Cartoon Guy With Dreads Drawing Novels & Stories

“Draw a better version of yourself—the one you want to become. Then draw how you see yourself right now.” The due date was the end of the year. I started to draw. I started with my face. Big nose. Pimples. Curly hair—the one thing I liked. Then I drew an oversized hoodie and baggy pants. The better version was cleaner. Same hair. Smaller nose. No pimples. Slit eyebrows. Goatee. Muscles, but still skinny. Mason leaned over. “You think you’ll end up like that, Pablo?” “No,” I said. “But you definitely won’t.”

I wasn’t a legend on their screens. It was in one of those corridors that a little boy tugged on my sleeve. He couldn’t have been more than seven. His cheeks were smudged with dirt, his clothes too thin for the draft that seeped through the walls. He held up a folded piece of paper. “I drew this for you,” he said shyly. I opened it and froze. The sketch was crude but unmistakable, me, standing tall, but with wolf ears atop my head and eyes colored in with a furious red. Around me, lines of light radiated. The boy looked proud.

Atlas suddenly stopped writing and asked doubtfully: "Why, it doesn't suit you, then let me draw it again, I only occasionally sketched human figures, so it won't be what you want." Daisy shook her head again, excitedly saying: “No, you shouldn’t say that, you draw much better than me, look at these eyes, they are extremely charming, Atlas, you are really, really a genius, fortunately, you didn’t enter the world of comics, otherwise I would lose my job.” Atlas looked at her sparkling eyes and laughed: “No need to say I’m so exaggerated, I learned how to draw from a painter when I went to Japan once.” “Is that so, that painter must be very good, right?”

Fifteen year old me would kill to have one like that. Suddenly soft paws of the giant bear grabbed my shoulder. Frightened , I screamed and tried to fight off the foam filled monster. My fist connected with its soft belly, then I karate chopped its neck. All my moves felt ineffective but I was finally free. The teddy bear raised its hands up in defeat while I contemplated my sanity. It reached for it’s head and pulled it off revealing a grinning Cartwright. “What the fuck Cartwright!” He pressed his hand to his lips to signify that he wanted silence, before he placed the head back on and went limp. I understood why a second

The first had long black hair and a triangle dress. Me, apparently. The second was very tall, had no face, and held something that looked like a box. “Who’s this?” I asked, pointing at the tall figure. “Car Uncle.” “Why doesn’t he have a face?” Aiden studied the drawing. “I forgot his face.” I laughed under my breath and took the paper from him. At the top, he had attempted to write THANK YOU with someone’s help. The T was enormous. The K was backward. There were two U’s, probably because he believed gratitude required emphasis.

“Super Ella?” He nodded enthusiastically. “She’s my hero.” The smile slowly disappeared from my face. “Your hero?” “Uh-huh.” “Why?” He looked at me like the answer should’ve been obvious. “Because heroes help people.” I swallowed. “She helps me when I’m sad.” Another crayon scribble. “She makes grilled cheese dinosaurs.” A second scribble. “She reads funny voices.” Another. “She never gets mad when I ask too many questions.” He looked down at the drawing for a second before adding quietly,

Then suddenly, a frown formed between his brows, and he said, “Are you crazy? Why are you drawing a man’s d*ck?” A man’s what? D*ck? I looked at my drawing again. I felt my face turn hot like a fireball. “No!” I freaked out and showed my drawing to him again. “This is n-not that! I swear! I would never draw that! Why would I d-draw something like…” My eyes went to the bulge on his pants and quickly back to his face. “That’s not it!” I explained, almost sobbing in embarrassment. “I would never do something like that. I swear!”

I reminded him. “Geeze. Sorry.” He shrugged and went back to his own work, but his comment made me second guess my own. I looked at it carefully. He was right. It could’ve been any girl with long hair in a cape. I looked at his drawing and wasn’t surprised at all to see that he’d drawn himself shirtless, standing with his arms up, his arms bulging with muscle, his face lifted to the sky in a menacing howl. Even though he was a human in the drawing, his inner wolf was clear. So was the darkness that had overtaken him.

He grinned. "Wow! They look beautiful in your drawing." Jayson complimented, while Grandpa and I chuckled because the drawing is just a stick with a head, stick hands, and legs, but at least they have a dress and long hair. "Good job, young man," Jayson said and ruffled his hair. Gian grinned and kept his drawing inside his bag. "I'll show it to Ana and Alice when they come." "Hurry to finish your food; we are leaving soon," Grandpa told him, and he quickly resumed eating and bid goodbye after eating, and they left.

It is probably harder for me because I’m in no way qualified for the job. “Two more days worth of eye bags and you’ll look like the perfect middle aged office worker.” Drew says and I playfully roll my eyes. He is dressed in a shirt that has a cartoon character drawn on it and a pair of cargo pants. There are rings on his fingers and a matching chain on his neck. “Where are you coming from?” I ask and he grins. For what feels like a whole minute, I stare at him and I’m pretty sure my heart paused too.