WhirlwindBeyond The Sky(Writing From an Image)By Natalia C.I continue to retreat backward, but they still follow me.Jack and his bully buddies just will not stop until they get me.My feet stumble backward, and I fall to the ground. I bracemyself for impact, but it doesn’t come. Instead, I fall onto acloth, and it stops me from falling.I turn around, and the sky is quivering. My hand seems toreach out all on its own and touches what used to be thething my village knows as the sky. I slide my hand across it.The texture is rough, almost like sandpaper, yet it moves soelegantly.The clouds are still moving somehow, and so are Jack and hisgang, but he is the least of my worries now. My hand movesdownward until I feel the bottom of the sky cloth. I grasp itwith a shaking hand and lift.A lone tree stands in the distance. White clouds hover aroundit in the surrounding sky, but something’s just not right. Theleaves …they’re the wrong shade. And the sky is bright andalarming. It is none of the black and white shades my littlevillage knows as our world.It is light and brilliant, shimmering with something I couldn’tdescribe for the life of me. The green is more muted, and yet stillbeaming with light next to the completely grey grass.The whole scene is exploding with, with, oh, I can’t describe it. Itneeds a word. A nonsense word that doesn’t have to be a nonsenseword anymore.I think, and then, “Color!” I exclaim. Yes, color. It soundsinsane, but that’s what makes it perfect. The tree and the sky areexploding with color.“What do you mean, color, fool.”I freeze. Jack and his boys have finally made it up the hill to me. Idrop the drab (in comparison) sky cloth out of pure surprise.“Well? You gonna answer me, Iris?” Jack says, “Cause if you don’t,we’re gonna have a real problem on our hands.”“Color,” I begin, “Is this.” I lift the sky cloth for the littlescoundrels to see. Their jaws drop in awe of what they’rewitnessing. They don’t understand, and neither do I.“It’s beautiful,” says one of Jack’s sidekicks, I think his name is Joel.“For once in your sorry lives, you’re right, it is, and we don’t haveany of it here,” I reply.“And the color is different on both. So I need two names. One forthe tree and one for the sky.” Micheal has a stutter, so when hesaid his word, it ended up sounding like green.“Perfect. The tree is green. The sky is…..blue. A calm name for acalm looking color.”The trouble makers all nod in agreement.Seeing the colors isn’t enough. I want to feel it, the colors. Thegreen and the blue. The no-longer-nonsense words that describethis electric sky and lively leaves.I lift the sky cloth over my head and step out into a new world, anew universe.70Image Courtesy Of The New York Times “A Year of Picture Prompts”The heat hits me immediately. I look up, and there is a shiningball of pure heat staring back down at me. I wince and turn away,blinking the spots out of my eyes. But I am amazed. This thingwith heat and light is shocking to me. Another word is needed.Sun.It’s beautiful. I look at this new sky around me, and I feel tiny incomparison. I look back at the world I left behind--all shades ofwhite and black. Those were the only shades we ever learned inschool.The village is boring. It is nothing next to this excellence thatis color. I ook back toward that tree. I want to touch the green,feel it. I run, fast as I can towards the colors, and as I run, I lookaround.There are little flowers everywhere, and they have some sort ofcolor as well. They are not green or blue; these can be purple,yellow, orange, red, indigo. One looks like the sun in the sky, andI decide to call it yellow.All these different colors surround me as I head for the tree—thousands of different shades. I decide I am not particularly a fanof orange, but I really do like the purples and blues.I am in a new world. I am surrounded by change. I love it morethan words can describe. My life can never be the same again.I reach the tree. The leaves are everything like the leaves in thevillage, but they are bursting with color. Very light red coloredflowers are sprinkled about. They don’t really look like red toomuch, so they will be pink.The trunk of the tree is much much darker than the rest of thecolors, but not quite black. Brown. I climb up the limbs, carefullyplacing each foot and pulling myself up. I make it to the top. Myhead sticks out the top of the tree. I stretch my arms out andembrace this new life, ablaze with life and excitement.A light breeze hits me, and I breathe it in. I feel a joy I’ve never feltin my entire life. The world stretched out below me, speckled withlight and brilliance. I am happy. I am ecstatic.I am free.
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