The Tree Across My Mother's Grave

The beauty of an art lies in the heart of its painter. Anna picks up her brush and starts painting like she usually does. During the weekdays, she teaches art and poetry at a small college in their town. She is a very good art teacher and is well loved by her students. However, she has a hard time bonding with her co – teachers because of her unique kind of thinking. With that, she often prefers to be alone during lunch breaks and make something out of everything she sees.

Anna goes home from work and sees her mother lying on the ground. She immediately sends her to the hospital. Her father and sister arrive and hear about the doctor's findings. For the past year, her mother has been suffering from lung cancer due to her excessive smoking habit. The doctor concluded that there might be a possibility that she won't make it due to her lack of cooperation in her treatments. For the past years, Anna's parents have not gotten along well. They'd yell and hurt each other most of the time and Anna would always alienate herself to them. She would always lock her door and just paint. Painting has become her outlet in the dysfunctional circumstances in her family. Her sister however has been more visible in her parent's eyes and she felt like she was the favorite. She didn't care though. She always had her own world.

That night, her father asks her to stay at the hospital and accompany her mother. She knew she had no choice because her sister had to go to a party and her dad is taking her to it. She falls asleep and dreams of a man calling for her name. As she woke in the morning, she can't help but think about the man she saw in her dreams. A bit confused, she looks at the hospital bed and sees her mother stiff. She calls the doctor and as he arrived, he immediately delivers the result that her mom is already dead. Her father quickly arrives and grieves, but she quickly runs out of the room rushing to go home.

A doctor is walking in the hallways of the hospital. Anna passes by him but didn't see him because she was hurrying to get home.

Home, she immediately gets her brush and paints the portrait of the man she saw in her dreams. After hours of painting, in the canvass appeared a man so perfect that she began to fall in love with him. Everyday she paints different versions of this man without noticing herself being obsessed with someone she thought wasn't real.

A week have passed, Anna is prepping for the funeral of her mother. Along with her father and sister, she goes to the funeral. As her family and friends grieve of her mother's death, she had nothing in mind but the man she saw in her dreams. As the ceremonies preside, she sees a man standing beside a tree across her. She looks at him and can't help but admire how perfect he was. He's tall, elegant, very good – looking and everything that she wishes for. She suddenly feels a very distinct connection to him that she can't explain. Snap! She figured; it was the man in her dreams. She knew at that moment that he is the one for her, the perfect man she's been looking for. He's no longer just a dream, he's for real. After the ceremonies, she tried to find him, but to her surprise, he had already gone. She asked around, but no one seemed to have noticed him. Anna runs to her car, so frustrated that she again didn't notice the doctor staring at her from across the road.

Anna goes straight home and messes her things. She stares at one of her paintings and whispers words of them seeing each other again. Her obsession grows until she figured out a way to see him again.

Anna comes out of the car with her father. She looked very beautiful that day, perfect, as of she was going on a date. As they walk through the grounds of the cemetery, people around stared at her but she didn't mind. She was walking with all smiles, looking very excited. Her father however can't hide his pain and started to cry the minute the ceremonies began. Amidst the ceremonies, she again saw the man. They both looked in each others eyes and Anna felt a vivid connection. Her heart was beating so fast, and her joy was painted all over her face. She knew from the very start that this was the man for him and today, she was determined to know him.