Color Au

color

Color
Elli VanderJagt

I never realized I took the colors for granted. Orange dimming lights, purple sunset, the rainbow presented to me through the spines of the books that sat upon my bookshelf. The colors are beautiful. They made life one full of imagination and happiness that such a thing as color could truly exist.

When I was little I had promised myself I would never forget how special seeing the colors really were. The colors that would appear once I met the one who could make everything shine. I had dreamed and tried my hardest to imagine what the color blue looked like and where it was. My mother had told me the sky was blue and so was the one that I used to keep pinned to my hair everyday. The only colors I enjoyed for 24 years were those that were shades of black and white. The blue sky was only a small tint of grey as the wall I had in my room was a dark black, covered in posters of varying grey. My eyes has always looked black until I met Luke. Then I realized they were brown and his were blue.

I had been strolling through the bookshop curiously wondering what new adventure I would go on. I had grabbed "A moment in time,:)" and instantly became hooked with the first page. I remember starting out walking around the store reading but keeping an eye out for the obstacles along my path. Eventually I must have lost all sense of the real world as I had clashed Into a sturdy sense of matter.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry." I had heard a manly voice call out. My eyes had been torn away from the book that lay beside me and my hands had been grabbed by the man I had previously bumped into and were now my support to stand up.

"It's really my fault." I had started to reply. I had looked up to see a handsome man who was smiling down back at me. A man with blue eyes. Blue eyes and brown hair that wore a brown sweater. Blue.

We had both gotten lost in the colors. The colors we had achieved by meeting the person destined to make sure we never lost faith in the colors and the other one.

From then on I had enjoyed every new color that presented itself to me.

“Do you see that mother? What color is that called?” I excitedly asked pointing out towards the sky that flourished in the bright color as the sun began to set and bring in the lonely clouds that hid the day away.

“That would be purple, Andrea. It's one of the many colors of the sunset.” My mother had breathed out, giving me a smile smile that was full of pride.

“It's beautiful.” I breathed out resting my head against the window and taking in every color that began to show along the sky.
“ but not as beautiful as blue.” I silently mumbled as my mother turned and gave me a small squeeze on my hand.

“Enjoy the colors Andrea.” My mother told me.

“I pray you get to see them forever.” My mother had silently said in the car that day. It was whispered, I knew she had not meant for me to hear it. I didn't understand her hope for the colors, your soulmate was the person you were destined to be with, there was no way to go back to the life of black and white unless a death had occurred. Soulmates are forever.

Or at least I had thought the colors stayed with you forever. My mother began to ask me to describe the colors to her much like I once did. She asked me to identify the color of her headbands, shirts, and earrings. She had gone back to the cold world of black and white. It had turned out that soul mates weren't forever. My mother and father had experienced first hand the secret truth. Soulmates may be the one you are destined to be with, but sometimes your soulmate is one who shares their colors with another. My mother had loved my father since the day they met, since the day she saw the green tint in his eyes, but as it had turned out my father only ever saw her black eyes, until he met another. Then he fell guilty to the hazel that was painted in my mother's eyes as for my mother everything started to dim.

I was walking home from work enjoying the small breeze that had finally picked up and made the outside feel like fall. Everyone was bundled up complete with scarves and jackets and more often than not they handsome sort of hot coffee held in their hand.

The stores around were all out up and many has vibrant colored lights that string around their doors. The people who could see these magnificent decorations occasionally stopped to enjoy the beauty while others like small children walked on without a second glance to the little shops.

I felt my phone buzz in my pocket and my attention was taken away from the decorations of Tolly’s, the little stand outside the store had been lit up with orange and clear lights as the little pumpkins they had sit near them changed color through every second, flashing blue, green, red, and purple.
I checked my phone to see a notification from Luke

Running a little late in the office tonight, won't be back until 10

I breathed a small sad sigh this wasn't surprising. I wish he would be able to come home and spend time with me before the day was over but his company had given him one of his most stressful projects yet. They never eased on the seemingly impossible deadline leaving Luke to work overtime for the past week. It was hard coming home to the empty house on the bad days when all I wanted was a hug to make it better, the house seemed to be somber without the two of us filling it with laughter and joy.

Thanks for letting me know. Don't stress out too much

I hit send and put the phone back in my pocket, deciding it was best to just hurry home and enjoy something sweet like hot chocolate.

Today had not been going my way, I had been late to the meeting at work thanks to a hair disaster, and then in the middle of the day I had, had to walk all the way home to change my jacket and shirt that had gotten coffee completely poured on it. It was a day that made you want to go home and curl into bed so you can go to sleep and cut the horrific day to an and even faster than usual.

Once I had gotten back to the small apartment I called homed I had quickly thrown my jacket off to the side of the chair that sat nearest to the door. I walked to the kitchen, looking for the hot chocolate mixes that I could make.

Once the drink was heating up I had turned on the decorative lights that we had strung up around the apartment to give it the classic Halloween feel. The small pumpkins that were held on our counter also helped to bring in the mood of the season and made me excited to sit down and relax and watch a Halloween movie that would be on one of the channels tonight.

Fall was one of my favorite seasons. The colors were gorgeous everywhere, lit up with my favorite shades of red orange and green. The leaves glimmers as you would walk by them and the colors around got less vibrant and more complex.

It wasn't too long after the drink had finished that I settled into my bed and turned on the t.v. that flashed the beginning of Hocus Pocus. I was covered in a blanket that could have covered me head-to-toe twice and that seemed to be the fluffiest thing that ever existed.

I fell asleep somewhere in between the movie. I had woken to the ring from my phone that had just erupted into my dreams. I worked with a slow start and tiredly reached out for my phone that stood upon the desk next to the bed.

-jonah

I wondered what Lukes coworker could possibly be calling for especially for it to be this late into the night. I turned to face Luke but he was not there. I checked the time, it was 11.
I started to wonder where he was and also why my phone looked the way it did. The original vibrant blue that lit up the screen for a call was almost grayish and only had a tinge of blue and Jonah's regularly green eyes seemed to be black.

Hello.
Andrea I'm so sorry I didn't mean to-...
Jonah you've got to calm down, what's going on?
His voice was shaking and I could hear the tears that were streaming down his face as he took in deep breaths.

It's luke, we were just driving home and this truck came out of nowhere and. God. Andrea it hit his side. And there was so much blood.

What? I had squeaked out. What do you mean Jonah? What is happening? By now I had turned on the light and was frantically trying to keep my phone in my hand. I looked around the room and was startled when the usually blood red curtains were a dark grey.

He didn't make it andrea. Luke is dead.

The phone dropped out of my hand as the last tint of blue faded away from my phone. I started to shake and scream and cry. There was no possible way he was gone. I didn't want to believe it but I had to because now my world was black and white once more.