“You realize sometimes things are put so easily down on paper? The Masters. We refer to them again. They let themselves play a lot. People think, Enough play. But it’s the mind that tells you that, because life is a game. Life is the biggest game of all, Joey. Tell me, have we played a lot here?”

“We always play here.”

“So you don’t need the tricks. There is nothing to measure. Because once we have played, things come automatically. And you can achieve your intention immediately with one stroke. This pen.” He held it up. “Do you know how it performs?”

Joey nodded.

“Okay, so we use ink.” He slapped the pen into her hands. “And we will Be the Explorer.” That was another Demetris-ism. “As if nothing is known about art or drawing and, for some reason you have this ability to put things on paper. Tell me, paidi mou. What makes an artist most attractive to people?”

“Hmm. Passion. That’s a big one. Patience. Letting our art show us where to go, instead of forcing it to take a certain form…”

“Yes, exactly. Artists who are more attractive are the ones who find a consortium with the medium they are using. They let the medium do its thing. They don’t push it. No, go there! No, do this!”

“I’ve never heard a pen speak before.” Joey smiled.

“Oh, the pen speaks, paidi mou. The pen speaks, the pen sings, the pen loves. You just have to move into the brain in your hand to feel it.”

Joey hovered the pen over Leo’s right eye. “Demetris…”

“Yes?”

“Do you think I’m going to make it as an artist?”

Joey held her breath, wanting so badly for him to say that he believed she could achieve anything. She didn’t need fame or fortune; that wasn’t what she was asking. But when she imagined her life, her art was at its core. She just wished there was some sort of guarantee that she’d make enough money to live simply upon, to enable an eternal string of these kinds of moments, where her passion jiggled and jangled.

“You know what I think, paidi mou? I think you’re doing basically okay, and you don’t even know it.”

“I’m doing okay?” Did he not get that, in American lexicon, okay was about a C-plus?

Demetris plucked a sesame peanut from a doily-covered dish. “Tell me, who do you love most in this world?”

“Is that a trick question?”

“It’s a question, Joey mou. Don’t analyze.”

“Leo,” she said softly. “I love Leo the most.”

“Wrong answer,” said Demetris.

Joey didn’t understand.

“You love Joey the most. The answer must be that you love Joey the most. Then it doesn’t matter if you make it as an artist. Because when you love Joey the most, and you play, life is just wonderful.