Colour Blind

COLOUR BLIND
This put her in a sort of black and white bubble and she wouldn’t
let anybody get close to bursting it. She’d never been close to
her parents or her little brother Jacob, though of course she
loved them. Her bitterness about her condition and jealousy
of everyone around her meant that she pushed people away.
What she didn’t realise was that she was pushing away the only
colourful and bright parts of her life. Every day she became
more frustrated by her existence until one day, she snapped.
It was summertime and Alice’s friends encouraged her to go
to the woods with them for a picnic. Her parents made her
take Jacob and the dog with them too. The group walked for
a while through the knots of green trees and footpaths. Alice
walked a few steps behind the group to make sure they knew
she was in a bad mood. It had been exactly a year to that day
that her grandma had passed away. Her friend Emily hung back.
“What’s wrong? Do you want to talk about it?” Alice ignored
this kindness and said nothing, she didn’t even look up. Emily
got the message and left her alone. The group found a quiet spot
by the river. Her friends sat in a circle around a patch of daisies
with black centres, weaving the stems together into crowns and
necklaces. They asked her many times to come over and join
them but she refused to be pitied by them. Eventually she just
ignored them all together. They made her a daisy crown to try
and include her but she threw it into the grey water. Jess, one of
her other friends came over to her with two yellow buttercups
and handed one to Alice. “Do you like butter?” She giggled
and held her flower beneath Alice’s chin until it turned yellow.
“You love it! Now you do me!” She took Alice’s hand, the one
holding the buttercup, and guided it beneath her chin. Alice
snatched her hand away and Jess backed off. “Well how would
I know?” Alice’s tone was a warning to Jess who picked up the
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