The Bright Colours of Misery [COMPLETED]

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝙵𝙸𝚅𝙴 -Their colours-

Before they sat down to have dinner that night, while Trudy was cooking something that already smelled mediocre, Heidi snuck downstairs to get some of her papa's old newspapers. She didn't want him to see her do this since he was strangely attached to his old newspapers and would probably not be too happy about them being painted on. Gisela stared at her with curiosity as she tiptoed up the stairs, but she remained quiet, studying a branch carefully. Gisela Seide was a particular child, and everyone had come to terms with that long ago. She still had not said her first word, until now.

"What are you doing, Heidi?" It was a simple question, but it caught Heidi off guard for two reasons. Gisela had spoken for the first time, and she now had to answer her sister's question and make sure she wouldn't snitch on her. Heidi stood at the top of the wooden stairs, extremely thoughtful. She was overthinking this entirely. Poor Gisela just wanted her to turn around, smile at her and explain what she was up to. Because Gisela admired Heidi, something Heidi would never be able to accept or understand. People always admired Frieda, not her.  So, due to this ridiculous belief (And sometimes truth), I watched my human make a huge mistake that would damage yet another relationship with one of her siblings. Heidi—stupid as she could be—thought her two year old sister might do something Frieda would have done. Snitch on her or make her look ridiculous, whereas Gisela only wanted some attention from her favourite sister. Because yes, against all odds Gisela's favourite sister was the little red haired Heidi. My human remained there for yet another minute, conflicted. Gisela, the poor dear waited patiently but after entirely too long Heidi made the mistake. She looked up, and quickly ran into her room, ignoring her little sister. At the sight of her devastated little face I started feeling an emotion called anger.  I wanted to yell at Heidi, grab her hand and pull her back toward her sister. I couldn't possibly do the second action, but I did start yelling at her, maybe this time she would listen. I also sent her a lot of regret, she stopped dead in her tracks as I explained things to her. My humans can't exactly hear the words I say. They hear them like an echo in the back of their minds, followed by feelings and emotions that I carefully pick out, so they can feel them.

Heidi's heart leaped suddenly, the image of her sweet two year old sister looking more than devastated popped into her mind (thanks to me).
For just a second Heidi wondered why she would be, and I explained it to her, slowly so she would understand. Gisela had trusted Heidi enough to speak to her, to ask her a question. Which obviously meant she wanted an answer, but she hadn't got one.

She trusted you and you betrayed her trust.

It might seem harsh and a bit exaggerated, but Gisela had never felt this feeling before, the disappointment in her eyes was crystal clear and I recognized it as soon as I noticed it. So I assure you. She did feel betrayed. Heidi ran back downstairs but her sister wasn't sitting there anymore. Not even I knew where she had gone, and both Heidi and I had to accept she wouldn't be able to make it up to Gisela yet. 

Heidi sighed, disappointed in her own action and went back to what she was initially going to do.

Discover her new art supplies.

She insisted on using that term, it sounded so fancy.

She pulled them out from under her bed and took great pleasure in simply looking at the palette. It had exactly eight colours.

The first one was red, a dark and full red. Just like the prettiest roses in Herr Neumann's flower boutique. The ones everyone wanted to give to their lovers.

The one next to this rosa rot–as Heidi would now call it–was a brilliantly bright yellow. It reminded her of  the sun, when its warmth would hit her face on a lovely summer day. In those moments where she could forget her constant hunger and desperate need for a bath.

She decided to name it fröhlich gelb. Which literally translates to Happy yellow.

She enjoyed it very much, and found herself studying it for a while, imagining a bright sunny day.

a happy day.

After her little daydreaming session she got to the next colour. Just under the fröhlich gelb, she found a colour that reminded her of many things, but mostly a particular person:

Wilma.

This light blue reminded her of Wilma—Her eyes to be exact—and a smile formed upon Heidi's lips when she thought of her. She wondered when Wilma would be done with her chores and errands, so she could thank her amazing sister for the colour palette all over again.

She decided this blue colour should simply be named Wilhelmina.

The next colour resembled the apple tree outside their house. It was the exact colour of its trunk. She would have called it Apfelbaum braun if the colour displayed under it wasn't the exact definition of apple green. It was just as vibrant and bright as the apples Heidi and the kids of the neighbourhood snatched from the trees in late summer, so she decided there could only be one apple related colour. The brown colour had to take the name Baum braun and the light light green apfel grün

The next colour she found was absolutely beautiful, it was a dark green–It absolutely had nothing to do with Apfel grün–It looked like the magical forests Wilma would tell her stories about, where pine trees grew and fairies lived.

She had no clue what to name it, since it made her think of everything wonderful in her world. It took her a bit too long and I decided to give her an idea. It was her favourite, so why not refer to it as such.

Mein favorit

Now there were only two more colours to name and discover.

One that almost appeared black, but WIlma had told her it was a dark blue, so dark it barely looked blue at all. Heidi went with a safe and easy name for it–blau–blue. Nothing else. Why? The last colour caught all of her attention, that's why. It shimmered and glittered. It reflected light. This last spot on the palette mesmerised her for a moment.She couldn't possibly remember the last time she had seen this in such a big quantity. The only golden objects my human had encountered by then were necklaces. One necklace to be exact, that her mother wore every day without exception. However  she had no intentions  to name this colour after that necklace. she didn't get much time to think about it since her mother declared with a loud tone that dinner was ready. Which obviously meant she had to go back downstairs and have dinner with them all.

She sat down last, at her usual spot, seated between Wilma and her father. Heidi did not engage in any form conversation, she simply ate her atrocious tasting soup and looked over at Gisela. She had to apologise for bluntly ignoring her earlier. But for some reason instead of thinking of that, Heidi started thinking of how she would draw her little sister. She would use the baum braun and the fröhlich gelb, to do her hair, maybe with a lot of water since Wilma had told her that the more water you used, the less pigment would show on paper. She had to somehow re-create her sister's very light blond hair so that would be her only option. Then her skin was pale, but not as pale as hers. She would use the rosa rot and the fröhlich gelb for that, with a lot of water once again. For her eyes she would use the apfel grün. It would look really nice. She started doing all this with her entire family, even Frieda. Her mother's hair was much more red than hers, so she would use less fröhlich gelb then for Frieda. Wilma's eyes only needed one colour, which was practical.

That day, without even saying a word, Heidi discovered her family in a whole new way. She saw all their colours and it made me want to smile. (Although i couldn't and still can't.)