Chapter 29: 8.4 Colors in the Darkness

  Though Sarah’s body had gone still and quiet, her mind had only redirected the energy and began cycling through memories like the slides in an old projector. Words and phrases echoed within the darkness that filled the empty space that her consciousness had left behind. “Broken things need love too,” she heard. “Quack, quack,” she heard as well, but from another direction.

  When an image finally bleeds out of the darkness, then gains motion, it is within a large room and filled with bright shapes of reds, blues, yellows, and greens. Several children climb and play around the room. One of the boys is playing with a train on the floor. It’s traveling across the beige carpet, on a collision course for the edge of the bright yellow and blue rug. The following hand gestures suggest an explosion much too grand for the low-speed impact.

  Another little boy is chasing a little girl and her long blond hair is bouncing off her shoulders as she flees. The three adults in the center of the room step aside as she rushes by, then takes shelter behind one of the two women. The lady gestures for the children to take their game elsewhere as the man begins to walk across the room. The lady then turns back to the gentleman and begins a protest as he continues to walk away from her.

  His crossing approaches the perspective for this scene, and he finally kneels beside it. The man has kind eyes with arms and shoulders that are much too large for his frame. “You didn’t want to play with the others?” he asks a little girl with black hair and pale blue lips.

  She is wearing a gown while wrapping both of her arms around a stuffed duck. Her top lip curls out in a cup before she reaches to brush the back of her hand across her runny nose. “Doctor says I not supposed to,” the girl replies, lowering her chin to rest on the duck.

  “Well, doctors should know best,” he replies, resigned. “And who’s this little guy?” he asks, gesturing to the duck.

  She perks up as she looks down at her friend. “He is my friend Blue. And he’s a wood duck, not a mallard duck.”

  The man chuckles. “Is that so? Do you think he might be my friend too?”

  “You like ducks?” she asks, eyes wide as if never considering anyone else could like them too.

  “Well, I like you, and you look like a duck,” he says, then reaches to tap on her nose with his finger. “Quack, quack.”

  She giggles, showing all her teeth as she pushes her tongue between them and shakes her head. “I ain’t no duck,” she protests, continuing to giggle.

  He turns to sit on the three carpeted steps beside her, sitting on the top as she sits on the bottom. “You know, I was talking to Ms. Lady over there,” he says, gesturing towards the two women. “I told her that I was looking for a new duck after mine flew away.”

  “You lost him?” she asks, turning back.

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  “That’s right,” he says, nodding.

  The girl leans down and kisses her duck on top of its head.

  “I was hoping to—”

  She stands suddenly, faces the man and proffers the duck with an outstretched hand. “If you promise to be his friend and even if he’s sick.”

  “Yeah,” he says, accepting the duck with both hands. “I promise.”

  Her expression grows tired, but she nods and sits back down on the bottom step.

  He begins to pet the duck while looking back down to her as she faces away. “You know, I might have to work sometimes. And when I do, I’ll probably need a duck sitter. Do you know anyone who might be able to duck-sit for me?”

  The girl places her elbows on her knees and her chin in her palms causing her whole body to shift as she shakes her head. “No.”

  “Well, I was hoping that maybe you could. Do you think you’d want to help me take care of Blue?”

 

  Before she can answer him, the scene’s clarity distorts. The colors begin to smudge like rain striking the colored chalk on a sidewalk. The colors plume in the droplets, then streak across one another as they peel away from the empty blackness that served as a background for the scene to be projected onto.

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