album cover

The painter has come round to paint the ceiling. I tell him I have to leave in 40 minutes. After 32, he comes and asks me how long he’s got left. I tell him about ten minutes, and he says he’s already done. He must be an American to have got it done so quick. He has a strong Jamaican accent and an easy going manner and I tell him he doesn’t sound American. He replies he lived in NY most of his life. Clearing his stuff away, he says I remind him of John Lennon. He says he used to paint and decorate for him in the apartment overlooking the park. He says John had a cool way about him, he treated people as they were, he didn’t try and be like someone else. He says that’s the best way to be, and he sounds like someone who’s met a lot of people who try not to be the person they are. He leaves me his card. He looks just about old enough to have painted Lennon's walls. Only just. I look at the ceiling. It’s a dazzling and appropriate shade of white.