Iovita has been trying to send the money for nine days. Eighteen thousand and some change - the residual from the spring exhibition, meant for the Foundation her father left her and she quietly redirected: housing, legal aid, and food credits for children whose paperwork has not caught up to their actual situations. The interface accepts the request every time. The green confirmation icon. The seven-digit code. And every time, somewhere between sent and received, the money fails to arrive.
In the studio, the largest painting she has attempted in five years is dissolving at its edges - architecture becoming the memory of architecture, a figure in white refusing the scale she was given, a blue that has resisted mixing for two weeks. On the desk, a document with children's names waits unopened. On the floor, positioned between Iovita and whatever room she is in, Reese watches. Steady. Unhurried.