Someone Worthwhile

LOVE WITHOUT LEGS

BACKGROUND: Joshua Art Works

(JINGLE)

The bell over the entrance door indicated the presence of Anna and she peeked around in the fog to find the owner of the shop. He was nowhere to be found by looking from the entrance, so she decided to look around the room for him. The collection of paintings were kept on shelves and hung on walls. He might be immersed in painting or so was her thought. She fumbled and wobbled with her most trusted stick until her leg which was intact, started throbbing.

The guy was nowhere to be found. It has already been a week since she found out that he was her savior and to show her gratitude, she wanted to give him a present that will please him. So she waited for a whole week and got her hands on a famous art auction invitation.

She thought he was an ambitious man without connections and wealth, hence having to open a store and make a living. She wasn't sympathizing him. It just seemed to be the best choice for a gift. She wanted to see his reaction when he will receive it but she had yet to even see his face properly, let alone his reaction.

While fumbling around, her hands came across the door knob to the next room. She remembered the overwhelming smell of paint in that room. It was obvious that he painted in that room. She liked that smell so much that its memory was still lingering at the touch of the door knob. She pressed her lips together. To her, the owner of the shop seemed like a kind man. He wouldn't probably take her for an intruder as she looked more like a damaged car with one flat tire, scratches all over and broken headlights.

With her great belief in her senses, she clicked open the door and inhaled the familiar addictive smell of chemicals and sighted. Suddenly, her blurred vision started to waver and panic struck her face. Out of blue, the fear of completely losing her vision cricketed in her head and she gasped.

(THUD) She was on her knees and hands, on the floor, with her eyes going back and forth in its socket. Her breaths were getting very dangerously audible in the echoing room. She pulled herself up and wobbled as her stick was still on the floor. Sweating in her despair, she bend down and fumbled for the stick in a rush. But her hand struck a stand that was holding a huge canvas. The stand along with the canvas fell and she tried to adjust her eyes as she looked ahead to were the canvas lay.

Slowly, she calmed down and her vision came back, this time, in HD pixel. She looked at the canvas for a long ticking moment. The clock on the wall, itself was frightened by the silence. She sat back, as the panic had left her senses.

An image of a beautiful teenager, smiling her heart out, was painted in eye catching, vivid colors on the canvas. The scenery around her was completely illusion. The sky was dipped in solid colors of dusk. The girl was obviously someone familiar to her yet felt like a stranger. That was her image from her teenage when she hadn't lose her mother and boyfriend to HOPE and seemed to be having the best time of her life. It was, the best time of her life.

The fact that her vision had come back hadn't yet occurred to her. There was something more important in front of her eyes. Her mind wandered around childhood for a moment or two and then the question- 'why is my painting here?' doomed upon her.

That was when she noticed a crumbled photograph on her lap, which fell on her along with the canvas on the floor. She opened it, still sitting on the cold floor. The photograph as well, was unfamiliarly familiar. That was her 9th grade class group photograph taken at the beginning of winter. It was the same year, when she got herself involved with HOPE.

All the kids of the class were looking proudly at the camera and at the rightmost corner; she stood smiling wide with her teeth sparkling in delight. Her hands rested on the shoulders of her first and till date the only love. From the very first look, it was obvious that it was more than mere friendship that they both shared. That was the dawn of her hope and the dusk hit her at the age of 25, on the hospital floor, screaming with her twisted throat.

She looked around the photograph for familiar faces like the titled ones- the fat kid, the small kid, the obedient kid, the dumb kid. She managed to remember most of them. But the boy standing opposite to her seemed unfamiliar, thin and shy. He was looking sad with a forceful smile. She squinted her brows in confusion and replayed her 9th grade in her head.

(GASP) Now that explained why her class photo was in Joshua's store. He looked just like a bigger figure, a bit better version of that kid. She remembered Suhail helping him get away from his bullies and how she went on rampage the same day. Her past was embarrassing herself.

She personally kicked the bully into the table tennis room, broke the thick bridge of his nose and shaved his brows. That was the first time she broke her own rule of "My safety first."

She was ready to get kicked out of the school but her mere presence was physiologically traumatizing her victim and he ended up leaving the school which wasn't her plan at all but took Suhail's compliments anyways. Now that she thought about it as an adult, she did go a bit overboard and she had never physically harmed any of her colleagues in her life.

She awkwardly stood up and blinked at her portrait. 'Oh My Goood! Does he have feelings for me?' she felt like a child and suddenly she fumbled with her hair, lost in the childish thoughts. "Oh My God! He Likes me!" she mumbled with her hands on her mouth now. The door to that room opened and Joshua with two cups of coffee strode in, whistling randomly. He stopped midway and gawked at the one legged intruder with her canvas laying comfortably on floor, smiling at the ceiling. He gulped and smiled, remembering the fact that she was partially blind.

"Oh Miss. You are here? You didn't have to come in here all alone. Are you hurt by any chance? He came close with the two cups of coffee in his hands.

'Let's play dumb until he makes it obvious.' Her cautious senses told her. 'Anything is fine as long he is not a stalker or a psychopath freak who paints all his victims. Did I offend him as a kid?'

"Yes, I am hurt. You didn't reveal yourself as my savior before. At last, my chauffeur had to recognize you. I am very disappointed." She kept her rich, bold tune as the shield to her sweating forehead.

The same day, Anna left the store with a printed smile on her face. After waving her goodbye, he went back in to put back the canvas properly. He looked at the portrait and smiled. His father told him once, that his ancestors believed that if the man draws a portrait of his lover or his choice of heart, she will be granted to him by the god. His father had a huge portrait of his mother in his study room which he admired as the symbol to his parents' love.

'Dad wasn't lying.' He was more than satisfied. He didn't paint her portrait back when he was in school because of the feeling that he didn't deserve her and the fear of unable to paint her beautifully. The sight of her with another boy put off his mind to draw her. He shouldn't be greedy. He couldn't be.

He canceled his father's offer for the same auction to which he was planning to go as a chief guest with his father's connection. But, as he saw Anna's hard earned offer of participation for the auction, he decided upon the later. Being chief guest wasn't his priority at the moment. He was chasing something more worthwhile… her love. Nothing was different about that day, other than Lakshmi's rotten mood for not getting her coffee when she came to visit him as he offered it to a potential shoplifter that day.