Sketch

The quest to find the stranger in Elena’s dreams had begun. All she had to help her with this search was the image of his beautiful body imprinted in her heart and head; she used these to try putting a sketch together on paper. A sketch of her soulmate.

Elena was an artist, or close to it. She could draw and paint very well. She had started as a young child in her hospital room, using pencils, paints, and crayons to develop her motor skills. Most of her early childhood days were spent at the hospital and these activities were the things she engaged in when she was not busy being too sick. And she enjoyed them. painting helped her express herself and her mother had hoped she would turn out to be the next great artist of her time. Her mother, Caroline had somehow hoped to see Elena grow into a spectacular artist with her work being displayed at museums. She had watched her daughter sketch, draw and paint many times; different things she saw at the hospital. Caroline had hoped to get something as beautiful as a great artist out of her daughter's situation, she had hoped that by some divine calling, Elena’s story could turn into that of a sick child who ended up in history books, it had to be good for something, but that did not happen. Elena was very good, but not exceptional so even though she did not turn out to be the greatest artist of all time as her mother had hoped, she still had pretty good skills and she would draw up sketches and paintings for donations to charities. She also was able to get herself a pretty good job as an assistant museum curator. She liked her job. It brought her closer to the art which she loved. It paid her bills as well.

Armed with her drawing skills, she started a painting of the man in her dreams, and six hours later, she was finished and she found herself starring at his image sprawled on her sketchbook. He was the most beautiful thing she had ever laid her eyes on. She starred at his dark green eyes and was drawn in again. It felt as though she knew him and she belonged to him as he belonged to her. She sat for a while taking in his beauty and she could feel the same connection to him that she felt in her dreams. He was as real to her as any other guy around. she tried to imagine him with a shirt but she could not; he had been shirtless both times she encountered him in dreamland. she didn’t know if this man existed but something in her made her feel as though he did, waiting for her to come to him.

Elena was still staring at the sketch when Cheryl came out of her bedroom and into the living room area. Elena grabbed a sheet and threw it across the painting immediately, covering up her sketch before Cheryl got to her. She had set up her sketchbook in the living room area and already wished she had not. She could have sketched the privacy of her bedroom. She did not want to share his image, at least not yet. She already felt a degree of possessiveness with him but she had not been quick enough to cover the sketch and Cheryl had gotten a glimpse of it.

“hello. Hello dream man” Cheryl said as she dragged her sleepy self towards Elena and tried to take off the sheet which Elena had thrown across the sketchbook.

“I am not finished, please. Don’t open yet” Elena said

“don’t be silly Elena, it doesn’t matter. I want to see it” she insisted

“no!” Elena abruptly answered and it registered with Cheryl who responded by backing off.

Cheryl shrugged and said “okay. That’s fine.” She started to walk away but Elena held her hand.

“Cheryl.” Elena dragged her name “I don’t know if I am ready to reveal him, or to share him yet”

“and that’s fine Elena. I respect that. I am going to head to my room now, I saw the lights on and wanted to check on you. Did you get any sleep at all?” Cheryl further asked as she ran her gaze quickly to the clock.

It was 4:30.00am.

“No, I didn’t,” Elena said with a yawn. But it didn’t matter to her if she got to sleep or not, having him here sprawled on her sketchbook which sort of brought him to life was enough for her. She did not mind and her body was not tired.

Cheryl turned to leave a second time and Elena held her hand again, stopping her from going; she had somewhat changed her mind about letting her friend see the sketch. She looked directly into Cheryl’s eyes and said

“please take a look”

“Are you sure?” Cheryl asked with concern, she did not mind if Elena didn’t want to show her the sketch just yet, she sort of understood but Elena nodded her head in affirmation, indicating she wanted Cheryl to see it.

Cheryl proceeded to take off the sheet and take a look at the sketch. She looked for a while, somewhat with criticism Elena thought, or maybe not. Elena was getting anxious by her friend’s long silence, she unconsciously held her breath but she did not interrupt Cheryl, she allowed her to take her time and when Cheryl was done, she turned to face Elena and said

“is that him?”

“well, yea,” Elena responded, her arms across her chest in silent defense. She had expected more than a three-word response from Cheryl. He was her soulmate, after all, this man that she had only seen in her dreams.

“he kind of looks familiar though”. Cheryl made the statement with her forehead buried in a frown as she tried to remember where she had seen this man before. She tried but the memory did not come to her.

Elena looked at the painting again, she began to doubt herself, she wondered if she made a mistake somewhere? Could he be someone she had seen? On television? Or social media? She began to panic, doubt flooded her mind

“he is hot and sexy. I am hoping this isn’t someone you saw in one of your escape episodes”. Cheryl’s next words cut Elena off from her panic mode.

“no, he is not.” She was sure of that. She had only seen this guy on two occasions and both times were in her dream.

“he is really hot and has the greenest eyes I have seen,” Cheryl said again

“me too”. Elena screamed. As she clapped her hands in excitement. She was excited with the fact that her friend liked the sketch of his image. On the surface, it almost seemed like she needed Cheryl to like him, to give some type of verbal consent.

“why not add a 3D touch to it, that should make it more real right?” Cheryl suggested casually and Elena was instantly glad that she let Cheryl see her sketch. She liked the suggestion. It made sense to her. She decided to do that. Elena nodded in agreement as Cheryl walked off to her bedroom to continue her sleep.

All through the day while Elena was at work, she could not concentrate. She just wanted to get through the day and hurry to her beautiful stranger. He no longer felt like an abstract stranger to her though, he was more real and she could not wait to use the 3D her friend and roommate had suggested. She hurried home after work and did not even bother to get takeout for dinner. she was consumed by her painting.

By the time she got home, she made a conscious effort to move the sketch to her bedroom and started a 3D sketch of the man from her dreams like Cheryl had suggested.

After hours of non-stop work, she finally had him. She could almost touch him, feel him. she had not even taken off her work clothes all through the night as she worked to create him and she did not notice till she dropped the graphite pencil.

He was real to her. She had spent more time in creating this and it was almost as if she was this great artist. His image was so real; no one could have drawn him better. Her mother would have been proud of the drawing. it was great.

Elena heard Cheryl come out of her bedroom again, this time she was leaving for work; Elena then turned to look at the time,

It was 7.00 am.

What! She was surprised, she had worked on this from 7.00 pm the night before, she was still in her work clothes, she had not even gotten her alarm when it rang, she did not have any sleep.

Elena was lost in her thoughts when she heard a knock on her door. It was Cheryl who spoke from behind the door.

“Elena, are you okay? I haven’t heard you move around” Cheryl inquired.

Elena asked her to come in which she did. “you look like you were up all night” Cheryl said as she glanced at the very well-laid bed and the work clothes Elena still had on.

‘yes, I was” Elena said with a yawn as she stepped aside, allowing Cheryl to see her drawing.

“wow, Elena, he is gorgeous. OMG!” She exclaimed.

And at that moment Elena knew that she had gotten it right; he was indeed gorgeous. She looked at him again and she could have sworn, she saw him wink at her. oh well.

Cheryl kept looking at the image before saying

“Elena, I have seen this person before. He looks very familiar. I may have seen him before. I just can’t place where”

Elena’s heart sunk. She hoped her friend was right, that her beautiful beast existed somewhere on earth but she also got scared; what if he did not want her as he wanted her in her dreams? What if this was a figment of her imaginations and not a divine encounter as she already believed.

The questions flooded through her as she dropped to her bed. She was not going to work. She made a mental note to come up with an excuse about why she was going to miss work that day and possibly the next day.