Past and Present*

109 11 21
                                        

*In the context of lost dreams

Dissolved and disintegrated,

Under the monster of screams.

In your mind,

Broken,

Lost, 

 Over,

Done. 

Apollo

Museums always had a certain vibe about them. Every piece in every exhibit was delicately placed, frames polished and ready for pictures. Every piece had a purpose, a story. Artists put years into their work, sometimes never expecting the painting to blow up like it has. Art was just such a beautiful form because of all the things you could do. You could blend all the colors, you could not. You could paint a square and a circle, or you could paint the most beautiful portrait. There were no rules. It was like people, but the paintings were nicer. It was actually why I decided to come here the last day before leaving for college. 

We didn't really have any good museums in the area, but we did have this little shitty one in what once was an old abandoned house on the border of town. No one really came here except the woman who owned it and myself. Everyone had a place they went to just think, and this was mine. I had written my college essay here, my final paper, and done so many SAT practices that I'm sure the woman who owned it wanted to change her WiFi password so I couldn't get in. 

The museum itself had a total of about a dozen paintings, all displayed in one room. There were benches in front of every painting, and long descriptions typed and taped to the walls. Stray pieces of hair were on the floor, decorating the white tiles like pieces of spaghetti. I sat down on a bench in front of the painting of a cherry blossom tree. I wasn't doing anything, just thinking. If you ever just sit down and think for a second, you realize that there is a lot to think about. The world is a messed up place. It's so easy to just completely get lost in thought. Sometimes it can be peaceful, and other times you may feel like the world's going to end. Either way, it was always interesting. Never a dull moment in your mind. 

I pulled out my computer, plugging in the free headphones I had gotten after graduating. I started to watch The Nightmare on Elm Street, chewing on the wires every time they started to get to a scary part. I had watched this movie so many times now that it simply wasn't as scary as the first time I watched it, or the second, or the third. It was almost comforting, just knowing exactly what was going to happen. Even though the whole point was to be scared, I had come to the point that I was over that. I wish life was like that; so familiar that it no longer scared me. Obviously, that was not the case.

From my peripheral, I saw a boy sitting down next to me, fluffing up his hair and taking out his phone. No one really came in here, ever. It had to be fate, right? Why else would someone come here? It would be so cool if I met my future husband at a museum that I went to literally all the time. It would be such a cool story to tell. I'd tell them about how I was just going about my boring day, and suddenly this boy appeared and sat down right next to me. We could even have a museum themed wedding, making sure we had this exact painting on our cake, using the same colors for our themes. We could even have renditions of the same painting hanging up around the venue, or maybe other works that the artist had. I loved references, so I'd have to make sure that I researched the history of the painting so I could connect it to the first time we met. Maybe, this could be it. Maybe-

"Can you get up for a second?"

"What?" I asked.

"I'm just going to take a picture real quick. I'll be gone in a second, don't worry."

Asterisk*Where stories live. Discover now