Desperate

42

Arabella

After a long drive I'm woken up by someone nudging my arm, "bells, bells were here" I hear his rugged voice next to my ear.

It takes my eyes a moment to adjust, "where are we?" I ask as I meet his gaze.

"You'll see." He says as he gets out of the car.

We're in the garage of what seems to be an apartment building, when we get out we're walking for about 5 minutes before I realise we're in New York City.

"Oh my god" I smile "oh my god" I turn and jump on Cole giving him the biggest hug I could. When I pull away, he sets me down and cups my face, "I thought you might like it sunshine"

He grabs ahold of my hand and takes me to this small little shop, from the outside you wouldn't think much of it, but when you step inside it's heavenly. It's two floors filled with all different types of paintings and sculptures, most of them done by unnamed artists, but that's what makes it special. After an hour and a half of searching through the beautifully crafted paintings and sculptures disgusting what they could possibly mean and what could have been in the artists head at the time, I walk to the back of the second floor, where it's quieter to examine the forgotten masterpieces hiding from the swarm of critical bodies. Among the dozens of paintings hung on the wall, one stands out to me more than the rest, a sense of familiarity fills me as I get the soothing comforting feeling I haven't felt in a long time. The paining in front of me displays a beautiful long curly haired woman walking in the rain towards an outreached hand, her eyes are longing for the hand, desperation in her eyes. My breathe catches in my chest. I recognise the woman in the painting but I don't know where from. My breath catches in my through as I see the name of the artist.

"What is it?" A deep voice questions from behind me as he stares at the painting. " it's beautiful" he says moving closer to the painting. "Is that you?" He asks.

"Umm no." I say my voice shaking. " this, this was my moms painting. She did this." I say fighting a tear that's insisting on coming out.

I feel his arm wrap around me. "It's gorgeous" he says his voice filled with honesty.

"I haven't seen any of her work since she died, it's all in storage." I say looking away. "Umm are you done looking around?" I say hunting that I want to leave.

"Yeah, here, I'll meet you in the car I just have to use the bathroom" he says passing me his keys.

I'm waiting In the car for around 20 minutes, just thinking about my mom in her old ragged overalls with her hair in a bun and her glasses covering half of her face completely zoned in on whatever she was creating. It was perfect.

I'm snapped back to reality by the sound of the trunk closing and Cole getting into the car.

"You ok?" He asks.

"Yeah, perfectly fine. What are we doing now?" I ask putting a happy smile on my face.

"You'll see."