Superman

Chapter 12

News quickly spread of Pippa's departure and pretty much everyone had the same scared and confused reaction that I had experienced. No one could figure out why she would do something so stupid and childish. Pippa would never just up and run away from her problems; she wasn't that type of girl. Only I understood her reasoning. Only I had seen her how she truly was. Only I knew how she truly felt. Jimmy and Mckenzie were completely devastated that she wouldn't be there for the wedding she had worked so hard on and they even threatened to cancel it if she didn't return. Though I convinced them that she wouldn't want that and we all had the secret hope that maybe just maybe she would return by then.

I kept the manuscript a secret. Pippa had written it for me and only me; I would never show it to anyone. It was my most prized possession and I kept it with me at all times. I read it over and over and over. Each time I noticed something new. I started noticing the tiniest of details and their significance. In a way, I was learning Pippa better in those pages then I had in all of our time spent together. I could see the inner workings of her mind and experience how her thought process worked. I could tell how she really felt and what that certain look or gesture truly meant. The more I read the more I fell in love with her. And the more I read the more I became convinced that she had always loved me and I had always loved her. The story was us. Or at least the us we could have been. The us that was brave and strong and unafraid to say how we felt. The us that let nothing keep us apart. The us I always dreamed we could be.

I became a bit of a hermit preferring to spend most of my time in doors reading and studying her words and trying to understand her in a way I had never thought possible. Her work lit a fire inside me. I became obsessed with my art. I began one scene at a time. I took one passage, one line, one thought from her work and spent days painting it out in perfect detail. Every strand of hair, every blade of grass, every star was placed with perfection. I was in a constant state of disarray as my hands were always covered in paint and my hair was always an unkempt mess from all the times I ran my fingers through it. I no longer owned any clothes that weren't covered in paint and there were hardly any clear spaces on the floor. Most people assumed I had lost it. That Pippa leaving had caused me to snap and that it was only a matter of time before I did something crazy that landed me in the psychiatric ward. But I wasn't crazy, I was just seeing the world as it truly was for the very first time and it was bright and colorful and wonderful and I wanted to capture all of it on canvas.

The first of September was the day of Jimmy and Mckenzie's wedding and though Pippa was nowhere to be seen, it was the happiest and most beautiful ceremony I had ever witnessed. There was so much love and affection radiating off of them. I noticed the tiny little touches that only Pippa could have thought of. She would have loved it. It screamed Pippa. I tried my best to absorb every detail of it so I could try to recapture it for her. Because I knew that one day she would return. Maybe it wouldn't be right away or when I wanted it, but she would come back. I knew it.

I had painted a personalized painting for the bride and groom that they loved. They promised that it would be hung in a place of honor in their new house and insisted that I come by to see it after the honeymoon. Pippa was supposed to be in charge of the music for the reception but since she was gone, I was asked to fill in at the last minute. Luckily, she had left behind her list for the DJ and I threw in a few of my own suggestions. I sang a few of them live upon request but it was too painful for me. I had only ever played for Pippa and playing for these people I barely knew felt like a betrayal. I enlisted the help of some of the guys from Camp who did a great job and the crowd loved them. I spent most of the reception sitting as far away from everyone as I could and sketching. B.J. soon found me though. "Dude, you're missing the party! The food is great."

"B, you made the food." I replied.

"So?"

"Don't you think that makes you just a little bit biased?"