Beloved: Memoir of a Phantom

Chapter 11- Paintings

   CHAPTER 11

                                                    Paintings

I spent many a night dreaming of his lips and those magical kisses from that night on. The dead of winter was giving way to wetter and windier spring days and all of those days I spent daydreaming about Gabriel and his ‘sweet kisses like wine.’

I still spent all of my nights with him, only as the spring slowly melted on he seemed to be busy working on something he didn’t want me to see, so we ended up going out more than staying at his place. He started carrying around a pencil and sketchpad every place we went, scribbling frantically when he saw something that caught his artistic attention.

One night in late March he knocked on my door and requested that I come to his place. My father (still not being the fondest of the long haired boy I was dating) grumbled his response. “She’s grounded, so she can’t come out and see you tonight.” He grumbled and started to slam the door in his face, but I grabbed the door.

“Daddy, don’t be rude!” I glared wide eyed at him and gave an apologetic look to Gabriel before returning to my father. “So why is it I’m not allowed to go with him?” I asked folding my arms under my breast.

“You should know, you daydreamed right through that math test today and you need to study for the makeup test tomorrow!” he said crossly.

“Pleeeeeeease!” I whined.

“My answer is no, now get back up to your room and study.” He ordered.

A mischievous thought crossed my mind, causing me to smile to myself. “Fine then! I’ll see you tomorrow Gabriel, love.” I said closing the door before explaining everything to him over our link.

“I’ll see you at you’re place, I’m going to escape out my window and I’ll be on my way shortly.”

“See you soon then love.” He replied, making his way back to the park where we would be meeting again shortly.

I’d slipped out my own window and down the garden lattice so many times to skip out and see Gabriel since my grades started failing that I had sort of become an expert at sneaking around unnoticed. I quickly fled to the park where he was standing near the dead remnants of the rose garden and instantly threw his arms around me.

“Glad you made it love; I couldn’t wait any longer to show you!” He said excitedly planting a soft kiss on my lips.

“Wait a minute, show me what?” I asked as he quickly pulled me down into his cellar, pushing the door open.

“I’ve finally got my gift back! I can see the beauty in the world around me once again and I wanted to show you all of what I’ve done.” He smiled.

I entered the cellar and was in awe at everything I saw. Every surface in the little cellar had a canvas either sitting on it or leaning against it; some no bigger than my hand and some as tall as my waist. I walked around looking at the content of the paintings: there were some of trees, the bright neon lights reflected in a puddle outside the café; there were a few of Deirdre’s angel as well as other things in the cemetery. There were ones of animals and people as well as a variety of other things.

All of the paintings held an ethereal and almost dark feel, but they were beautiful and looked like the things I knew I’d been with him to see. I held up a fairly large painting of an old farmhouse that looked oddly familiar to me, except in the painting it was in the setting of grassland and trees around it. It was my house, but removed from its suburban setting!