Anaya: A Dark Voyage [#1 LightBlood Series]

Chapter 20 - The Date

***

The Present.

It turned out Anaya saying yes to Dembe's one date request was a yes to a series of other dates. These young couples were on fire and there was no stopping them.

On the first date, Dembe took Anaya to an Art studio of sorts.

It was still early in the morning when they emerged onto a street near the Kolontou University of Science and Technology. The world was still silent and the sun was still hiding behind the somewhat dark clouds of the night before. The street was as dark as some 80's black and white movie scenes. Anaya couldn't understand why they had to start the date so early in the morning but she comforted herself with the answer Dembe gave when she asked him some minutes before they set off.

"We have a lot of places to be at today. Today is our day! Best we start it off very early." She recalled Dembe's explanation as a smile escaped her lips.

"What is that smile I see?" Dembe, who was looking at her the entire time, asked, pulling Anaya from her thoughts.

"Oh, nothing. Just a random thought of something. Nothing important." She lied.

"Ok. If you say so. We are here. The studio is located in the heart of Abikiali." Dembe announced, his right hand pointing at a building in front of them.

It was an old storey building with about four floors. The paint on it was a bit washed out and the roofing was crying for new ones. In fact, the whole building was crying for renovations. This made Anaya doubt what sort of art could such a building house. But she resorted to the not-jumping-into-conclusions train. After all, don't judge a book by its cover, right? Who knows, the building might actually have the best art the entire world has ever seen.

Hanging on rectangular-shaped white canvases, all the paintings waited for people to stop and look and admire them. Anaya walked directly to one of them the second they entered. She watched, admired, praising the elegant use of brush strokes and bright colours in creating the piece of art she stared at.

It was the painting of two blue coloured birds on a green Marula tree set in a very bright afternoon scene - a blue sky with a very cheerful sun making impressions.

The art was natural, beautiful, deep and spoke to her. As her eyes travelled over its details, Dembe walked over to her.

"Beautiful, right?"

"Yes, it's amazing. Is the artist here?" She inquired.

"Not yet but you will meet him. Now come have a look at these too."

Dembe held her hand and walked her to a different set of arts at the very far end of the studio. These arts were different from the other paintings. They were hand-drawn symbols of God knows what, nicely and intricately drawn on a brown kraft paper and framed.