The Earth Painter (9 page)

“You don’t like it?”

“No… I mean yes… I like it. I didn’t sleep well last night so I’m kind of not thinking straight.”

“Are you going to be up for this afternoon?” Shelby pulled into the school’s parking lot.

“This afternoon?”

“Shopping.
Dinner.
Football game.
Ring a bell?”

“Oh, right. See I told you, I’m not all here.” Shelby Parked the car. “I’m sure I’ll have it together by this afternoon.”

“If not, we’ll take a detour through the Starbucks drive-thru. I’m overdue on shopping. Only death can get you out of it.”

Shelby opened the door and got out, but I didn’t move. “I’m going to sit here for a few minutes and try to wake up.”

“Ok. See you.” Shelby shut the door and walked to the bus parking to get on the bus for the vocational school.

I only sat in the car a few minutes before getting out and heading for the door. Just as I was about to go in, the late bell
rang
. That meant the back door would automatically lock and all late students would have to walk to the front door to enter by the office and check in.

I trudged around to the front of the school noticing the dug-out that led down to the auditorium’s side door. The one I’d ran out after painting. No wonder it was popular with the smokers. The door was completely hidden at the bottom of the steps. The same door the boy with the cigarette opened just by lifting the bottom. I looked both ways to see if anyone was around, and then ran down the steps into the seclusion of the underground doorway. I glanced around once again, just to be on the safe side before bending and grabbing the bottom of the door. I almost expected an alarm to sound when I lifted it and the door popped open. When nothing sounded, and no one came to investigate, I peeked in. The stage lights were all off except for the ghost light. I stuck my head in a little further, not quite sure what I expected to find in there. I was about to chicken out and leave when I heard a voice. It was Theo calling out to somebody.

I eased in, making sure to stay in the shadows. Theo was on the stage, looking up towards the rafters in the flies. “I’ll be right up.”

I tiptoed up the steps and hid myself in the black stage curtain. It smelled like dust. I’d probably dislodged a cloud of it. I couldn’t see in the darkness because I almost sneezed.

Theo started climbing the ladder. I waited until he was swallowed by the shadows before I jumped out to follow. I didn’t like heights, but I had to know what Theo was up to and…what he was for that matter.

I started climbing, but stopped to look down. That was an enormous mistake. I closed my eyes and a flash of clues started playing in my mind. I looked up the ladder and resumed my ascent. I climbed with stealth. When I got to the top, he was gone, but I saw an opened door. The light coming in looked like it led outside to the roof.

I crept onto the catwalk and over to the door. I closed my eyes, gathered my thoughts before I opened them and looked through the opening. It wasn’t the roof. Tall green trees swayed in a slight breeze of a tropical rainforest. Birds called out from up in a nest. It was then I saw a herd of brightly colored brachiosaurus grazing on the trees. Theo was there with them, petting them.

I shook my head and looked more closely before jumping back, no longer able to stay still and quiet. A knocking sound echoed in the auditorium. It took me a minute to realize I was the source. I was shaking all over, and my elbows were beating against the wall behind me as I slid down into a pile. I tried to get control of myself, but I couldn’t.

I looked up and stared into familiar gray-blue eyes. Beside him stood a short, bald man who was candy-apple-red from head to toe. Even his clothes were red. Theo reached out to touch me, and I screamed before it all went black.

I opened my eyes to stark white all around me. For a moment, I was afraid I was dead and floating into the light that people who have had near death experiences always talk about. My head was being cradled by someone. I turned to see Theo sitting there on the floor, holding me.

“You gave us a scare.” He smiled. His eyes were soft and comforting. “I was afraid I was going to have to go to the office to get you some help.”

“But that would have drawn attention to you and been in complete violation of the Sculptor’s orders. You’d be no better than Fritz,” a chirpy but masculine voice spoke just behind me. I turned to see the bald, red man leaning almost into my face. I screamed out before I could stop it.

Theo laughed. “He is scary isn’t he? I’m not sure why I don’t scream every time I look at him.” Then he looked over at the bright little man and smirked. “I think I’ll start doing that from now on,
Khai-Ree
. My new greeting for you will be, AHHHHH!”

I sat up and watched as the red man’s eyes narrowed. “I wouldn’t be so frightening if you hadn’t painted me flaming red. I am
Khai
-
Ree
-
Hloa
-Theo,” he said in a breathy accent, “assistant painter to Theo, not Theo’s spare canvas.”

Theo stood and extended his hand to me and helped me up as he spoke to the man he called,
Khai-Ree
. “Well when someone loses someone else’s canvas, that someone has to replace it.”

“For eternity?”
Khai-Ree
spun and walked off.

Theo called out after him, “Keep up your attitude, and tomorrow you’ll look like a rainbow.” He turned his attention back to me. His eyes narrowed. “How are you feeling? I’ve heard that humans often have headaches after fainting. Do you need to run to the office and get a…what’s that medicine the humans all take…
Tylenol?”

“No, I’m good.” I shook my head a bit faster than normal as I glanced around the white nothingness. “Where are we?”

“This is my home, sort of a 3D living canvas.” He motioned at our stark surroundings. “When I paint it—it is the way it is in my head. Full, living and moving. Not flat and lifeless like on an earthen canvas.
Sort of a retirement gift from the Sculptor for my devotion and service.”

He glanced around. “
Khai-Ree
cleaned up the place while you were unconscious. He thought it was the dinosaurs that scared you. I find a forest full of animals remarkably soothing and peaceful but
Khai-Ree
…” Theo shook his head, “he likes plain, clean, boring,
white
.”

I glared at Theo. “This is your home. So…what are you?
A ghost?
An angel?”

He smiled.
“Nothing so ghoulish or heavenly.”
Theo looked around the way I had before I’d opened the auditorium door. “I’m…” he hesitated and glanced about again, “…a painter.”

He stood there staring at me like I should understand, but all I could do was stare back at him. Had I missed something? “Yes, I know you paint. I’ve seen your work.”

Theo looked around his ultra white home. “Sorry, I can’t offer you a chair or even a tree stump.” He motioned towards the floor that was white nothingness too. “Want to have a seat? This will take a while.”

We both sat with our legs crossed before he continued. “I’m not a painter like people mean when they say it. When a person says it, he means he is a human who paints not some other type of being other than human. On the other hand, I am not human at all. I am a painter.”

“But what does that mean? What’s a painter? Are you aliens or…?” I couldn’t think of anything else supernatural to ask about.

Theo looked away then back at me. “I’m not honestly sure if this is against the rules—me telling you all this. I’m not supposed to draw attention to myself. Painters are not invisible, but we are unnoticeable and are not allowed to do anything to alter that. We register, in the mind, in the same way those silly pictures and messages they used to stick in movies to make people buy popcorn do. Humans are aware of us on some level but not on the conscious level. We are forbidden to seek attention from the humans. I’ve sat on the stage through every drama, choir,
band
and orchestra practice for decades. I’ve been there through assemblies and pageants, and no one has noticed me there until you.”

He looked more directly into my eyes. “I don’t think I did anything unusual to get your attention. I’m still not sure why you noticed me.” He looked at me for several minutes, as if he could figure it out if he stared at me long enough before he continued.

“But since you noticed me on your own, I didn’t think just talking to you was breaking the rule. Now, I’m not so sure about this.”

I thought back to our first meeting on the stage below. “You just sat there the first day, and I saw you.” I couldn’t think of anything odd he did. “And today, I followed you up here, you didn’t invite me.”

He hesitated just a moment before standing and walking away. Then he turned back to me to speak. “Long ago, before there was Earth or a solar system, there was the Sculptor. He got the idea to sculpt a giant sphere, but it was plain, lifeless and uninteresting. He wanted to make something new, unlike anything he’d ever made before. So he sculpted three beings called painters and gave us each an assistant called a
Khai-Ree
. Each painter was animated along with his
Khai-Ree
. Painters were granted high levels of creativity and visions of things that were not yet and the desire to paint them and make them real.

“
Khai-Ree
were
given the ability to organize. They can also paint copies of existing work, but they have no inner creativity. They see only lines, shadows and shapes and replicate it. I was assigned the land and all that would live on it. Fritz was assigned water and Walden—the sky.”

I looked around. “Do the other painters live up here with you?”

Theo came back to sit down. “No, Fritz fell out of favor with the Sculptor for some gross violations. Some say he’s gone mad. Walden is a bit of a mystery. There is a chance she’s working again, but she can’t tell us. She and her
Khai-Ree
hang out in space with Physics and
Astronomy. The four of them go back and forth between deep space and Earth acting like a bunch of human
girls
running back and forth to the restroom together.” He rolled his eyes. “All the shushing, giggling and inside jokes get a bit annoying. We think the invention of telescopes and space exploration brought Walden out of retirement, but like I said, she can’t say yes or no about it…Sculptor’s orders.”

I sat there for a second processing what he had just said. He was a painter—one of three who painted the world. One named Fritz was kind of in trouble and one named Walden… “Walden’s a girl and she’s hanging out with
who
?”

Theo smiled. “Yeah, Walden’s a female painter. She hangs out with Physics and Astronomy. They are a couple of the sciences. The Sculptor created and granted the sciences the job of giving the work of the painters function through logical, predictable laws and processes. The sciences are the engineers of Earth while the painters were the designers. We gave it form, they give it function.”

Theo jumped up again and helped me up. “We painters, well except for maybe Walden, have completed our work and have long been forgotten.”

I looked at him trying to process what he had said. “But when I pointed you out to Ms. Jones, she saw you.”

“Yes, I told you we’re not invisible. We’re unnoticeable. You noticed me and drew her attention to me. But like most humans, when they do notice for a second that there’s more to the world than what they understand, well it slides from their mind. Like other humans, she forgot me again.” He stared out, his eyes looked dreamy the way old
people’s
did when they talked about the good old days. “It’s lonely being around people who see all my work, enjoy it but have
no idea I’m here or that I’m responsible for the tree they sit under to read or the kitten cuddled up next to them in bed.”

“My ideas for the world and the way it is now are not the same.” He looked back at me. “I get used to and accept some changes, and then the sciences tweak some more.”

Theo walked towards the open door. “I just heard the bell.
Time for drama.
We don’t want to be late for class.”

Chapter 9

My mind was fuzzy and my movements robotic as we descended the ladder to the stage. Part of me kept expecting to sit up in bed and realize this was all a dream.

I walked down the steps and sat in my normal seat. Theo sat beside me, just watching me. I looked over at him, wondering what my feelings were. He wasn’t the cute boy noticing me anymore. He was something other.

A tap on my shoulder from behind pulled me out of my contemplation. I turned to see Anthony.

“Can you believe all the craziness?” Anthony’s dark brown eyes had doubled their normal size.

I looked at him for a half-second, my eyes wide now too. How did he find out? “What craziness?”

“You know, all the water fountains taped off and water coolers parked beside them. And the portable sinks and hand sanitizer in the bathrooms. The only water they’re letting the school use from the well is to flush the toilets until they find out who or what has been in it. Breakfast was frozen biscuits and for lunch Pizza’s being delivered.”