Up Past Midnight

Masterpiece

Alfonso used the end of the paint brush to scratch his head as he stared at the still wet canvas that contained his latest work in progress. 

It's not good enough, the words echoed in his ear.

Something was off. Was it in the sky? Maybe the trees. He couldn't tell, he just knew it wasn't right. It wouldn't be right. It would never sell.

"Not good enough," he murmured.

He slammed the paint pallet down on the table, old cups of microwave ramen shaking and falling over, rolling around before they clattered to the ground.

Maybe a night skyline of the city. That could be the answer. Alfonso picked up the canvas and tossed it to the side. It landed on a pile of discarded, complete and half-finished works. None of them had been good enough. 

You're just not good enough. You'll never make a name for yourself, it was that voice again. The one that had been in his ear for weeks. At every turn it was there to let Alfonso know that what he did was never enough. 

He ran his hands through his ragged hair, his fingers wrapping around the strands and pulling. He couldn't get the voice out of his head. it had plagued him for weeks. No matter what he did, it was right there in his ear. 

Pacing the room, trash creaked, squeaked, and squished under his feet. 

No time had been spent on cleaning. The trash can in the corner had overflown, so he had started collecting it on the tables, and it had gone to the floor. He didn't care. The only thing he cared about was his artwork. The artwork that never seemed good enough. 

The next big thing. That was what he needed. He'd tried every tactic out there. 

His phone rang and he thought about ignoring it. On the third ring, he pressed the talk button.

"Hello."

"Hey, Fons. Trish and I are going out to a movie tonight. You should join us." 

"I can't AJ. I'm working on a project."

"You've been working on your project for the past month straight. When was the last time you got out of there? When was the last time you slept?"

Alfonso tried calculating the hours, days, weeks. He wasn't sure of the answer to either question. Not that AJ was expecting a response anyway. 

"Maybe some other time, man."

"Whatever dude. If you don't leave there soon, we're going to come in there and pull you out."

"Yeah, yeah. I need to get back to work."

"Whatever dude. Talk to you later."

"Later."

Alfonso opened the box that contained his paint tubes. Empty tubes littered the ground. He picked out the colors, squeezing them onto a fresh pallet. Black, yellow, white, they oozed out into the dips in the pallet. 

He grabbed a clean set of brushes and a fresh canvas and set to work coating the surface with black paint.

Yes. That's it. Good.

Alfonso smiled as finished. Mixing the white with the black, he created a dark grey that would be the outline of the buildings. 

Starting from the center and working his way out, Alfonso constructed the New York skyline.

Lights. That was the next task. He used the yellow to create the lights in the city that never sleeps. 

Good, good. Don't ruin it this time.