It’s the essence of him. He used scraps of fabric, mostly blues, to create an ocean. On top, he placed the first letter, a capital ‘S’ – a yellow and green striped snake.
A thick scrawl of brown crayon formed the ‘t’ – the second letter of his name. The remaining four letters were scrawled – various shades of green against an array of blues.
In the bottom right corner, he drew a sun. In the top left corner, a piece of purple lace hung against the aqua.
‘Seaweed,’ he said.
When she questioned if the locations should be reversed, his quizzical look lasted a full minute.
‘No,’ he said
A scrap of red silk sat alone, bottom left, as if abandoned in the ocean’s vast blueness.
‘What’s that?’ she enquired
‘Neptune,’ he replied.
‘Does he need a trident?’ she asked, ‘for identification.’
Another full minute.
‘No,’ he said
He stood back, nodded
‘I’m finished.’
He was eight years old. Twenty years have passed. The framed picture of the snake forming the ‘S,’ the sun rising from the seabed, the seaweed hanging in mid-air, Neptune’s powerful red dot with more oomph than a six-foot-tall sea king with a gold trident, hangs on his bedroom wall.
Brimming, she studies it, the essence of him, his imagination.
He’s visiting for the weekend. Pointing to the picture, she smiles.
‘Remember doing that?’ she asks.
‘Yes, for the Grade 4 Art Show. You thought I should reverse the sun and seaweed. I couldn’t understand why.’
Published by Ellipsis Zine in Anthology 2 – February 2018
