She went on a soulful trip one day and chanced upon a starry night with the Milky Way glowing down upon her. It was a moment to cherish but one without her man to cherish with.
She went home and bought a canvas of the starry night. When it arrived, she set it down puzzled with all the colours and the contrasting threads. She did not know how yet to proceed. But then she made that first stitch with his name on her lips and she began to weave. Each time she brought the thread in and back out time passed between the lover and her.
The canvas took patience something he told her she must have. So, she patiently pulled out the twilight blue thread and began filling in yet another patch of the canvas. Sometimes her threads would knot up together but she would swiftly pull them out like washing away misunderstandings with the lover she never spoke to.
It took time to weave through the blocks of yellow and lavender and seasons came and went her lover nowhere in sight. She still had to work through another half of her starry night canvas but she held her belief in the canvas and him.
While she weaves thoughts of him filled her head and she promised herself she would go back with him to that starry night.
She weaves on but nothing not a word from him. She is close now another year gone by she starts finishing up the missed gaps and spaces replenishes the threads and the faith she has in him.
As she stitches, she comes to the end her heart is flooded with tears of relief for finally finishing her starry night but also for grief for her love hadn’t returned.
She takes her canvas the final act and starts washing the printed lines and numbers and the colours start draining and flooding the canvas and she lets them flow while she lets him go. Her Starry Night complete.
To find more stories like The Canvas visit Pari’s Books! This short story is from the author’s novelette “Red.”
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