08
I’m in the dark now, visualizing the painting coming to life in my world. Daniel and Crys are next to each other, floating through an orange sky atop a golden cloud that I’m lighting. Below is a sea with a tiny life raft made of PFDs. A passenger looks up and waves at us as we glide along. Daniel enters the room and interrupts my vision. He’s headed in my direction and I feel nervous, the way one feels waiting at a restaurant booth for a blind date to arrive. But then he turns abruptly, and faces the bookshelf. He is examining it. Why these books are so revered, I’ll never understand. Which book will be honored today, maybe Sense and Sensibility? He brings his hand up and pads The Catcher in the Rye, which is slightly off slant. Even I failed to notice that; Daniel has acute attention to detail. He leaves the book in place, drops his hands to both sides, leans back, and looks up. He starts laughing, softly at first and then louder. A spark shoots out of my filament and crashes against my bulb as I make myself laugh along with him, unsure of what the joke is. Smiling, he settles himself and exits the room.
Shortly thereafter, in the dark I hear something going on outside. Crys is yelling. Or is she crying? Daniel is yelling, too. I’m sure of that. The dark prevents me from understanding the fullness of what’s happening. I’d give anything to shout along with them. I’m here too! The Holy Bible told Daniel and Daniel told me, that with faith everything will be okay. Through faith I am theirs and through faith we will be united forever. I spend the following several hours speculating about Daniel and Crys’ exchange and imagining new variations of the painting. An orange sky glows over an emerald sea. Pink trees are adorned with hundreds of my kind; little white lights all over. I’m among them, lighting the heavens.