Deadline Date: August 1st 2015
Rating: PG
Genres: Romance
Word Count: 1152 words
"What does it look like?" Ana mumbled, staring with her blind eyes at the candy blue sky. She had been blind her whole life; the sky was an abstract concept to her.
"What what looks like?" Her boyfriend Michael mumbled back, absentmindedly stroking her hair, not even fully processing her words.
"The sky. Michael, can you tell me what the sky looks like?"
Michael's hand stopped pushing through her hair, and he gulped. He always felt guilty when she said things like this. He knew she didn't mean to, but, he couldn't help feeling bad. Ana deserved sight more than anyone. When he had gotten to know her, he had been mad at himself for taking his sight for granted.
But, it didn't matter how mad he was at himself. How could he describe seeing to someone who couldn't?
"Michael?" Ana asked in a soft voice.
"Yeah?"
"The sky... Can you tell me about it?" Ana sounded like she wished she hadn't asked. Maybe he doesn't know what to say, she thought.
"I-," he paused. "Well, the sky is blue- at the moment. But... Uh... That doesn't help you, does it?" Ana shook her head.
He stared at the sky a bit. "The... The color blue is like-" Michael thought about it for a bit, trying- and failing a few times- to think of what to say. Then, he figured it out. "Ya know what happiness feels like, right? That's what blue is like, blue is hanging out with friends and family. Blue is smiling, and dancing, and... Blue is just that feeling you get in your chest when you know that, for the moment... Everything's gonna be alright," Michael looked down at Ana, who was now frowning a bit.
"So... Blue is happiness?" She asked.
He nodded. "It's also sadness, but... The sky stands for happiness."
"How can it be happiness and sadness?" Ana asked, still confused. "They're opposites."
Michael smiled. "I dunno, I'm not the one who made it up."
She giggled. "Okay..." She kept staring up at the sky. "I heard the sky has clouds. What do clouds look like?"
"Well, for starters, they're white."
She punched his arm lightly, laughing. "And what exactly is white?"
He smiled. He didn't even need to think about this one. "Purity. White is purity."
"Purity?"
"Yeah. That's why brides wear white dresses, traditionally- to show that they are pure," Michael explained.
"So... The clouds are white... What do they look like? What shape are they?" Ana asked, hoping to get as much information as possible. She loved spending time with Michael, and, for her, this was a great way to kill time.
"Kinda... Squiggly. It's not round like a circle, or straight like a square, really... It's more... It has..." He was trying hard to explain it. "Bumps, I guess. It looks like it has bumps. It also looks soft. It looks like... A pillow, really. It looks like a pillow. A soft pillow."
"So... Clouds look soft, and they're squiggly?" Ana asked, finding it childishly funny for some unknown reason when Michael said "squiggly". Perhaps seventeen year olds weren't supposed to find those kind of things funny? Maybe...
"Pretty much," Michael said, smiling.
Ana was searching for another thing to say, then, she found it. "How about me? What do I look like?" She asked, playing with her hair.
Michael smiled, staring at her a bit. What to say? "Well... Your hair is red. And red is..." He didn't want to say that red was bloodshed, war, loss, and disaster, that would probably make her feel bad. So, instead he settled on this: "Red is fierceness. Red means you've got fight in you. It means that you can take what life throws at you, easy." He was delighted when he saw a large smile spread across Ana's face. To Michael, anything was worth it if it made Ana smile.
She smirked mischeciously and said, "Sounds pretty much like me, don't you think?"
Michael laughed. "You bet."
To keep him talking, Ana asked a question she wasn't really interested in. "What color are my eyes?" Ana didn't really care much about her eyes, in her opinion, they had "failed her".
He stared into her blank, crystal colored eyes. They always looked very sharp, like they saw everything. You had to look very close to see the vacancy. There was no light in them like other eyes. "They're green. Your eyes are green. Like grass and leaves."
"Grass and leaves? How do you feel the color green?" Ana asked, taking a sudden interest in her little failures.
Michael thought about it a bit. Then, he got the answer: it was what he felt whenever he looked at Ana, and it also fit the color. "Green is peace. Green is like sitting down and reading a book. Green is like sleeping. It's like... family picnics, and... It's like the two of us, laying down in this field. Just the two of us. Green is when everything is perfectly stable and peaceful, that's what green is like."
Ana was surprised that she seemed to like her eyes. Green seemed like a nice color. "So... This moment is green?" She asked.
"Yep, it is."
Ana smiled a little. "I think I like green."
"I do too," a smile spread across Michael's face as he laughed.
"What are you laughing at?" Ana giggled, nudging his chest.
"Nothing. Any more questions?" Michael said after he had calmed down.
Ana thought a bit. "What color is your hair?" She settled on.
"Blond," he responded.
Ana frowned a bit. "What does blond look like?" She asked.
"Well, it's kind of like gold. And, I guess gold is..." He thought about it for a while. "Relationship. Commitment. I guess that's why wedding rings are gold."
Ana nodded. Gold sounded like a nice color to her. "How about..." She thought a bit. "What color is my shirt?"
Michael looked down. Ana was wearing a pink tank top. "Pink. And pink is..." He thought for a bit. "Love. I guess you could say that pink is love," he smiled a bit.
Ana was smiling too. "So... Colors are like emotions? Colors are feelings?" She asked, not having any more colors to ask about that she could think of at the moment.
"Yeah, colors are like emotions. Colors can be felt. People that have been able to see their whole life take them for granted, but, that's what colors do- they help you feel," Michael said.
A small smile spread across Ana's face. "Then my favorite color is pink," she declared.
"Why?" Michael asked, never having been a giant fan of pink.
Ana sat up and reached her hand out to find Michael's face, when she did, she kissed him lightly. "I like pink because... Pink is how I feel about you. Pink is love, and... I love you Michael."
Michael whispered back, "I love you too."
