33 Summer, 473 AV Blythe was standing on top of a wooden chair, over the kitchen table. She wasn't yet tall enough to reach the top of the table without standing on one, and she still needed help climbing onto the top of the chair at times. Her grandmother was sitting in the chair next to her, smiling up at her granddaughter. This was the only time Blythe could remember actually being taller than her. It made her feel like a giant, and filled her stomach with a tingly feeling. It made it feel as though she were filled with butterflies that were fluttering up her chest, through her neck, and out of her mouth. Blythe smiled, her mouth stretching from ear to ear as she exclaimed, "looky grandma! I'm finally taller than everybody!" Rose laughed, a shy smile crept across her face, and caused tiny lines to etch around her lips, and her wise eyes. Crow's feet. "Well look at you! Taller than me already!" she laughed, her voice soft and smooth. Blythe giggled again as she smiled down at her grandmother. There was a single sheet of pale white paper atop of the kitchen table. It was surrounded by several small tubes of paint. Each of the tubes was white, although it had a thin strip of color, and colored cap, which signified the color of the paint the tube held. There were nine tubes in all. One was a bright red, another orange, another a pale yellow. There was also a bright green, deep midnight blue, black, white, and royal purple color. "So I can use any color I want?" Blythe asked her grandmother, as she surveyed all the things she had at her disposal. "Anything you want Blythe," her grandmother replied. "You could use all of them too, if you'd like. It's all up to you." "All of them?" Blythe whispered, her eyes lighting up, as though a candle had been ignited beneath them. She definitely wanted to use all of them. The colors were simply too beautiful to be ignored. Except the white, the white one was pretty boring. So maybe not the white one, Blythe thought as she extended her right hand to the tube containing the pale yellow paint. Her fingers seemed to be twitching with anticipation as she inched her hand closer and closer. Finally, she felt the cold tube beneath her fingertips. The paint was within her grasp, Blythe thought, as she wrapped her fingers around the tube. It seemed to squish into her fingers, the tube of paint seemed almost as malleable as clay. Blythe slowly inched it closer to her face, and held it right before her lavender eyes. She smiled as the tube of paint hovered before her nose, causing her to go slightly cross-eyed. It was all hers, she thought, as she raised her free hand and turned the cap counter-clockwise. Eventually, the top came off, and fell from her hands. It crashed into the kitchen floor, landing with a low clacking noise. It rolled across the floor, to the other side of the table. Blythe didn't bother to hop off her chair so that she could go and pick it up. Blythe pinched the tube between her fingertips, causing a thin line of pale yellow paint to spill out of the top, and trickle down the side like lava from a volcano. She smiled. The action had made her feel strangely powerful. She lowered her hand and wiped the yellow paint on the top left hand corner of the paper. Then, she put the tube back down on the table, and picked up the black tube. She unscrewed the cap, and held the tube over the paper so that the open end was facing the paper. She squeezed the tube between her fingertips, and a steady stream of black paint erupted from the tube. It rained down onto the center of the paper, landing with a muffled thud, and spilling out around the initial blob of paint. When she felt she had had enough of that color, Blythe flipped the tube over, put the cap back on it, and put the tube back. She then reached for the royal purple tube, opened it, and squeezed a small portion onto the paper next to the black paint. She put the purple back when she was done, and reached for the midnight blue last. She dabbed a small blob of paint into the lower-left hand corner of the paper, and then returned the blue tube to the others. They seemed like such a happy family, Blythe thought. She wouldn't want to separate them. When she had put the paint down, Blythe stopped what she was doing for a moment. She stood back and surveyed her work. Even though she had wanted to use all the colors, except white, of course, she found that the ones she had used already were more than enough. Perhaps she'd use the other ones some other time, she thought. |