good,” Theresa said, rather begrudgingly. “He drew a picture of a tractor and it looked almost like a photograph.”

“How about you, Theresa?” Anna asked. “Do you hope to be an artist?”

Theresa shrugged. “I hope to get out of school and get married and have five children,” she admitted.

Anna laughed, thinking that marriage and motherhood were probably more realistic goals for this girl.

“Well, you only have, what? A year and a half till graduation?”

“We graduate this spring, ma’am,” Peter said.

“You do? Aren’t you eleventh graders?”

“That’s the last year of high school, ma’am,” Theresa said. “Thank the Lord for that.”

“Really?” Anna asked. “Schools where I’m from go to the twelfth grade.”

“Not here,” said Peter.

“Thank heavens we don’t,” Theresa said.

“Well, I tell you what,” Anna said. “I’m going to be asking some hard work of you two that might not feel as though it has much to do with actual drawing or painting, so to be fair, why don’t you bring in some projects you’re working on and I can give you my critique and perhaps help you make them better.”

“That sounds good, ma’am,” Peter said. He had a good-natured glow about him. A sunniness that drew Anna to him. She was curious to see his work.

“I don’t really have nothin’ I’m working on,” Theresa said.

“Well, then, you can come up with something new to work on during any free time you have here,” Anna said. “I won’t need you to help me every single minute.”