A sorcerer's apprentice. He made Renaissance revivalist paintings for the Cosa Nostra. A mobster girl was my friend. We took to each other immediately (the apprentice and I). We ate in an ivy covered yard. I fed him my mom's heirloom olives. I said the word "heirloom" meant it was the original plant, and this was some kind of alchemical code. We sat at opposite sides of the table, on opposite ends. Claude Rains was there, and demanded dessert in that suave way he has. He took the olives with him in a doggy bag and was kind to me.

Before, something about Carmen, and opeds.

After, a race riot and submarine maze with the woman I, the painting alchemist, had fallen in love with (me).