Colors

• Emily Stuart, Grade 11, St Patrick's College
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'The Write Track 2015' competition

It was said that before the time of The Infection that people could discover their own loves and see the vibrant colors of the world. Some people believe it others don’t and the ones that believe usually refused to touch anyone so they could not find the one they were meant to be with and end up dying alone while those who do believe ended up either being disappointed with the result or being happy for the rest of their short lived lives.

The Infection happened before my mother was born but my grandmother was there when it happened, she said that people could always see the most amazing colors but then a green mist appeared and covered everyone with it. No one died from The Infection but most people did go color blind those who could still the colors where happy and had the love of their lives but The Infection didn't matter to them but, their children would be born color blind and everyone would remain that way until they either died alone or touched their soul mate.

Did I believe it? When I was younger, yes my mother told me when I was a little girl I would go up to random people and touch them to see if they were my soul mate. But as I got older I started to doubt that I would ever find them and live out my life alone with at least ten cats.

That was all before I forget to set my alarm for work. I had to get to work as fast as I could, the bus that went by it already left so I had to run, I was trying not to bump into anyone but some idiot didn't watch where he was going and knocked me to the floor and didn't even stop to see if I was okay or help pick up the folders that dropped out of my hand.
Luckily, another man stopped to help pick them up off the wet, hard concrete. We both smiled at each other and when we both reached for the same folder our hands touched. That’s when it happened. I could see his dark green eyes, his jet black hair, the grey sky, the blue of my shoes. I could see all the colors of the rainbow, which I could see faintly, I now knew what I was missing out on.
I stood and spun around slowly my eyes absorbing everything, every blue, every green, and every red. The man stood up with my folders in his arms and looked at me as if I was a weird person. I turned to him with one of the biggest smiles on my face.
“Do you see this?” I asked him still smiling like an idiot. He just look at me confused. Then the words that I thought I could never hear come out of his month.
“See what?”