Masterpiece

Chapter 6

I'd spent several hours stuffing my face and watching Netflix. I never watched it back home but I had hours to burn  and if you needed to kill time, Netflix was the way to do it.

I'd watched about three hours worth of it before pining to get out of the four walls' hold.

My laptop flashes black as my finger touches the off button. My bones were stiff and a yawn escaped my lips. I reached for the doorknob just as a knock sounded through it.

I opened the door to John looking down at me.
"Hey, John. What are you doing here?"
"Sophie left her jacket here."
"Alright," I say moving away from the doorway, allowing him an entrance to the room.

He searches for the jacket, pulling back chairs and looking over easels.
I start to look around also and soon find it on the floor in the corner of the room.
"Found it. Here you go." He takes the jacket and gives a smile.
"Thanks."
His gaze goes past me, somewhere behind where I was standing.

"Nice paintings. New York fan?"
"Thanks and I guess you could say that."
He continues to stare at the canvas filled with skyscrapers and sidewalks crawling with people.

"You're not from here are you?"
"No. How did you know?"
He chuckles,"Because people who live here tend to not take such a liking that they'd paint it this many times. I swear they don't even like it here."

"I don't know? It seems like people do. They've all got extraordinary callings. They seem contempt."
"How 'bout you. What's your calling besides art? Dancing?" he says smiling.

I laugh, "I can't dance. This is about it," I say.
"Do you want to learn to dance," he says heading for the door.

"Maybe."
"Well, I bet I could teach you."
"I'd like to see you try. I've got two left feet."
"We'll see. Bye, Ramona," he says before walking through the door and closing it behind him.

And then the butterflies come back to frolic amongst my stomach.

-

Soon I'm sitting at a diner, because it's now the evening and I have nothing better to do than to sit at an empty table and pick at a dry burger.
Living the dream
Sigh.

I guess I should apply tomorrow. I've got a roof over my head and money, for now anyway. Why wait any longer?

I sip the bitter soda out of the smudged cup. A little girl sat peering at me from behind a chair. I wave at her and grin. She wears a cautious look and clings onto her mother's arm.
Great. Now I seem like a stalker.

A short red headed woman walks lazily to my table. She doesn't say anything, but picks my plate up and leaves the check. I get up slowly as I lay the money on top of the leather pouch. The little girl stares at me closely as I put my hand to the glass and leave.

Headlights of cars partially blind me, while I venture the sidewalk. Others and pass me also. Joggers. Rushed mothers pushing carriages in the dead of night.
All so surreal.

I'm bored. What am I going to do in that cramped little room all night?

I guess, get out of that cramped little room. I continue down the street past the building.
Finding myself in Central Park, I realizing how dumb I must look. Wandering in the park in the dark picking at the bark of a random tree.

My foot finds the brown plant and hoist myself up. When I arrive at the top of the short tree, I suck in a breath. The crisp air puffs out when I do. The night sky is illuminated with small beads of light. I rest my elbow on the branch that I lay on and relax myself.

I think I might fall asleep right in this tree.

And I did.

-

"What are you doing up there, weirdo!" I hear someone yell. My eyes lift open and John is standing on the grass looking up at me while laughing.

He climbs the tree and meets me face to face.
"Morning, sunshine."
I sit blinking trying to clear my blurry vision.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you that trees aren't necessarily for sleeping?" he continues.
"No, actually. I didn't mean to sleep here, I was just......observing the city lights," I say between a long yawn.

"Ah, I see. Hey, can I ask you something?"
"Yeah."
"Why are you in New York City, anyway?" He swings his body against a branch below mine.
"Instinct, I guess. I wanted so badly to be an artist that I came here to apply to school just as quickly as I left it."

"Your parents let you do that alone?"
"Well, parent. My mom didn't know or I would still be in Connecticut."
I look down and he has his head resting against the tree, his face positioned to where he could see me.

He's looking at me closely.
"C'mon. I wanna show you something."
"What?"
"It's a surprise." Rolling my eyes, I step down from the tree and meet John at the bottom.

I follow him to a vacant parking lot giving way to a black truck.
"Get in," he says. I hesitate.
He rolls his eyes, "Oh, come on, Ramona, it's not like I'm going to kidnap you." His face breaks into an devilish smile,"Or am I?" he says throwing himself into the vehicle.

It hums loudly as he turns the key.
I step into the truck and take in the aroma of his cologne.
God, it smells good in here.
His fingers meets a dial that turns and music fills my ears.

I couldn't decipher the tune, but he seemed to know it quite well.
I laugh as he bobs his head and sings off tune.

We'd spent about fifteen minutes in the car when the suspense became too much to handle.
"Are you going to tell me where we're going?"
"Nope."
"Why not?"
"I'm starting to think, you don't get this whole surprise thing. Besides, we're here."

The truck pulls into a road of gravel that leads to a pathway in a forest type environment. John gets out and opens the door to my side.
"Lead the way," he says as I exit the car's door.

"Why are we here, John?"
"It'll be worth it, just wait."

I trudge alongside him. The forest trees are tall and make me feel smaller than I am. I hear running water and we make a sharp turn before going through strings of leaves hanging from a branch of a tree.

The scene is amazing.
I guess it was worth it.
A waterfall stands spitting a gust of water toward an ongoing stream.
We stand on a rock ledge below the waterfall.

"This is....awesome."
"Isn't it? This is where I go to think."
"How did you find this?"
"Hike with friends. I lost them while walking the trail. No one knows about it. Well, until now, I guess."

I stand still in awe.
"Why did you show me this?"
"I don't know. You just seemed like someone who'd appreciate it."
"I do."
"Good."
-

Clouds of gray hover over the sky. The scent of rain becomes present. We've arrived back at the parking lot next to the park.

"Hey, Ramona?"
"Yeah?"
"Dance with me."
"What? You're crazy, it's about to rain."
"I said I would teach you."
"I know but-"
"Come on, Mona."
Mona. That was a new one.

He steps back and turns up the radio, which is playing a song from Frank Sinatra. I laugh joyfully as I take his hand, because I truly do love this song.

A saxophone blares and he wraps his left arm around my waist and his right intertwined with my hand. We step. Right. Left. Back. He twirls me and the world whizzes by.

I find myself shocked that I hadn't stepped on his foot.

Rain starts to splash against our feet and fall over our hair and drip past our eyelids. So perfect, yet so imperfect.
We dance like fools in the rain, smiling our faces off and I scan his eyes like my favorite book.