Anodyne
Friday, June 01, 2007
 

As Good as Could be Made by Art


Out to Surrey through suburban Richmond on the freeway, the green trees along the median stirred by hot wind under harsh flat blue sky. The radio, permanently parked between 1975 and 1984, plays ZZ Top, plays James Taylor, plays the Guess Who and Manfred Mann's Earth Band. Trailers whip past in the oncoming lane, sun semaphoring off of aerials and chrome. Over the muddy Fraser on the Alex Fraser, past the spot where, a year ago, the Legacy lost a wheel. Around under the bridge on River Road, site of numerous fruitless quests for a particular white farmhouse and sloping gravel driveway. On through Annieville, past shipyards, container storage parks, and deep forested ravines reserved for spawning salmon. Onto the flats and down along by the river, to park at last across from the salvage yard. Nootka roses blooming there, along the railtracks. A few last things into my backpack: the Greater Vancouver Mapbook, insurance papers, the spare key.

Inside to the office, to fill out the transfer papers and to borrow a greasy Big Gulp cup full of tools to pull the plates. A fat white china marker in the cup, too, with which I chalked a huge "K" -- Kidney Car -- on the front and back windows.

Back inside to return the tools.

Outside again, blinking in the 25 degree heat, I walked across the dusty road to make one last portrait of the Legacy. No Jeff Wall quote this time, just "straight photography." Then I hugged the car, tucked a Nootka blossom under one rusty wiper blade, and quickly walked away.


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