Status: Active
à la folie
It's
America was... sunny. We didn’t even go through a layer of cloud as the airplane descended; we just fell from zone of sunshine to the next in the blue, blue sky.
Blue
I squeezed my eyes shut then looked down at my earthy jade green sweater, burying my eyes in its divine colour. This morning I doubled checked that I wasn’t wearing anything blue, I don’t know if it was out of habit or because I knew the presence of blue would distress me.
Grey jeans, white vest, green sweater, black pumps and belt, silver cross necklace, white boxers. No expensive patterns, no everlasting blue. Purple earphones, brown leather side bag, black gauges, black trainer socks.
Angelica jumped to her feet and I drew my jade sleeve sweater filled hand away from my face, feeling it slip back to its position on my wrist, rather than over my fingers. Angelica winked at me and reached up to pull her bag out from over-head luggage. I leaned over and retrieved my leather side-bag from under the seat in front of me, standing up and stooping slightly while running the bag up my arm to my shoulder.
Having her bag now on her back, Angelica held onto the material of my sweater and dragged me along behind her in the general rabble as people tried to exit the plane all at once. I stared pointedly at my sweater, trying not to think of all the blue, of all the people.
“It’s so warm here! Not like cloudy old England” Angelica grinned at me but I could barely get the energy to look at her. I hate sun, I hate blue, I hate people. She ignored my lack of response and took me through customs, happily telling everyone who would listen that we were moving here from England.
To me, everything passed in a blue blur of people and sun, the only thing keeping my head right was the green of my sweater, and the brush of my hair on my cheeks.
“Fleance, get in the car” I blinked quickly and looked up at the voice, trying to decipherer the meaning. What car... Oh. I opened the cab door and slipped inside the black vehicle. It smelt of sweat and lipstick, and money and aftershave. My nose wrinkled up, at least it wasn’t blue.
I spent the whole of the car journey not looking out the window as I should be; the sky was too blue, the sun way too bright. I stared at the dull screen of my iPod, watching it switch through one song after another. I wondered what the world would be like with no blue in it.
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[Unsoundness Of Mind]
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White. My room was white. The carpet was crème. Thank god. No blue, no grey, just white and crème.
I set down my suitcase on the floor next to the wooden door which was closing slowly of its own accord and approached the large window sill which doubled as a sort of sofa. Or ‘couch’ as the Americans called it. I liked sofa better, it sounded more sophisticated, more English.
With little more thought on what to call such a mundane object, I sat on the sofa sill and looked outside, drinking in the view with narrowed eyes. Beyond the stretching blue of the sky and the glare of the sun I could see the back of a row of red-brick houses and their gardens, all covered in identical even planes of bright synthetic looking grass. It wasn’t a nice green, I thought all greens were nice, but it wasn’t anything like the majestic jade of my sweater.
Eventually I looked away, having observed a group of younger children dressed in pink floral dresses playing tag in one of the back gardens, squishing a silver plastic crown on however was ‘it’ and running to the boundaries of the fences as fast as they could. The bright sky had become too much and I sat with my back to the curtain-less window, instead staring at the stark contrast my khaki suitcase made with the pale surroundings.
It made the suitcase look the colour it was meant to be, rather than a sick imitation of blue, it made the suitcase right.
“Fleance” Angelica murmured from behind the now shut door to my new room. She sounded like she was trying to be quiet, but couldn’t quite keep the cap on it. Typical Angelica, then.
“Yes?” She took this as a queue to enter and pushed the door open. Her brightly coloured presence in the room caused me to be momentarily blinded and disoriented, she stood out so blandly.
“Your old stuff really doesn’t suit this place, so I’ve sold it on” She informed me glancing down at the maroon watch on her wrist “We have a few hours to go out and buy more colour-coded furniture, there’s a nice shop just on the high street, the cab driver told me about it. It’s best we set off now, the walk is about 20 minutes and I want some time to take in the new neighbourhood”
I stalled for a second. She sold on my stuff? Oh.
“I’ll be downstairs, be there in five alright?” I nodded and she left once more, leaving me to follow the slow eerie process of my door as it swung back to the door frame clicking lightly at contact.
Shopping... wasn’t my thing, I think.
Blue
I squeezed my eyes shut then looked down at my earthy jade green sweater, burying my eyes in its divine colour. This morning I doubled checked that I wasn’t wearing anything blue, I don’t know if it was out of habit or because I knew the presence of blue would distress me.
Grey jeans, white vest, green sweater, black pumps and belt, silver cross necklace, white boxers. No expensive patterns, no everlasting blue. Purple earphones, brown leather side bag, black gauges, black trainer socks.
Angelica jumped to her feet and I drew my jade sleeve sweater filled hand away from my face, feeling it slip back to its position on my wrist, rather than over my fingers. Angelica winked at me and reached up to pull her bag out from over-head luggage. I leaned over and retrieved my leather side-bag from under the seat in front of me, standing up and stooping slightly while running the bag up my arm to my shoulder.
Having her bag now on her back, Angelica held onto the material of my sweater and dragged me along behind her in the general rabble as people tried to exit the plane all at once. I stared pointedly at my sweater, trying not to think of all the blue, of all the people.
“It’s so warm here! Not like cloudy old England” Angelica grinned at me but I could barely get the energy to look at her. I hate sun, I hate blue, I hate people. She ignored my lack of response and took me through customs, happily telling everyone who would listen that we were moving here from England.
To me, everything passed in a blue blur of people and sun, the only thing keeping my head right was the green of my sweater, and the brush of my hair on my cheeks.
“Fleance, get in the car” I blinked quickly and looked up at the voice, trying to decipherer the meaning. What car... Oh. I opened the cab door and slipped inside the black vehicle. It smelt of sweat and lipstick, and money and aftershave. My nose wrinkled up, at least it wasn’t blue.
I spent the whole of the car journey not looking out the window as I should be; the sky was too blue, the sun way too bright. I stared at the dull screen of my iPod, watching it switch through one song after another. I wondered what the world would be like with no blue in it.
------------------------------------------
[Unsoundness Of Mind]
------------------------------------------
White. My room was white. The carpet was crème. Thank god. No blue, no grey, just white and crème.
I set down my suitcase on the floor next to the wooden door which was closing slowly of its own accord and approached the large window sill which doubled as a sort of sofa. Or ‘couch’ as the Americans called it. I liked sofa better, it sounded more sophisticated, more English.
With little more thought on what to call such a mundane object, I sat on the sofa sill and looked outside, drinking in the view with narrowed eyes. Beyond the stretching blue of the sky and the glare of the sun I could see the back of a row of red-brick houses and their gardens, all covered in identical even planes of bright synthetic looking grass. It wasn’t a nice green, I thought all greens were nice, but it wasn’t anything like the majestic jade of my sweater.
Eventually I looked away, having observed a group of younger children dressed in pink floral dresses playing tag in one of the back gardens, squishing a silver plastic crown on however was ‘it’ and running to the boundaries of the fences as fast as they could. The bright sky had become too much and I sat with my back to the curtain-less window, instead staring at the stark contrast my khaki suitcase made with the pale surroundings.
It made the suitcase look the colour it was meant to be, rather than a sick imitation of blue, it made the suitcase right.
“Fleance” Angelica murmured from behind the now shut door to my new room. She sounded like she was trying to be quiet, but couldn’t quite keep the cap on it. Typical Angelica, then.
“Yes?” She took this as a queue to enter and pushed the door open. Her brightly coloured presence in the room caused me to be momentarily blinded and disoriented, she stood out so blandly.
“Your old stuff really doesn’t suit this place, so I’ve sold it on” She informed me glancing down at the maroon watch on her wrist “We have a few hours to go out and buy more colour-coded furniture, there’s a nice shop just on the high street, the cab driver told me about it. It’s best we set off now, the walk is about 20 minutes and I want some time to take in the new neighbourhood”
I stalled for a second. She sold on my stuff? Oh.
“I’ll be downstairs, be there in five alright?” I nodded and she left once more, leaving me to follow the slow eerie process of my door as it swung back to the door frame clicking lightly at contact.
Shopping... wasn’t my thing, I think.
♠ ♠ ♠
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