Our Own Angels

Chapter 10

"Where are you taking me?" Silas picks me up in his car around 1 in the afternoon. He still hasn't told me where we're going. He did say that he was going to teach me how to paint today. The weird thing is that we told me not to bring anything.

"It's a surprise." He smiles. He rolls the windows half way down.

"You're going to teach me how to paint, why do you have to surprise me?" I ask.

"I have my own way of teaching." He simply says.

As we drive, we keep getting farther away from the neighborhood. The longer we drive, the lesser the house, the more the trees. Autumn is actually my favorite season. My mood immediately lightens when the vibrant orange, red, and yellow come into view. I scoot closer to the window. When we stop at a red light, I take my phone out and take a picture of the view. The reflection of the colorful trees against the still crystalized lake will forever be captured in a small screen in the palm of my hands.

"Can you please tell me where we're going?" I plead.

"We're already here." Silas pulls in a path made by, what seems to be, cars passing through. We drive a little more and we stop at the lake. It was breathtaking. We get out of the car and I'm standing still. Silas looks pretty proud of himself. He knew he was going to get a reaction like this from me. He tucks both of his hands in his back pockets and takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. I don't know which view's prettier, Silas standing there with the wind in his hair or the view of the lake. There both equally comparable.

"This place is amazing." I say as we walk towards the water. The best part is that no one is here except us.

"Yeah, it is." He replies. We walk side by side among the array of fallen leaves.

"How did you find this place?" I ask him.

"That's a long story."

"We've got time. But if you don't want to tell me then it's fine."

"No I'll tell you eventually. But for now, we have to get started on our art lesson." We take a seat and lean against a big tree.

"Okay..so what now?"

"Take in the view. Look at all of the colors, listen to all of the sounds, smell the scents in the air." He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. He folds his hands. He looks so concentrated.

"Smell the scents?" I chuckle.

"Artists view the world differently than everybody else. You see a shadow of a tree, we see negative and positive space. You see traffic, we see everything in perspective. It's not all about making your art look good. It's about how you express yourself and how you want everyone to see what your seeing." He looks around. I've never seen him so at peace.

"When you close your eyes what do you hear?" He asks me. I comply and close my eyes. I try to concentrate. I hear trees lightly rustling in the wind. I hear birds chirping from every angle, some far some near. I hear the crisp sound of the light breeze whispering in my ears.

"Everything."

"When you open your eyes what shapes and colors do you see?" He then asks. He's staring at me with joy in his eyes. I look around and I pay attention to every detail. I see cylinders, rectangles, circles, squares, and every other shape that exists.

"I see every every shape there is." I say to him.

"What colors do you see?" I pay attention to every little detail. I've never realized how our world is an actual rainbow. There's not one color that's not in front of me. Of course there are colors that stand out more such as the vibrant orange and red but I see every color. The more bright colors come from the trees and the sky and the more dull colors come from the ground of the Earth.