Deeper Blue

VIII

It's hard to say whether Edgar has settled into the lake house yet. Although a few days had passed, he still looked uncertainly toward Deeper Blue. Cleaning the house, mending the fence and cutting the grass hadn't changed much in his mind. True, the house already looked much, much better, but the proximity to the body of water put the boy in a slight but lingering sense of danger. When he was alone, he rarely looked toward the lake. Fortunately, he didn't have many opportunities to be alone with himself. In fact, he was accompanied daily by Tymon.

Today he was also scheduled to come, or rather, to sail. Edgar asked him to run some errands in the city of Ilawa. Specifically, Tiger was to buy some candles and flowers. This was because Edgar wanted to visit his aunt Lidia at the cemetery. He realized that through his phobia he was making the whole task more difficult. It would have been much faster and easier to sail along the winding lake from Ilawa to the village of Deeper Blue. It was difficult to get to town on foot, and it was about an hour's walk to the village center. So Tymon sailed from Ilawa to the pier by the house to grab his belongings with Edgar and walk to the cemetery.

As a thank you, Eddy baked an early morning apple pie that was just cooling by the kitchen window. The boy wondered what kind of pie Tymon might like best. He was still considering a pie with plums, pears or rhubarb, of which there was plenty growing around the house at the moment. Nevertheless, his intuition told him to bet on apples. The whole house was engulfed by the pleasant smell of cinnamon and spices, which also appealed to old Michael.

The painter came to visit Edgar just when the latter had finished baking the apple pie. Traditionally, the lynx brewed tea in a porcelain teapot and together with Michael sat on the terrace and painted landscapes.

Edgar was impressed by Michael's skills, who did not even own professional painting tools. He claimed that two paintbrushes were still too many for a man with his skills, something Eddy completely disagreed with.

Another of Michael's skills was his ability to talk and paint at the same time. The artist seemed completely uninterested in the process of creating his own work, yet the colorful patches that appeared on the material turned into detailed reflections of the nature around them in the blink of an eye. Eddy mostly listened. He spoke much less. He needed focus, and at the same time was interested in the old man's stories about life in Deeper Blue. He also didn't treat the painting of the landscape as very obliging. It was more like their form of spending time together. Besides, it wasn't exactly a landscape that Eddy would have chosen to immortalize on canvas in the first place, a fact that didn't escape Michael's attention.

The man straightened up on the bench and, with squinted eyes, leaned over the boy's work. He carefully analyzed what was on it.

- Edgar... - began the old man clearly perplexed. - I'm no academic expert, but wouldn't you like to hear my advice?

- Of course. - Replied Eddy energetically. - I would love to.

- I actually only have one. - He replied restrainedly, grunting under his breath. - Lake...

Eddy looked at his painting trying to see where he had made a gaff.

- What is wrong with it? - He raised his eyebrows in surprise.

- Well, you know. It's so, so... - He said waving his finger over the picture of the lynx. - So dark... how do you say it in German? Dark like...

- Like tar? - Asked Eddy raising his ears high in surprise.

- Exactly! - He replied. - Like tar, and yet so beautifully today the light is reflected in the waves.