The Soul Painter [completed]

Most people -- if they invented a story-creating computer program -- would stop at nothing to make it work somehow. If twenty-five year old Charlotte Lang wasn't so held back by her past and her tedious job as a computer animation artist, she'd probably do that, too. But after years of being overwhelmed by guilt as a result of something that happened to her beloved sister, she has lost the will to fight for her invention. Charlotte's half-hearted attempts to get her story-building program to work have been less-than-successful for the last seven years. When she gives the main character on her latest attempt a fatal flaw, she doesn't expect it to make a difference one way or the other. It probably won't work anyway, right?

Unfortunately for this flawed character, the program does work.

Paris Verloren, a mechanic in a dirty, gray-skied city doesn't belong in the white side of town or the black. He has some problems of his own. Aside from his inability to love-thanks to Charlotte Lang-he doesn't relate with his elder half-brother, the business at his mechanic shop is slow, life is hard, and there's a girl who has attached herself to him.

Femi, a colorless, mute painter whose name means "love me", has nothing if not her painting, and no one to speak of who cares about her. When Paris comes upon the scene of her painting an alley, she seizes the opportunity to love someone.

With Paris' inability to love, and Femi's clear need for love in her lonely existence, what will become of the two? Will their creator, Charlotte Lang, do anything to counteract the impending misfortune written in the form of fact?

#678 General Fiction 3/30/16

©2015 Alyssa Tidmore
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