Heaven Sent (boyxboy)

Chapter Two: An Exquiste Corpse

        You know, the man who looked like he had way too much on his shoulders. Well… actually now that I'm looking at the drawing, I mostly drew the man. The only thing I left out were his eyes. I hadn't even attempted to screw them up choosing instead to leave that part blank. It looked eerie with those two white spots but seemed to fit with the rest of the picture. But there was absolutely no way I could have captured those expressive orbs correctly. The emotions would not be properly represented in such a small space. Maybe I'd make a larger painting and put the eyes in. I stared at the picture for probably another hour before deciding that it was, in fact done.

        I looked at the picture fondly. "Well, I guess you're as finished as you're gonna get. Let's spray you and take you to Tim's."

        Because I have absolutely no life outside of my art, it was already early morning by the time I was ready to leave for Tim's. I had not slept more than four consecutive hours, but still was energized and almost excited to present a new picture after being away from myself for so long. I knew that at this time most of the tenants were down in the kitchen eating a good old family styled breakfast. I avoided that room at all cost. The people in that room talked too loud, probably due to their varying degrees of deafness, and the room had developed an essence of mothballs. I swear it was like the old ladies wore it like the latest perfume. Another reason to avoid the room: I hated family meals. My experiences of them were not good ones. They were the most awkward times at my house, if you don't count the time my dad caught me masturbating. But that's a story for another time… My family would sit around the table fishing for topics in an attempt to keep us connected. I think it did nothing but increase the divide between us. The conversations always fell flat and we lacked the effort it took to actually pay attention to what the other was saying. To put it simply we just didn't really care. I will say it again, I hate family meals.

        Clutching the painting to my chest I made a run for it. I did not need to get sucked into one of my neighbor's philosophical conversations while I only had four hours of sleep. Their arguments might actually start to make sense. In two skips and a jump I was out the front door and halfway down the block well away from the gathered tenants. I continued to the end of the block and turned right, crossing the street and then walked two more blocks to a little corner shop called Assorted Art From Around the Block. In my opinion the name was stupid. Who named a place something like that? Apparently Tim did… If it were anyone else I'd seriously question their sanity. And their taste. Actually I still question Tim's taste every once in a while. Anyway, back to the name… I guess the good thing about it is people know exactly what was in the shop. Yup, it was a food mart. Just kidding, obviously an art shop. And it was owned by a very charismatic salesman.

        I pushed open the front door of the little shop and a bell chimed alerting the owner that a potential customer just walked into his domain. Too bad for him, he'd be disappointed. I wasn't a customer. Never would be… The large jovial man accosted me, bounding out of the storage room that was located behind the sales desk. "Howdy! Tim's m' name. Emptin' yer wallet's m' fav'rite game!" He rubbed his meaty hands together greedily.

        I arched my eyebrow at him giving him my best offended face. It failed miserably. I have a horrible poker face and I almost always laugh when trying to act serious. "Maybe I'm new to this whole sales thing but I'm pretty sure that's not such a good sales pitch."

        "Allen!" the man boomed, laughing happily. "Allen, my man. I've missed yeh. How's m' fav'rite local artist doin' this fine day?" I love Tim, I really do, but I have no clue what he's saying most of the time. But he was an awesome person and always wore a huge infectious smile on his teddy bear face.