Emoticolor

Blue-grey. The boy was surrounded by the dismal color. It wrapped itself around him like a blanket, fading in and out like mist. It hung in a cloud above his head, the wispy tendrils caressing his face and whispering softly in his ear. No one noticed him, it said. Even if they did, they wouldn’t care. No one cared. Sadness. Loneliness. The blue-grey cloak of despair steadily grew, creeping along the cobblestone street and up the wall. The boy seemed to shrink in the presence of its ominous shadow. And nobody did notice. Nobody cared to. 

 A girl walked along a busy street, her simple lavender dress contrasting sharply with the bright golden aura radiating from somewhere beneath her skin. She observed the vivid array of colors around her with a sense of childish wonder and glee, humming a merry tune to herself as she meandered through the crowd. And oh, the colors! There were so many values, so many shades! Each individual, unique, beautiful hue clung to its owner like a sort of visible perfume, each telling its own story. The man she passed yelling angrily into his cell phone burned with a brilliant ruby red, the girls ogling at the dresses on display in the shop window glowed softly sunset orange, and tired employees on their way home from work pulsed varying shades of purple. Human emotions were such beautiful, fragile things. 

 An old man was selling flowers by the sidewalk, surrounded by a pleasant, calming veil of cool green. The girl paused a moment in front of his stand, taking in the lovely arrangement of pastel pinks, blues, and whites. One flower in particular stood out from the rest. Its warm, sunny yellow petals glowed in the light of the fiery late afternoon sky, making its sisters look dull by comparison. She pointed to the flower and the old man smiled, plucking it delicately from its place and handing it over. The girl’s aura brightened slightly as she held it, and she smiled cheerily back at the man before continuing on her way. He watched her go from his place behind his stand, a tinge of gold creeping into the edges of the calm green, and turned to greet his next customer with the twinkle of renewed happiness in his eyes. 

 The girl walked a short distance more before stopping again, noticing that something here was different. The colors were duller, as though she were seeing them all through a clouded filter. The cobblestone beneath her feet looked as though it had been stained a deep blue-grey, the sad faded color webbing its way out into the street before ending in thin uneven tendrils, in a pattern similar to cracked glass. Looking up, she saw that it was on the walls as well, bleeding slowly but steadily outwards from somewhere within a dark, narrow alley.The thick throng of pedestrians around her carried on with their business, blissfully unaware of the deep, intense sorrow emanating from the space between the buildings. But she noticed. 

 She stepped gingerly through the opening, peering around for the source of the sadness. A boy sat slumped against the wall just inside the alleyway, head in his hands. The dull, depressing color had all but swallowed him whole, staining his skin, hair, and clothing that same dark blue-grey. He looked up as she approached, cheeks wet with fresh tears. The girl reached the place where he was sitting and knelt down, taking his hand in hers. The boy’s eyes widened in shock as she placed the beautiful sunny yellow flower in his open palm, closing his fingers softly around the stem. He stared at her, frozen in disbelief for a few moments. The blue-grey cloud retreated, collapsing in on itself and transforming into a soft white glow. The sadness and loneliness faded, replaced by something entirely different. Something pleasant. The girl smiled sweetly, and the boy couldn’t help but to smile, too. Somebody noticed. Somebody cared.

Author's Note

It's not spectacular and it is a little sappy, but I'd still like to know what people think.

Reviews

[Amber Lily]

This is great! I love the message behind this that emotions can be contagious, good and bad ones. Like the blue-gray and how it was slowly taking over, but then it was replaced with white. It also shows that one little act of kindness can go a long way for somebody. Even if you can't see auras, it's pretty easy to tell if someone is having a bad day. It might seem like hardly anything to the person who is giving, but the receiver is the one who is blown away by the act. I loved this so much!

Also as a little side note: It may be a little easier for the eyes to follow the flow of your story if you indent the beginning of your paragraphs. But that's just a suggestion :)

[Irene Willis]

Yeah, I would have but I posted this from my phone. Thank you, though! I'm so glad you liked it!

[Darkest Port]

This was an amazing story. I enjoyed how you used auras to represent human emotion. It worked really nicely. I also thought your wording was amazing, and it painted a vivid picture in my head. Great job!

[West Lake Angel]

I love the use of the colors and feelings together. This piece made me feel good. I enjoyed reading it.

[Curiouslyrecordingmylif..]

As suspected, awesomely written. What a bueatiful visualisation of such varying emotions. While reading this I would call myself a yellowish Orange or warm terracotta colour... It made me smile. Love the wholes idea and great description. :)

[-]

Not spectacular? It is wonderful and thought provoking. First, you did a great job with the description of everything that was going. Second, the conclusion was yeah sappy but awesome because it ties in perfectly with our current culture of cell phones. It is hard for anybody to notice or even care when our eyes are locked on a tiny screen to look around at anything else. Also, love when that the boy smile. It really is something beautiful when you know someone truly notices you and cares and that is something rare this days, and you did a wonderful job capturing that at the end. Thank you for sharing this beautiful story. Laters, N.

[Carolynn]

This was a clever idea and makes one think about the lack of genuine caring in our world today. It has a sweet ending though, that is full of hope and a sense of relief that someone finally noticed him - well done Irene - it was very well written and kept this reader's attention from start to finish :)