Coda: Summer of Serra
"I'm glad I didn't get to watch them leaving, "she said. "It would have made me sad to see them broken down and carried off..."
The monumental Serra works were the grandest guests at the MoMA this past summer, occupying the huge 2nd floor gallery like an invading fleet of friendly aliens, and reigning over all activity in the Garden. Especially the Summergarden Concerts - reflecting the sunsets and the music at once - pure delight. "I wonder where their new home will be?"
He shook his head. "What a great photo essay it would have been, enormous hunks of metal art moving through the air, showing how they do it - like a magician unmasked."
She, who still enjoyed gasping in wonder as the rabbit was lifted from the hat, could only shake her head. "It involved cranes. Enough for me to want to keep my distance."
He packed up his camera. "I did my best, got out to 54th Street when they were supposed to move them, but the weather made it too risky. And by the time I could return, it was over."
Days later, gazing out the window of a city bus, he spotted a familiar form on a flatbed truck, it looked like, it was - THEM! The Serra's were on their way out of town, and he had one last chance. He dug into in his knapsack for the small camera...finally! But when he looked up, the bus was stopped at a red light, the truck already shrinking in the distance...
"You're like the papparazzi to them, " she said later, as they stood at the entrance the museum.
"Maybe you're right," he said. "They did not want me to see them that way. Art wants to keep its mystery."
They both wondered if everyone missed the Serra works, and how long they would feel this way.
"Excuse me," asked a man, easing past them to enter the MoMA. "Do you know if the goat is back in the garden yet?"
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