Eau de Vie: chapter twelve

Le lavage rituel

Jozef Israëls, painter

At dawn, the day after the long walk with Vie, Carl stood at the kitchen counter, putting back a large mug of coffee and a scone. There, in the kitchen, he stripped off his night clothes and left them pooled on the floor. Naked, he grabbed his jeans, a canvas work shirt, and his down vest from the adjacent mud room and dressed for …