Iris

Chapter 17

That being said about Lieca, Jenn is named after the beautiful Jenn Marino from the radio show Sixx Sense with Nikki Sixx.

***

"Now, what about this? What color is this?"

"Kind of like a skin tone-ish? Why do you keep bringing me things to feel?" he asked, almost sounding impatient.

"You'll see," she said tersely.

They had been casually talking as Jenn worked for hours and just as Jenn was finishing up, another one of her favorite songs came on.

"My eyes are no good-blind without her

The way she moves I never doubt her

When she talks she somehow creeps into my dreams..."

"What song is this?" Iggy asked curiously.

"Baby Blue Eyes by A Rocket to the Moon," Jenn answered.

"I like it..." he said quietly. Jenn smiled.

"Viola! C'est fin!" Jenn suddenly exclaimed, causing Leica to lift his head and Iggy to flinch a little bit.

"Was that French?"

"Oh. Yeah. I took like two years of French and that's about all I learned," Jenn laughed. She ran over to Iggy and brought him to her artwork.

"Okay you ready?" Iggy reluctantly nodded. Excited, Jenn took his hand and placed it on the artwork. Iggy was surprised by what he felt. It was realistic. He could feel the bark of a tree and the leaves and his fingertips told him the proper colors and he was thoroughly confused.

"It's a tree...?"

"Uh-huh!" Jenn nodded eagerly.

"Is this your artwork or...?"

"Well it's something I've done in the past to test my technique. Here's yours," she moved his hand over to what felt like a face. His face.

"Is it a sculpture?"

"Sort of," Jenn said vaguely.

"And I can feel the colors, too. What's going on here?"

"It's a sort of synthetic that I invented. It's like a 3-D paint. I can make it into whatever texture I want it to and when you touch it, it's incredibly realistic, but when you see it, it's all bland and white. It's art specifically for the blind. No one else can really see it unless they touch it. And even then, we know that those who take sight for granted don't actually register what they're feeling."

"But I can feel the color...?" Iggy said, muddled.

"Yes well that was a last minute technique I threw together for your sake," Jenn said as if it was nothing. "I've been intrigued by colors and how they are just reflections. I was thinking about how you can actually feel the reflections and I just wanted to know if I could figure out how that works and so I used you to work it all out. I hope it's okay...?"

"So you used me for an experiment?" He was stung by a familiar pain, yet he was torn because of how ingenious her idea was and that it worked.

"Yeah..." Jenn said softly. Iggy was about to get mad before she suddenly said, "But since no one else can feel colors it will be like my way of dedicating my art to you. I mean, once I work out the kinks, I'll sell my paint-synthetics and then loads of people will be using them but I'll be the only one with the recipe for the blank colors so when you feel the art, you'll know which ones are mine. It would be like my own little signature just for you."

Iggy's mood quickly changed and he embraced her tightly. "You're brilliant, you know that?"

Jenn blushed and hugged him back. "Thank you."

"With this idea, there's no way they would ever kick you out of the Art Institute."