Reasons

Part 2

The most tortured souls can be the most intoxicating. They can break you or burn you alive, and you will let them.

By the time Ava reenters the Exhibit Hall, the speeches are done, and people are happily moving about looking at everything. With her headphones on, she steps into the hall with the specific mission of finding Jessica to hand off Aiden. Then, she is going home. For a minute, she thinks she succeeds. She does not need to say anything to either of her best friends, because they know her too well. The baby is handed off and Ava is two steps from the glass front doors before a booming voice calls her name. General Huxley. "So close," Ava mumbles under her breath as she turns around with a plastered smile. He motions to her excitedly, standing next to her mural and there is a crowd around him. There is always a crowd around him. He is one of those people that captures attention everywhere.

Ava shuffles up to him, while pulling off her headphones, and he motions to the painting. "One of your masterpieces, I assume?" He questions, and of course he would never ask if he did not already know the answer. Ava nods, keeping her gaze on either the General or the mural. "Of course, it is. It has your flare." He motions to it again and then addresses the crowd. "I would know her artwork anywhere. I have several pieces myself. She did a portrait of Grace and I, and it is stunning." Ava fights to keep her embarrassment at being spoken of in the crowd to a minimum. "You should be proud, Ava." She glances up at him to see that he knows she is uncomfortable and had been just about to leave. "This is masterfully done, and you should rejoice. No one gets to paint the walls, inside or out, of the Town Hall. Except for that one graffiti incident..."

"That was twenty years ago..." Ava mumbles, knowing full well the punishment of her actions. She has never looked at a toothbrush the same way again. She spent three weeks scrubbing her artwork off the back wall as an eight-year-old. "And I do recall serving the punishment alone, but that I didn't do the act myself." Though Ava took the fall, everyone knew Jessica and Hazel had been with her, as they always were, but the General's daughter cannot have a record.

The General laughs heartedly and squeezes her shoulder. "You are my favorite goddaughter."

"I am your only goddaughter." She grumbles with a mock glare at the older man. She was ten before she realized the General was not her actual uncle. The General and her father had grown up practically brothers. While John Huxley went into the military, her father, Lucas Monroe, went into trade school and became an electrician. They were both the best man at each other's weddings, and though the two men could not be more different, they are always laughing about the good-old-days.

"Where did you get the inspiration for the mural?" A woman in the crowd asks, and Ava only briefly glances at her to acknowledge her question. "It is so lifelike."

"Thank you." Ava nods towards her but has always felt awkward accepting any sort of praise. "I have helped several people in the military, and out of the military. A little research helped me perfect the uniforms and I had actual people photographed for the faces." There were several people, in town and out of town, that held the inspiration to the people in the mural.

Ava's palms are sweaty a bit, so she runs them down the black lace of her knee-length dress, hoping no one notices. "Why aren't all of the people in the mural smiling?" The new voice nags at her mind until she looks up to see who asked. She meets a pair of eyes that bare down on her as they can see straight into her soul. She stares at him a second longer than was necessary to realize he is the man from the storage room. From the look in his eyes, she can see that he knows exactly what she was doing back there. He knows that she knew he was there. He knows she was trying to help him.