THESE RUINED FLOWERS

CHAPTER 4

"Wait, are you the son of the artist Mr. Blue?" I asked him.

"Yes, my father is Richard Blue- the artist," Tayden replied.

Something had finally gotten me excited after a very long time. He was one of my favorite artists. He did the paintings in a special release of Voiceless Flute, my most treasured book. There was this one painting titled the same. It had a mute protagonist who was trying to say something. She stood next to her wretched daughter, who was playing the flute while still attached to her umbilical cord. The flute played not the sound she desired but the sound of her mother. The painting captured the frustrated love of the daughter perfectly. The painting was especially gory and detailed that it stuck into me like a first blow. I remember staring into the piece of painting for a whole afternoon, trying to soul search. This made me enroll in a two-month art program one summer in high school but I was utterly disappointed as the curriculum wasn't refurbished to include any modern artists. The painting though earned Mr. Blue a great deal of fame. I once took part in his one-day workshop. Ironically, he didn't show up. Then I stopped pursuing art and went back to concentrating on the entrance exams for college where I planned on taking mathematics, philosophy, and theology.

This knowledge that he was the son of a celebrity and yet was captured startled me especially. This meant that they neither feared the law nor did they fear any potential publicity that comes when a person with celebrity status is involved. But I didn't want to think much of it at that point since it left me with more fear of being stuck in this place until I die. I always got told back at home that I wasn't really that good at hiding emotions when they came once in a while. So, I made it a point to suddenly convalesce to the present moment to not trigger the boy.

"It's good to know we live in the same country," I said with a wide smile.

"Oh, so you're from Isaka too?" he asked. "But are you any sure that we are out of our homeland? We could be anywhere in Isaka you know?"

"But don't you remember the long journey here Tayden?" I replied. "And their xenophobic cussing? And although they're under masks, their physique doesn't resemble that of the men of our country. Don't you think?"

Hosier gave me a warning glare that I was reminding him of horrible things. I took the hint immediately. My preliminary analysis of him not fearing this place as much as I do could be wrong. I couldn't risk him breaking down and getting further twisted just because I thought he was fearless. Just as I was about to change the subject tactfully, he started speaking.

"You know what brother? You could be right. I want to believe you. The thought of our men doing something so awful to their own people is utterly disgusting and sickening that I'd prefer your point of view."

"Mind you this isn't just a theory I conjured up per se," I said. "I've given you enough proof. Let me add, Tayden, that Isaka is a small country. It only takes three days to cross it diagonally by train, which is approximately one-thousand-six-hundred-thirty point five miles. If my calculations are correct, it took them five days to bring us here and put us in the white room. How did I calculate the days when all you could see was pitch black you may ask. That was because I still had my watch on and-"

"Joonie he believes you, darling," Hosier interrupted. "You're right about what you said if I do say so myself. There is no other possible explanation for all this. Now can we please take Tayden for a walk?" 

That was when I bothered to look around. Yakove was standing, leaning against the long barred, brown window. He was looking at me with a smirk. As for Tayden, he kept searching my face with his lips slightly parted like a confused little child, and his eyes twinkled as the night sky did. I found the whole scene quite funny but it soon turned to awkwardness.

"Joon!" Yakove called with all seriousness, staring at me, "Do you wanna go for a walk?"

"What? Oh-yeah...sure," I felt like words got irreversibly stuck inside my throat which isn't possible but I felt like it. I wanted to tell them to carry on without me but I didn't want my awkwardness to be more apparent than it already was. "Sure," I said again.

All four of us got up from the floor to give Tayden a tour. We walked out of the camp into the open. It was evening and there was a cold breeze that felt light on my skin. The cassia tree, the only tree in the place, and tiny grasses swayed. 

They had taken away a lot of things from us but they couldn't take away what nature had to offer; the only place that kept our minds in place. Now we were about to share it with him. He'd have seen nature alright, but it was about to give him a new meaning as it did for the three of us.

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A/N: The country name mentioned in this chapter and any such names in the future are all fictional. And if you're wondering, Isaka is pronounced as Aae-sa-ka.