Painting For My Grandpa | √Wattys 2016

Painting For My Grandpa #14

"Arwin? What's wrong?" I asked hesitantly, fiddling with the ziplock bag that was still in my hand.

"Aspen I'm so sorry I should've done better and more I-I could've I don't know chased the stupid man out of the fu...," she paused and began to sob.

"Arwin calm down we can figure this out. Just tell me what happened," I said, trying my best to stay as calm as possible.

This sounds really bad.

I heard a sniffle and a blowing of the nose from the other end of the line before Arwin started to speak again.

"A factory owner by the name of Mr Dich wants to buy the gallery, the whole land we own. And I told him a very firm no but he's persistent. And rich."

"He is paying three times the amount we have earned so far this year from the gallery and the sale of your artwork, just to buy the land. He says if we want to save the gallery, we would have to return the same amount of money he is placing on our gallery before the end of the year. Aspen there's no way we can earn this much within 4 months! We already take 8 months just to earn on third of the amount Mr Dich is asking for..."

A wave of silence washed over me and all I could hear was the rush of blood pumping through my ears and my own heartbeat.

I felt my vision begin to blur with tears and soon enough they were trickling down my cheeks.

There's no way out.

It's hopeless.

"Aspen? Are you okay? Ms Williams? Aspen!"

I felt the phone slip from my grasp and my head grew light. The nightmares I've had were all coming back to me. I felt like as if the world was spinning around me and my feet weren't there at all.

This is too much.

You saw this from a mile away.

This is why you shouldn't have come to take care of Grandpa.

Your dreams will be crushed forever.

I felt gravity pull me forcefully towards it but my body felt light.

Darkness was covering my eyes now and I let myself fall.

"Aspen!"

My conscience began to drift away and I felt myself land into the arms of darkness.

Of hopelessness.

And never ending nightmares.

§§§

My head was pounding when I woke up again. I could feel the sharp pains throbbing through my skin and a strange chill has settled into my body.

I open my sore eyes with my face feeling sticky and dry.

My energy was barely there and exhaustion immediately took over.

I must've fainted and then started crying in my unconsciousness as weird as that sounds.

"Aspen? Yo Zara she's up." I hear the all too familiar low voice as my eyes adjusted to the sudden bright light.

"Riff?" I croaked, my throat making the most terrible sounds when I spoke.

It all comes back to me.

My gallery is going to be turned into a freaking factory by Mr. Dick.

Oh sorry I meant Mr. Dich, my most sincere apologies.

I felt my eyes well up again as they met Riff's.