Paint Me A Picture

• May Warry, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2013

When she awoke, it could have been dawn. It could have been dusk. It could have been midnight.
The mystery went deep. Hope and joy were feelings beyond her grasp, feelings she couldn’t work out. She was almost certain these emotions would help solve the mystery, yet she didn’t experience them.
This wasn’t because she might not want to solve the mystery. In fact, she was so eager to solve the mystery, she wanted to unbury those feelings as soon as possible.
Still the emptiness suggested perplexity. It seemed that someone had slashed thick black paint strokes over her life, her hope, her dream. Life blurred and mystified. The little she could comprehend continued without definition, dimension, or the hope of tomorrow.
Empty was the only colour on her palette. It was her entire world. If she could, she would paint a picture of bright, happy colours, mingling together, suggesting hopefulness. She’d paint a picture full of colours that screamed, “Why? Why?” If she could, she’d capture the way light reflected off her mother’s face, the way her best friend’s face seemed to sparkle, the way black clashed with white. But she couldn’t. That dream had been shattered, torn, ripped, stomped on. What had once been her passion now lay somewhere beyond the emptiness, broken.
The Enemy seemed to taunt her. The evil voice whispered to her what she couldn’t do, couldn’t understand, wouldn’t do, wouldn’t understand. Enemy squeezed around her heart like a boa constrictor. You’ll never solve it. No matter what you do, you can never comprehend it.
She pushed the Enemy back into its dark corner. Opened the window. A breeze floated in, tickling her face, bringing a sharp tang she wished she could paint. The breeze erased any lingering trace of Enemy, filled her up to overflowing and completed her.
Somewhere, something opened. A door. Hope filled the room. Her mother. How she wished she could capture on a canvas how her mother seemingly glowed with hope at the beginning of every treatment.
“We won’t do this without you.”
Say no. She pushed Enemy away. Stood up. Took a big breath.
“Okay, Mum. I’ll do the operation.”
“I know that you must be feeling depressed…”
“I don’t want to be blind. This ends today.”