Steve and Betsy Nelson, why do you want this?
A short time after I moved to Minneapolis, I was in the garage searching for a tool. I happened to see something tucked at the back of a shelf, so far that I hadn’t noticed it earlier. I pulled out this painting. It’s an ugly still life on canvas, mounted by an amateur on a wooden frame. Not the work of an incompetent, but the sort of thing that wouldn’t even sell at a garage sale. Then I turned it over, and everything changed.
The text is faded, but still legible
Someone wrote “De Colores!” with an exclamation point on the wood frame. On the back of the canvas itself, are some illegible words, possibly a name. What set my mind spinning was the neat writing, in pencil:
If found
Please Return
to Steve + Betsy
Nelson
There will be
a reward
A reward! What could it be? If this painting was valuable enough for Steve and Betsy to promise a reward, how could they let it out of their grasp? How did it end up in my garage? No one named Steve and Betsy Nelson ever lived in this house. I checked. Having tracked down plenty of people in my time, I know that there’s nothing worse than trying to narrow down all of the Steve and Betsy Nelsons to the ones you want. They didn’t leave a phone number or an address, only that tantalizing promise. Steve and Betsy, if you read this, I’m ready to claim my reward.