To Have & To Hold

Chapter 20 - Touching Colors

It had taken them a few hours to do it but at long last they had everything they could possibly need. The simple items were everything to do with the actual needle point itself; the needles, the frame and the fabric. The 'simplest' part, the colors, took the bulk of their shopping trip to figure out.

Stella would ask Jaiden questions like 'What color do you think stands for cold, like a fresh winter morning?' which he would then consider leaving him staring at different shades of light blue to try and figure out the corresponding hue. Just like when they had gone shopping for clothing he had a huge selection of colors to choose from. An added bonus was that they had to ask the store staff for small paper bags to 'file' the colors in so Jaiden could write the scent, sensation or feeling that the spool represented on the bag, saving them the trouble of figuring it all out again later.

The clerks regarded the pair as a live action theater performance as they walked back and forth matching colors to the meaning of life. Even a few customers stuck around to see them at work and a number of them interrupted the process to inquire what the play was called. Stella, annoyed at the unwanted attention, would keep giving the 'play' gradually worse names until people stopped asking.

All of the fuss around the spool selection made Jaiden almost forget about the letter that was now making its way God knew where with its unknown content. Almost, as it weighed on his mind heavily and thus was always somewhere in the back of his thoughts. The color of the bags reminded him of the color of the envelope. The sensations and feelings Stella described often came close to his own concerning the matter and it made him choose colors that were on the worrisome spectrum of the range available.

At long last they were done and the store's staff got to ring up about thirty different spools separately, continuously opening and closing small paper bags to see what was inside. Jaiden would have felt embarrassed if he had any energy left for caring. Right now he just wanted to leave, retire to a room and think. Thinking was what he did best. Sitting on a chair and letting one's mind wander was much less likely to cause him trouble than smiling or carrying a letter inside his pocket. He much preferred it.

On the way back they passed through the same street and Jaiden saw the mailbox that the letter must have been dropped off in. He wished he could jump out the car, smash the box open and retrieve the envelope but knew that he could do no such thing. Instead he sat lamely in his car seat and watched it go by undisturbed.

"You're so quiet today. What's wrong with you? Don't you still think we should do this needle point thing?"

Pulling his thoughts back in to the car with her question Stella made Jaiden turn to look at her.

"Hm? Oh, of course we should. I'm just a bit tired is all."

Stella put her hand on his shoulder gently and rubbed it before retracting her hand.

"We've been at it for quite some time, I know. I hope we'll be quicker about it in the future when we only have to go back to get new spools of the colors that have run out."

Speaking of colors.

"I was thinking we need to find some way to mark the bags so that you know what color's inside. Or rather what sensation, smell, sound, and so on. Do you know how to write braille?"

"Braille. Well I can read it. I suppose I could use the needle to puncture some holes in the bags to let me know what's inside. Good idea!"

"Aside from the fact that paper with holes in it tends to rip easily. Maybe something tougher like a thin piece of plastic that you could punch holes in and then keep inside the bag along side the spool?"

"But then I have to open the bags to check the tag. Perhaps we could tape the tags to the outside of the bags."

Chuckling at the complexity of the conversation Jaiden shook his head.