Prismatics (Sweet Pea x Betty)

Wenge

Wenge - a very dark brown color and named after the wood of an endangered legume tree found in Africa, Millettia laurentii.

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For the average person, the possibility of finding your soulmate was slim to none. Statistics said you had a better chance of marrying a prince or winning the lottery than finding the one you were meant to be with and seeing fully in color. Made sense; it was a great wide world out there, and the statistical chance of running into that singular person you were meant for even for the briefest amount of time seemed laughable. Like some cruel joke. Or, worse, entirely made up.

Made up by TV producers who wanted to sell movies and supported by paid actors who claimed they saw in color. This was a common conspiracy theory, but unlike the such that aliens built the pyramids or Elvis Presly was alive somewhere, a great number of people subscribed to this. It was the most numerous conspiracy theory group on Facebook; even higher than the Flat-Earthers.

Ideas such as 'green', 'blue', or 'pink' were mere phantom ideas to Betty; ideas from those who somehow beat the odds. It was like trying to describe a taste she'd never had or a smell she'd never come across. Just foriegn.

There were times when she was nearly sure she saw color. Throughout her childhood, she'd pass an area and there, on the slide, there would be a shine of silver. Not gray, silver. Or, in the parking lot, a fall leaf would be tinted with what she assumed to be orange, as though someone's fingers pressed into it for just the briefest of seconds and flung it back to the ground.

But it was never vibrant. Only ever a memory of a person, someone who passed by hours or even days ago. Like she was consistently chasing a spirit or a soul without a body.

The older she grew, the more Betty had half-convinced herself her mind was only playing tricks on her.

Most only ever saw in shades of gray, black, and white. This was the normal way of the world. Out of a class of 100 children, probably only one would ever come across the splashes of color, and another 100 of those 100 would ever truly see in full color. It was a lot about being at the right place at the right time.

Betty remembered being taught about soulmates. She was young, probably six and a half. Six months past seeing that first color green for the first time (but she'd still told nobody) and beginning to wonder if she imagined it, for she hadn't yet seen any other color again.

She was almost sure she'd dreamt it and that would somehow be better. At that age, nothing ever seemed to change, and- as far as Betty knew- this was just how the world was.

So she'd seen the shade of emerald. A fluke. A glitch. A rock in the proverbial stream. It didn't mean anything, or else she'd see more of it, right?

It was her father who set her straight.

"Some people can see in full color," He'd said, touching the strands of her hair, as though imagining what it was. She knew her dad couldn't see in color, and so she assumed the same of her mother, "But it's very rare, sweetie. If you're ever so lucky, you might start by seeing...glimpses. Wherever your soulmate has touched, you'll see that area in color. It will fade in time, less colorful meaning it's been a couple of hours since they touched that, or even days. And then, the first moment your eyes meet, you'll both see in color."

There was much more to it than that. He described that there were certain ailments that could afflict someone who had found their soulmate but was not with them.

"They're meant to be together, you see," Hal said, enclosing his fingers into a locked pair, "And it's unnatural for them to be apart once they've found each other."