1.
The Clash
“Well, what do you think?”
Calvin asked, his eyes gleaming with anticipation, and his hand pointing like a
scepter towards the drapes.
“Umm…,” mumbled Louisa,
trying to prevent Calvin from reading her face like the open book that it
was.
Calvin agreed to move to
the country in retirement as long as she let him decorate the farmhouse. She
never wanted curtains, but he begged and begged. With the horses running
outside and their windows always open, the curtains would get covered in dust, she
argued. He didn’t care. His house was his castle, and he wanted to adorn it any
way he pleased. He had always complained that working in a grey-everything
cement factory deprived him of a life of color. And being very far-sighted, he
had always been drawn to the brightest colors.
“What do you mean, ‘umm?’”
“I’m not sure it works,
honey. Some of the colors, they’re so bright, and this is a farmhouse, love.
It’s a bit loud. That red on the poppy flower is so prominent. And the green
leaves and those little purple flowers, dear, it’s not the most harmonious color
combination.”
“Periwinkle,” Calvin said.
“What?”
“It’s not purple, it’s
periwinkle, darling. The flowers are periwinkle.”
“How do you know?” she
asked.
“I asked the salesman in
the shop, Louisa. And dusty rose. The little flowers are meant to be periwinkle
and dusty rose.”
“Yes, I see them. Very
delicate, those little flowers, almost like they’re fading,” Louisa said.
Calvin shot Louisa a hurt
look.
“In a good way,
dear.”
Calvin raised his right
hand to his chin, stroking it several times, the tell he always gave when he
was thinking.
“Don’t you think the colors
go so well with this room and the windows?” he asked.
Louisa leaned over and
kissed her husband on the cheek.
“They’ll learn to get
along, and we’ll learn to love them, even though they do sort of clash,” Louisa
smiled.
M Maria Odessky Rosen
Maria practices law by day and writing and dancing my night. She loves to hear words play with each other.Her poems, short stories, and essays have appeared in newspapers and magazines, including the Beyond Words Anthology. She has received writing awards, including the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest and the 24-Hour Writing Contest, along with a competitive mentorship in the Gordon Square Review.