Simple Distortion

Chapter 1 - Simple Distortion

Chapter 1

"Keira! Come and look at this. It's beautiful," Ellen called, her voice echoing from across the gallery. I turned to see her. All I could see was the back of her head, and the beautiful, blonde hair lying on her shoulders, and curling into swaying ringlets that were not quite making contact with her back.

I walked, my white shoes making a loud tap, tap, tap as my slight heels made contact with the grey stones laid on the floor. Ellen turned to me as I approached. "Isn't it just perfect for Aveline?" She smiled, revealing two rows of beautiful, white teeth, perfectly contrasted with the dark red of her full lips. Her sea blue eyes met mine; they sparkled with the excitement of finding the perfect painting. I looked from her to the painting on the wall. The dark shadow of a bare tree was the main focus. Its branches were few, yet they stretched from one side of the picture to the other. The background was clouds hiding the sun. It had a stunning mixture of browns, the shades altering from muddy, earth colours, to light, almost yellow around the sun, high in the sky. I looked below it. The name of the art was 'Positive Abundance'. The artist, a woman I had never heard of before, Rebecca Bessette. It was so Aveline. She would love it, I was sure.

"It is surely beautiful and, as you said, Aveline will think that too. She’ll probably put it in the hall, I think she was looking for a picture to put in there, and this one will match the colour of the walls."

I turned to the man at the desk. He was human, of course, and his black hair was gelled up, his dark eyes still transfixed on the two beautiful women in his little shop on the edge of a little street in Pineto. I met his eyes, and practiced my already perfected Italian. I looked down into my bag, dipped my hand in and pulled out my purse.

Pulling back the zip, and looking up to his shocked face, I asked, "Mi scusi signore, per favore mi puoi dire quanto questo dipinto è?" Excuse me Sir, please can you tell me how much this painting is? The man blinked, then looked away from my face.

 "Sì, naturalmente." Yes, of course. The man ducked behind the wooden counter, reaching for something on a shelf there.

I searched through my purse, looking for my credit card. The man said the price, and I pushed my card into the little machine on the side. I entered my PIN number, and pulled it out when the money had been taken off it. The man pulled out a bag and went to get the artwork off the wall. He wrapped it up in some plastic, and carefully put it in and handed the bag to me with the receipt. I smiled him one of my jaw-dropping smiles, and turning and taking Ellen’s' hand, calling behind me, "Thank you," in Italian, and pulled open the door to the street outside.

Ting!

The little bell above the door tinkled as we opened and then shut the door. I looked around the street. It was a beautiful little street, but rather too modern for my liking. I turned to Ellen. I could feel the ring she wore on her middle finger pressing into the bottom of my index finger. I looked into her eyes. They were perfectly framed with long, black lashes. She was certainly stunning to look at, and one of my best friends. "Where shall we go now?" Ellen bit her lip and looked away from my face and down the street behind me.

"Hmm..." She deliberated. She looked back, meeting my eyes and I knew that she was going to go there whether I wanted to got there or not. Ellen was very strong-minded when she wanted to be. "Lets go to the old part of this city! I love it, it's so beautiful and old. It has a fantastic aura around it." She glanced down at her crystal watch and her face dropped. "We've got to be back soon..." She looked so sad… I sighed.

"Let's go there, but we can’t be there for long, only for a minute or two."

As we walked, she seemed to not be able to stay putting one foot in front of the other. She kept adding the odd skip into her step. She seemed to be buzzing, and, under her hat, her face was alight with the anticipation.