Rhea sat in the balcony, painting a camera kept before her, wondering about how Ember had disappeared again. He hadn't come to the classes for the past week. She was anxious, but also secure. He came back last time, he'd come back again with another daft excuse. She turned and looked at the cleaned photo frame kept behind her on her study table, Ember's blue eyes, and the freckles in his smile, those soft baby hands, everything took her back to him and that brought a smile on her face.
She looked at the canvas again and continued painting, but she wasn't looking at the camera anymore, she was looking inside her mind. A beautiful shade of Prussian blue, young, wild, free. And as she saw those same, freckled pink fingers over her board, she looked up at his reflection behind her board. He was smiling at her, stripping her sense of reality.
"I always wondered why the sky is so blue and so are the oceans," She communicated with him, but with no words, just their eyes, "Where the sky was the ocean's kingdom, your eyes held it all," She painted as she looked at him. His clear heart laying in his sleeves because life was all that he wanted and more. So much that he could never have known what else he would want under the sun. So much that she would never know what was important until it was gone.
"But isn't that life?" He spoke, softly as he looked at her with his gentle, wrinkled eyes, "Cruel and beautiful as the ocean. Perhaps that is why the sky is as blue as the ocean or why the ocean is as vast as the sky. We will never be here again, so let us do all and everything more that will make us want to remember, this and this and this
Again and again..."
She zoned out as his image got more transparent and transient, like promises engraved on beach sand, which wiped away in waves, forgotten, "Why do you...Look at me so sadly?" She whispered. He smiled and walked towards her. She waited for him to reach her, he was so tall, yet so lean, so pale yet so dark, so unreal yet so close, she almost got cold, he leaned towards her ear as he grabbed her hair and whispered, "You're going insane,"
"RHEA!"
She blinked as she heard Jessica's voice. He was gone.
An artist's mind was supposed to live in a dimension much different from normal people. It wasn't supposed to settle down. But she, she was dust now. Plain and dry. And nobody would prefer a dessert over the forests that serve an art of eternal bliss. The place where azure and golden dusk collide, such a place could not exist-If it weren't in an art gallery. From the fantasies that only artists are allowed to dream of, Rhea was isolated.
The path was rougher than she thought. And Ember, his image seemed to be fading away. That vision she wanted was nowhere and those lifeless fingers could paint nothing but the lifeless. If only art was all about painting. It wasn't. It was about being fearless, in being afraid. It was in tragedy, that emerged out of happiness. It was everywhere but in her.
Jessica entered her room in utter bliss and looked at the painting "Oya? Rhea's painting? How refreshing!" She smiled and Rhea kept the paintbrush aside. Jessica looked at her and asked her what was wrong.
"I can't believe how incredibly useless I have become. I have come to a point where I can't even make my own art anymore," Rhea complained as she looked at the painting.
"What are you saying! It looks amazing!"
"IT DOESN'T!" Rhea interrupted, "It is hard to accept that something which I had mastered at such a young age is now becoming my biggest weakness. I can't paint what I want anymore. Would I never be able to paint again? Painting used to be so fun. It was good but now, it has attached memories to it. Of people I don't want to think about, but I think about them when I paint and that is eating me up inside,"
"Oh baby, come here," Jessica hugged her, "Look, I know you are trying to escape the real world. But honey, you are doing the best you can,"
Rhea seemed down so Jessica took her hand, "Come, let's go for a walk,"
They walked on the empty road in the afternoon. It was cloudy and a cold breeze flowed through their hair. Rhea looked at the sky. The trees above her were lathering yellow with the laburnum flowers and small birds surrounding the trees. The grass was pale green and rough. It had started drying. October was near and so was Autumn-The season when nature commits suicide to fool us. November brings the festival of the dead and December brings the end.
The grass would soon die too. But if it was so short-lived, why would it bother growing? Everyone steps on it as it grows, it is crushed and mangled. It is broken and suppressed all the time, but still, it grows so strongly and gracefully that when you see it from so up close, you see its pride as a weed, no less than a pampered flower. Nobody appreciates it but they don't know what wonders it has done in our evolution.
"What is wrong with you?"Jessica asked her.
"Inspiration, I need inspiration,"
"Oh, just that? Take my scooter out, we are going inspiration hunting!"
"Inspiration hunting?" Rhea looked at her and blushed, "I kinda...Wanna do that sort of thing with Ember,"
"Oho~" Jessica slapped her back, "I understand, girl. Call him!"
"What?! I've never called him!"
"So? Just call him,"
"But what if he's busy and he gets mad or-"
"Arorhea," Jessica interrupted with her eyelids half-open, "Just call him," Her eyes were bulging out, "Knowing him, he'd be elated if you call him,"
Rhea clicked on Ember's number and pressed the phone on her ear. The bell was ringing, she almost gave up when he picked up, "Rhea?"
"Oh-Shit! Wrong number!" She jumped as she looked at Jessica, who jumped with him, "I mean, erm, hey! Ember!"
He laughed, "Hello, young lady,"
"Hello, young gentleman?... Oh no, why do I sound so cringe?"
"It's okay, Rhea. What is it?" He laughed.
"Why are you replying to my texts?!" She yelled.
"Oh, I didn't see them,"
"See them!"
"Yes, milady. I will, after this call,"
"Good!"
"Ask him out!" Jessica whispered.
"How?!" Arorhea whispered back and Jessica slapped her head, "Just ask him to accompany you somewhere, to go for inspiration hunting!"
"Inspiration hunting sounds so lame!"
"Erm, hello?" Ember was still on the line, he sounded confused, "You still there, Rhea?"
"Hello!" Rhea said, "Well, would you like to...Go to the park tomorrow?"
"...Sure, which park?"
"Erm, well, err, the one behind the mall?"
Jessica shook her hands, "At five?"
"Yeah sure, I'll be there. I'll see you then,"
"Yes, bye!"
"Haha, bye,"
Rhea hung up.
Jessica slapped her head, "YOU IDIOT! THAT IS THE SHITTIEST PARK AROUND HERE! THERE IS NO GRASS THERE! FUCKING DOGS POOP IS LAYING AROUND ON THAT BANJAR ZAMEEN! NOBODY SANE VISITS THAT SHIT PARK! THAT'S SUCH AN UNROMANTIC SPOT MAN, COME ON!"
"What-I was nervous okay?! And I don't want a romantic spot!"
"Oh my god, you're so dumb. Nevermind," Jessica shook her head.
. . .
"Did you get it, Raj?" Jessica asked as she talked on her phone while standing at her balcony that night. Meanwhile, Raj stood in the park with his boys, wearing a mask, "We got it,"
"Ohh, I love you so much, baby!" Jessica squealed.
He smiled as he removed the mask, "I love you too, babe,"
"We just gotta get them together. I know Rhea, she can't do anything romantic herself. Tomorrow is our chance!"
"What are we gonna do though?"
"Make them kiss!"
-To be continued
Can't I Touch Your Heart?
Teach Me The Art Of Living