Color the World
In her dreams, the world came alive in glorious colors.Tonight she walked a beach, digging bare toes into warm amber sand as emerald grass waved frantically at an immeasurable expanse of blue. Ruby-red crabs scuttled over the sand, ready to take cover at the touch of a shadow overhead.
Her return to reality came in the form of a sparrow smacking her bedroom window. As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, her gaze traveled over the dismal furnishings of her apartment. Her furniture and appliances were all the same dirty shade of gray. The carpet may have been white once. Those clothes she could see through her half-opened closet door were varying shades of black, white, and silver.
Color had gone from the world before she was born. As a child she would sit on Gram’s knee and listen in wonder to stories of flowers so vibrant they hurt the eyes and sky ribbons called rainbows that were bridges to magical places.
The sooty sparrow picked herself up, offering a cheeping once before throwing herself back into the morning haze. The woman watched the little bird’s progress with envy, wishing for wings that could carry her far above this dreadful city.
She pulled the cover from the canvas on her easel, studying the half-completed painting with a frown. She was trying to capture the rooftops outside her window in just the right light, to show the contrast of creamy white sunlight against the slender shadows of fire escapes.
Her client was a retired airline pilot who had recently opened a flight training school. He wanted a series of paintings with bird’s eye views of the skyscrapers, fields, and forests that potential students would see from the air. He wanted a lure to get people behind his controls. She wanted a project that would keep her from caving in and accepting a job at a drive-thru window. It wasn’t an exciting piece of work, but it would pay her rent for half a year.
She dabbed her brush in a blob of gray paint, eyeing a rain gutter that needed her attention. She was forced to set the brush aside after only one stroke when the doorbell rang.
The mailman was a middle-aged man who always wore a smile. She accepted her stack of mail with a word of thanks, shutting the door with her foot as she began to sort.
The bills went into the usual pile on the kitchen table. She could muster the energy to deal with them twice a month. The small paper package at the bottom of the stack was the only item of interest.
The spidery script on the top turned boring addresses into elegant lines. She traced the letters with a fingertip as she tried to make out a return address but the writing on the top left corner was badly smudged.
She ripped the paper apart, pulling aside the binding string to reveal a small white tube of paint. A note written on a fragile piece of parchment was wrapped around the tube, clearly written by the sender.
Never doubt that you have the power to change the world.
The note was signed simply Destiny.
The artist cracked the tube’s seal, giving its contents a wary sniff. The heady smell of acrylic paint was oddly comforting. She squeezed a drop of paint onto her finger, dropping the tube in her shock.
The paint was a stunning shade of blue. She was pretty sure it was called aquamarine.
She stared with awe at the color spreading in a small pool on her carpet. Reality hit with the thought that her landlord would throw a fit. She went through almost an entire roll of paper towels mopping up the spill but she could not bring herself to throw the blue-streaked sheets of paper in the trash. She carefully arranged the wad on the center of a paper plate, a new sculpture to brighten the empty shelf above the TV she never bothered to watch.
Her eyes fell on the painting. She moved forward in a daze as inspiration struck, her brush dancing over the surface to transform a gray sky to blue.
She had no idea in that moment that Blue Sky was her ticket to fame or that in two years her works would be featured in every museum and art gallery in the country. She knew only that something wonderful was happening when she looked up and saw that the sky outside her window had taken on the same beautiful shade of blue.
The next day the mailman did not even have to ring the bell. She only smiled as he commented on the wonderful change in the weather, accepting her newest package with eager hands. The color of the day was lime green and she knew exactly which patch of grass it was destined for.
Profile made by Athene
City skyline from Here
Story by Pureflower