𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒

𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠

Twelve years ago

Various pens and pencils with all sorts of colours were strewn wildly across the wooden table that both a young Isolde and her mother sat at. The pair of them had mini canvases within their hands and were using the random colours to draw whatever their hearts wished. Her mother painted an image of the sunset that was brewing behind them; it was a pure and warm blend of yellows, ambers, and reds. On the other side of the table, Isolde had heard that her favourite of her dad's friends was coming over and wanted to make him a present.

So, with her canvas in hand, she first she drew herself. She added the black and white colour of her hair and added the detail of them being in pigtails on either side of her head. Next, she drew her eyes with a purple crayon and added a few of the freckles with a pencil. The rest of her body was not so detailed, she decided to just draw a triangle underneath her head and added four lines to represent both her arms and legs.

Following this, Isolde started on her father's friend. His body consisted of pencil lines and basically all the colours of the rainbow in one heaped blob. Another four lines were added to mimic his arms and legs but she made sure that one of the lines that portrayed her arms linked up with hers, so that it looked like they were holding hands. She coloured in the top of his head, giving him shoulder length black hair, and his eyes were made to be black with dots of gold.

"Who are you drawing honey?" Her mother peered over to look at her daughter's work. Isolde twisted the canvas, and with a smile that revealed a few missing teeth she answered. "It's me and Fenny. Papa's friend. He is coming here today, and I wanted to get him a present, but papa said I wasn't allowed so I made him one." Her mother's eyes widened before gently taking it from her daughter's hands. "If papa said no then it is probably a good idea if mama keeps it safe. Is that ok?" Isolde's smile quickly fell to a frown. "Ok mama, promise that you'll keep it safe?" Her mother nodded. "I swear my little Izzy." She bent down and placed a kiss on the young girl's head.

The young girl was tucked up in her room by the time she heard the bell for the door go off. Quickly. she clambered to her window and opened it. "Fenny!" She whisper yelled. The man on the floor below took a step back and tried to look for the voice. "Fenny!" She tried again. This time he caught her, looking up with a bright smile. "Sola. How are you?" He signed to the girl. She stuck both of her thumbs at him and signed the same question. "I'm ok. Your hair today is very pretty, did you do that yourself?" His hands contorted rapidly.

"No, mama did them." Their conversation was cut short as the front door opened and he was enveloped into the home. Today her singular task was to stay out of the way and rescue her painting from her mama's room.

***

Around four years ago, Isolde noticed the man coming round the house more often, but she had never spoken to him until he found her one day with tears streaming down her face.