“The rain is crooked”, said Oscar and followed his fingers down the lines they made on the glass window. “It never falls straight, just winds its way out of existence.” Oscar sat at the window, talking to himself. The church steeple looked like some innocent pinprick against the sky of the universe.
“What a lame attempt it is making to crucify the sky”, he shouted at the top of his voice.
The door rattled. Oscar heard the rapid scraping behind it. He jolted himself out of the gloom and twisted the door handle to meet the embrace of his wolfhound, Bran. He had this morning’s letters tucked into his mouth.
“What news, Bran? Is there some way out of the crooked rain in my blood?”
Bran barked with a sparkle in his eyes that suggested to Oscar that there were beautiful jewels at work to make him smile, despite the poisons that swam in the air like hungry crocodiles ready to devour their prey.
It had come, the letter that would ask him to give up on everything. Too many of those had been sent to him, and what on earth did they convince him of, only that he woke up with air in his lungs the next morning. He tore up the letter and got the lead from the dining room table. He would go for a walk with Bran into the deep woods where there was nothing written on the trees, and he wouldn’t have to read anymore paper. What a strange thing for a writer to think. He decided Bran and the woods would not deliver any crooked messages.
He walked out onto the gravel. Bran jumped and bounded ready for the adventure that Oscar needed for his sanity. Bran took him away leaping into the fresh air where there were still things to look at and see, dream of and be.
The further he walked into the woods, the clearer it seemed. His eyes adjusted themselves to the dark and he knew what he would meet.
He was excited to see his soul in front of him.
Lena O’ Connell
Lena O’ Connell graduated from the Limerick School of Art and Design in 2009. She
specialised in fine art, sculpture. Lena currently lives and works in Tipperary, Ireland.
She teaches art to children and is aspiring to undertake a higher diploma in
art teaching.
Image Source [http://s3.freefoto.com/images/810/22/810_22_6924_web.jpg]
