Captured in Color
Link: http://dailysciencefiction.com/science-fiction/biotech/rebecca-lang/captured-in-color
Summary: Love or stalking? A chip in his arm prevents Frank from seeing the girl of his dreams, so he remembers her face by painting her image on the walls.
They'd shut out every photograph, every video, every image of her face. But they couldn't shut out his dreams. Her beauty clawed at his chest, like a living thing trying to get out. So Frank took to the streets with tubes of paint and a can of brushes.
Tonight he painted her face on a wall of crumbling concrete bricks.
Blue. That was the color of his work. Deep
indigo, mixed with violet, as rich as her eyes. Long strokes with a
thick brush formed the frame of her face. Delicate swipes created wispy
strands of hair. The pent-up pressure of his chest eased, and Frank's
heart became as still as a mountain lake.
Once more, he saw her.
Once more, the memories rushed through him
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How the Story Came to Be: Trying to inspire my poet aunt to write a short story, I took out The Writer's Toolbox (by Jamie Cat Caller) and spun the three palette wheels in the Protagonist Game. My aunt was supposed to write a story about "Frank the painter," whose goal was to "find true love," and whose obstacle was "the inspector." While my aunt struggled unsuccessfully to put together of a house painter who was having trouble with a person inspecting his work, my mind ran in a different direction. I was so inspired, I had to write my own story of a vandal and a police officer.
