The Soul Painter [completed]

-Chapter Two-

Location: Olympia, Washington, US

Coffee drinks are not Lottie Lang's favorite thing. She hates the bitter aftertaste, and the way it feels steaming through her sinuses. But when things get difficult, and inspiration is hard to come by, it never fails to warm her brain up. It's almost as if her hatred for the liquid in her mug fuels her creativity. 

Now she sips it quietly, at home, trying to get some work done on the Software. The southbridge of the Software's motherboard is faulty. Again. And she can't figure out how she's going to get it replaced without annihilating everything she's already done, and all of the progress that she has made. 

The story is up and running, a breakthrough has happened, and she's not keen on the idea of throwing away the hours that she has spent on it.

Manual overdrive not possible. Try again?

The words pop up on her computer screen.

And just like that, a memory begins its journey back to torment her. 

"Try again?" her big sister Laura prodded, helping her up.

Lottie wiped the dust out of her eyes. "I can't do it."

"Keep trying."

Lottie groaned. She had tried to swing on the monkey bars on the playground many times before, but never succeeded. Laura said it was something about "upper body strength."

Her big sister was awesome. She knew everything, so Lottie decided to once again take her advice. 

She climbed back up the ladder, but when she reached the top, she balked. It was high up, and her hands and knees still hurt from falling down last time. Her teeth began to chatter.

"Come on, Lottie. You can do it."

She gritted her teeth and reached for the first bar. The ground bubbled and warped below her. Only Laura's face remained clear.

"You can make it! Reach for the next one!" 

She held her breath as she reached, and closed her eyes as the falling feeling overwhelmed her thoughts.

But she didn't hit the ground. 

"Open your eyes! You did it!"

Lottie blinked. Then she reached for the next bar. She made it again, and again, and again. 

When she climbed down, Laura pulled her into a hug.

"I did it, Laura, I did it!"

"I knew you could do it. You can do anything that you stick your mind to."

And just like that, the warmth of her sister's hug disintegrates into the loathed steam of coffee and hot tears. 

She can never forget what she's done.

"Why?" she whimpers, burying her face in her hands.

Deep down, she knows why. And since the easiest way to forget is to become distracted, she clicks back onto the story watch screen and immerses herself into the lives of her characters.

- - -

Location: Central

Only one thing about my city is always the same, year after year, when everything else is constantly changing. That one thing is the ear splitting scream of train wheels on rusty, poorly-assembled track. While it might seem like it could be a bad sound, it's a good one. It signals the delivery a month, or even a year's supply of grain and other basic foodstuffs. Where does it come from? I have no idea. The engine workers who drive the trains never speak to commoners. They don't let on about the place, as perfect as the mystery of sunlight in my mind, that must be clean enough to grow food.