Sulfur-Yellow

Author : Andreea Daia

Yesterday’s art show was a disaster. Again. No surprise that Howard was a jerk, but this time he called me a wuss in front of Aliena.

“Your solar system looks like it’s been blustered by a magnetic storm. Don’t tell me you think anything could live there. Aww… The wuss is going to cry.”

Liar. I didn’t cry. Nope. I waited until Mother’s friends started gorging on finger foods to throw my jar of supernova-red in his face. You should have seen the streaks of crimson dripping down the bully’s asymmetrical jaw. An improvement, if you ask me. Mother packed me home before cocktails, banishing me to my room for the rest of the day. No drawing allowed. Bummer, but it was all worth it.

Did I tell you I’m a sky painter? Howard is still jealous after I crushed him on Parents’ Day with my masterpiece—Orion Constellation. It snatched the Parents’ Award for the most promising cosmological rendition, the Sound Award for the most popular exhibit, and the Teachers’ Award for whoever pestered them least during the lunch breaks. Of course, the ninny dragged his bigwig father to class, to threaten the teachers. I think even Mr. Bigwig saw the truth—his son’s double pulsar sucked. Everyone smirked when Howard started boasting that life could flourish in his environment. The only thing that flourished in his painting was mold, after he had forgotten it outside in the rain.

Gosh, that guy hadn’t even learned the basic technique. You use brush #2 to fling big globs of paint, then leave them overnight to glide down the painting. Voila—instant asteroids. If you throw enough blobs of paint, some of them will collide with your planets. If you are very lucky, the impact will start a chain reaction and then you’ve created a system that supports life. If you are very very lucky, a teacher will suspend you for the rest of the day for being arrogant enough to believe you can create life.

No such luck so far, but maybe that’s about to change. Last night I was so furious with Howard that I sneaked out and smashed the entire jar of Sulfur-yellow on my latest painting. It looked like a smallish- planet crushed into a slightly bigger planet. I thought I ruined it. Wreckage everywhere. This morning though, the most awesome thing happened. The bigger planet has attracted most of the debris and turned into a blue wonder. The rest of the wreckage has blobbed into an ochre moon.

I nailed it this time—my planet is already teaming with simple lifeforms. I’m going to be suspended for at least a week. In your face, Howard!