Checkmate ⚢

Chapter 24 Women

A/N

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Elegance and magnificence greeted Hana as they entered the Painting exhibit. It was different than the one reserved for photography. The walls were papered in cream with white flocking. The rug on the floor was gold-colored and made of some heavy fabric like quilted satin. There were lots of paintings on the walls and there were only three per painter.

Hana stared at one booth and it stole her breath away. It was a fantasy-styled art where grotesque demons chased naked people in underground erns colored mostly red. Unearthly monsters devoured other pitiful souls. Even as their legs still kicked, they dangled from slobbering mouths filled with long, shiny, sharp teeth.

"You are now gazing on hell, as some might see it," Althea informed her. "This is one of Goya's works. His works are fascinating, I admit for his art embodies Romanticism's emphasis on subjectivity."

"Why are his paintings here? Isn't he like dead?"

Althea chuckled. Despite Hana's brilliancy, she often forgot that she's still an amateur in artistry in any aspect except for photography. "Oh no, you're mistaken, this painting here is a recreation of his original painting."

"Recreating famous paintings? Is that a good skill to have?"

"Indeed. Repainting great paintings looks like an irreverent joke. But, in fact, it is part of an age-old tradition. Everyone wants a copy but not everyone can afford or even have the original. A lot of bidders and buyers would pay a sum of money to have the original copy. Unlike photography which can create lots of copies and distribute them to the buyers, which I guess..." Althea stopped, grasping a newfound thought. "I shouldn't debate the pros and cons between them. They are two sides of the same coin."

Hana was saddened by the sight of struggle within Althea's thinking. She held Althea's shoulder and felt her tense muscles began to relax. Althea searched for Hana's crimson eyes and like the touch, it was tender.

A newfound smile formed on Althea's lips. "Let's head to my booth quickly."

Professor Tosca hadn't waited for them as she headed straight to their destination. Hana and Althea picked up their paces and they came just in time to see the Italian woman chatting up with Althea's friends—the redhead one Hana remembered had to get her phone number for Samantha.

Joshua was there too, with a blond guy who Hana has never met until now. They were both listening to the animated girls chatting up to Professor Tosca.

Madeline and Heather were pretty much known as Althea's entourage, but their revelation today, when they introduced her artwork, was something from the heart, not because they needed to say it.

"When Althea wasn't sitting with her head stuck in a book during our pre-school years, she was painting watercolor scenes of snow-covered hills with lakes where ice skaters skimmed."

"Yes, yes!" Heather chimed in. "She would put small houses of yellow and pink deeply buried in snow, and smoke curled from the chimneys, and in the distance raised a misty church steeple."