“What the hell is that?” E yelled to nobody in particular. “What the hell is that?” she repeated and threw an empty coffee mug against the living room wall. The ceramic pieces exploded on impact and danced through the annoying light of the LED lit room. E loved that mug and would realize that fact in a moment, whereupon another, less loved mug would be launched against the wall in retaliation.
E erupted out of a chair in the corner and stomped across the living room, stepping over a minefield of garbage, dirty laundry, and god knows what else. Stumbling on an empty hamper, E slammed her shin onto the coffee table.
Words came out of E’s mouth that had never been spoken before. Impressive words. Terrifying words. She hopped the one-legged hop that we have all hopped before. Cursing the poor placement of the coffee table before taking out her anger on the helpless, empty hamper.
“Wow,” came a voice. “That poor hamper.”
E turned and glared at Q, standing in the doorway, yawning. His robe needed washed but what didn’t need washed? He calmly ducked to the side as the hamper whooshed passed his head. That one action was enough to make E smile.
In the weeks since they had boarded up their home to protect themselves from the storm outside, they both had been on a rollercoaster of emotion. Two cars on different paths yet side by side. They both handled the beginning of the storm facing the first hill together. Facing upward, nervous but optimistic. Then came the first hill and they plummeted down. Scared, hopeless, thinking they would crash at the bottom. But with every descent came another rise. Sometimes the rise would be short and over too soon. Sometimes the path ahead of them would veer side to side, over and under. Sometimes their two cars would separate and go in different directions only to cross paths again further along the journey.
Today Q seemed to be on an upward climb. It was enough to level off E’s race downward. If he had been on a downward track as well….well we won’t talk about that much. Those aren’t fun times. It was those times that led them to smash holes into their living room wall. Screaming and pounding they smashed the wall. Wanting to break out of the prison they had purposely trapped themselves inside.
E loved her living room wall. It was the perfect accented green with the perfect photos hanging at the perfect locations. Her friends would always compliment the living room wall. It made the room..perfect. Now it was hideous. Their perfect wall had become a punching bag for them. Splattered with food, pounded with fists as well as hammers, old paint tossed against it to try and erase the memory of its perfection.
E dropped her anger and looked and glanced around the room. She thought of how clean they used to keep everything. How neat and tidy it would all be. Now it was a disaster. A mess of emotion and tears.
She looked up at Q and smiled through a deep breath of air.
“There you are,” he said. E laughed a little. The best medicine for the moment. “What were you yelling about?” Q asked.
“Oh yeah,” E replied having forgotten what set her off. “I saw something on the wall.”
She turned to her living room wall and searched. She knew where every food splatter and stain had come from so seeing something new confused her. Q watched as she surveyed the wall. And then she stopped. She didn’t move. E leaned forward and squinted at something. Q, curious at her attention, joined her. He didn’t see anything at first.
And then there it was. Something new. Something neither of them had created.
Just above their eye line, at one corner of the room, there was a small circular shaped color of bright yellow. Barely the size of a dish. Seemingly floating on the wall.
E reached out her hand and covered the circle. She jumped back when the yellow circle moved off the wall and covered her hand. Q jumped as well.
“Is that?” he whispered.
E placed her hand back on the circle and it once again covered her hand. This time she held it there. She let out a gasp of air.
“It’s warm,” she said, a tear forming in the corner of her eye.
Q turned and looked to the window and gasped.
They had lost track of time long ago. The storm had covered the world in darkness so they had boarded up their windows and doors to protect them as best they could.
And now, at the edge of their sanity, through the smallest of holes, a beam of sunlight pushed through the cracks of wood.
E stared at her living room wall. A wall she had put so much time into. A wall she had come to resent. Battered and ugly, a light danced on it and made it more beautiful than it had ever been.
E turned and watched Q tear the boards from the window. A smile covering her face.
