The Spark

Kat, Jack and Nirva

It was two thirty AM on a Friday night and my mother hadn't left her studio in four hours. I was too anxious to sleep. I was going to find out who my father was.

I was watching a cheesy action movie about a guy and a female news anchor with implants have to diffuse a bomb that will blow up the whole city. It was staring William Vie. A sell-out actor who always plays a hunky, personality-less hero. There was nothing else on TV and especially at this hour.

My mom walked solemnly out of the studio like she was at a funeral.

Her eyes had bags under them and paint smeared her clothes.

"Oh for Christ's sake turn that shit off!" She barked looking at the TV. It was rare she cursed.

"So... are you going to tell me?" I asked meekly, hugging my knees.

She didn't speak. Instead she plopped down onto the couch with a sigh. She stared at the ceiling with great concentration.

"Your father is Mr. William Vie, Olive." She started to cry.

I shot my head towards the TV and back at her. "You can't fool me that easy, really the best you could come up with?" I spat.

She cried harder. 

Oh God. It was true.

I grabbed her into a hug. We were there for hours. Crying and hugging and contemplating out lives. We were there till the sun rose that Saturday morning until we finally went to bed.

---

I woke up mid afternoon, trying to figure out if it was a dream or not. It wasn't. This was as real as it was going to get. The apartment was still. I wandered into my mum's room, she was asleep and covered in paint. A large painting was stationed on her canvas. It was a little girl. A girl with sandy hair and big green eyes like me. Except she was frightened and in the dark.

I put a blanket over her and went into the kitchen to find something to eat. I ate cereal, hunched over the table, thinking. I've been doing a lot of that recently.

I remembered a time in seventh grade where Adam and I went to see and William Vie movie. My mother had tried to discourage me from seeing it so I ended up having to steal money from her purse and told her I was going to the library. That day I thought Adam and I were going to have our first kiss. I wore clothes from the teen section of the mall that were baggy and oversized and I brushed out my knotty hair. We were sitting in the dark watching it and Adam had tried to do the yawn-and-cuddle thing but he ended up hitting me in the face. There was a close up shot of William and Adam said:

"Olly, That kind of looks like you."

"You're saying I look like a man?!" I said in my defense.

"No, no, but you've got his eyes. They are like exactly the same. Seriously."

I studied his green eyes, but I didn't see it.

"I don't know" Adam said "Just a random little thought."

Adam was right. Painfully right. I did look like him. He didn't know why but it seems so obvious now. I thought if I should tell him. Would it give me more of a chance? No. That's not what matters. I decided to keep it a secret like my mother did. It's better for no one to know. But I longed to talk to him.

My mother came out of her room.

"Hey baby." She said kissing my forehead on the way to the kitchen.

"I liked your painting." I said quietly.

She swiveled around with  a carton of orange juice in one hand.