Dying and Everything in between

5| Museum bonding

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"Today is gonna be a great day." Joy beamed as she stood beside a pissy Lucas in front of the doors to the National Art Museum.

As much as he hated it, the program or well Dr. Jake wanted to take the whole crew out to places just to put a cherry on top of the morale he was trying to build. He was a nice guy, nonetheless.

It also didn't help that it was very early in the morning and Lucas had to get up even earlier to go to the hospital with Laura since she had some surgery to attend.

He pre-planned to sleep in one of those on-call rooms but his mind slipped the fact that today was the third day of the meeting and Dr. Jake surprised them with the trip like a teacher surprising its student with a test that they never wanted. 

"To think I could be sleeping right now," Lucas grumbled, practically dragging his feet around.

"Cheer up dude," Joy stated, matching his pace while the rest of the crew was way ahead of them. "It's pretty fun y'know."

"It's pretty boring if you ask me,"

"Well, you guys are free to look around by yourself but I need all of you to meet me here in an hour sharp." Jake instructed, treating them like a bunch of kindergarteners. He wanted to roll his eyes and bolt out of there so badly but he somehow contained myself. 

Soon enough everyone dispersed among themselves and Lucas ended up in a large hall with Joy trailing beside him. The hall was enormous and deserted with people, mostly tourists, standing in front of all the artifacts on display admiring the pieces of artistry. 

Lucas wasn't very keen on coming here in the first place but now that he was finally here he knew why he wasn't interested. The silence was deathening  and the shivering cold wasn't helping much either. 

They kept walking around not really stopping to look around and soon they were out of the current hall and into a hallway leading into another. This hall was much bigger than the previous one, but with was a lesser crowd much to Lucas's relief. 

"Van Gogh's Starry Night," Lucas said stopping in his tracks, his voice filled with awe. 

Joy was quick to correct him, "A fake. The real one is in a museum in New York,"  

"Oh." The realization of it being a fake dammed his initial enthusiasm. "It's really beautiful though," 

"Did you know," she began, "That Van Gogh cut off his ear after a fight with his friend?"

Lucas glanced at her. Now that's something he would like to listen to in history class.

"Art critics at the time weren't impressed by his work. They said that his signature style was sloppy, crude, and childish, saying Van Gogh was crazy. He did paint this in an asylum. He must've experienced feelings of isolation while he was in there. It's clear,"

Joy pointed at the splash of blue on the wall. he examined the painting, following her fingertips and taking her words into consideration "He bore out his emotions into this."

"The brushes and strokes seem heavy and dark. There are 11 stars and a crescent moon complimenting the blue night sky. The most eye-catching but at the same time ambiguous 'thing' in the painting, mostly because of its size and the way it's almost sinister presence contrasts so heavily with the brightly colored stars and luminescent shapes and strokes in the night sky is what gets the attention. It's isolated, looking tall, scary, and uncanny. Like a cypress tree although it looks more like a castle." Joy explained.