Tunnel Vision

Chapter 9- Awakening the Beauty

Gray and Rowan had spent at least an hour reading from all kinds of books, from Shakespeare to the Bible. Rowan told Gray all she could about reading and understanding it. "Symbolism is a large portion of many stories. You just have to dig around to find the meaning. It takes time," she explained. "There's a lot more to reading, to all of this, in fact, that we both still have to learn."
"What about writing?" Gray asked.
"Okay," Rowan said as she stood from the chair in which she sat and, after lighting a new candle, returned with a pencil and paper. "Here," she sat them in front of Gray. "This is a piece of-"
"Paper," Gray finished. "And this is a pencil."
"Yes," Rowan said, pausing for a moment. "How do you know what these are? I haven't seen a pencil or piece of paper at all here... Wait, I know! That's what you have in that silver box under your bed!"
"How do you know about that?!" Gray shouted. His eyes grew large as he apologized, "Sorry, I-"
"I get it," Rowan said softly.
"Well, you might as well know," Gray said. "Yes, I have a pencil and some paper and a little dictionary, too. My parents gave them to be when I was young. They always admired reading and writing, I never knew why. I did too, until..." He looked down, choked up. This had never happened to him before when he talked to his friends like Dr. Simon about his parents. It seemed different around Rowan, everything was. "Until they got found out. They got taken to the prison with all the other artists and philosophers that ended up in Tunol through one way or another. Their hands tied, mouths gagged, large covers over their ears trying to pound how wrong the Fine Arts are into their heads. I don't even know if they're alive anymore..."
"So why didn't you continue reading?" Rowan asked after a short while.
"Because I was sent here," Gray said with no need to explain further. Rowan put her hand on his to comfort him.
"Do you still want to write?" she inquired. With his nod of approval, they began to write. They wrote anything about everything. Nouns, verbs, adjectives. Rhymes, poems, even a little page-long story. Soon afterwards they began to draw. Rowan explained what she could about shading, painting, watercolors, brushstrokes, everything she could think of.
"What next?" Gray asked eagerly, looking up at her from their sketch of a sunflower that they had seen on the package of seeds.
"One of the most important Fine Arts there is," Rowan said. "Music."
"Why is it the most important?"
"Because it brings together the other fine arts. You write it, sew words and notes and rhythms together. Through that writing you paint a picture of something you want others to see and feel. You just become completely absorbed in it." Rowan sat at the piano. "There are so many types, too. Too many to explain now." For a good amount of time, Rowan explained music, playing it on the piano. She also played some songs off her phone and even got Gray to dance a little while. "You're a natural!" she said to him as he twirled her around. "You keep time so well!"
It was very late when Gray and Rowan finally decided to go to sleep. Gray changed out of his suit and put on a shirt and pants that he had found with Rowan's help. They were much more comfortable and suited him much better than the other clothes he had just shed.
"Let's watch a movie," Rowan said as she piled up pillows and blankets on the floor in front of an old TV with a DVD player underneath. Gray made himself comfortable while Rowan rummaged around to try to find something to watch. She came back over to Gray. "Have you ever seen a Disney movie?" Rowan smiled as she showed the disc that read "Sleeping Beauty" to Gray. He shook his head. "Good, let's watch it," Rowan said as she put the disc in. "I used to watch this all the time as a little girl."
They both settled down and got comfortable and began to watch the movie. Gray glanced at Rowan who had folded her hands behind her head. He did the same. Rowan then crossed her arms over her stomach, and Gray copied her again. Finally, Rowan gave up and began to laugh. She took her pillow and hit Gray with it.
"Hey!" he said and joined the pillow fight. Gray felt a strange heave in his chest and something bubbled up his throat, a noise coming out of his mouth. He smiled as he realized he was laughing. He and Rowan tumbled and laughed until their sides were sore.
"You...laughed!" Rowan said as she finally regained her voice.
"I know!" Gray said. "It felt great!" Gray felt so happy that he did not know what to do with himself. This was the first time he truly felt alive. Suddenly, his arms seemed to take over as he wrapped Rowan in a tight embrace. "What's this called again?" he asked Rowan.
"A hug," Rowan answered with a bright grin.
Not long after the pillow fight, Rowan was fast asleep and Gray was watching the end of "Sleeping Beauty" alone. Eyes entranced, Gray watched as Prince Philip fought his way through the thorns, battled the dragon, and finally killed it with a stab in the side. Then the prince ran through the sleeping town and awoke the beautiful Aurora in the oddest manner. He did not know what to make of it. He was about to turn to ask Rowan about it until he realized she was asleep like Aurora was. He continued watching from the awakening of the town until the very end when his mind danced away on the cloud with the prince and the princess.