Canvas of Dreams

The night sky has always reminded Mark Miller of a canvas painted with dreams, something he could never manage to do no matter how many times he tried. Each time it would feel too empty, too cold to be beautiful. Staring into the darkness through the glass wall of his small lakeside house, he wished that, only once, he could grasp a small piece of the empty beauty and place it onto his wall within the borders of a wooden frame. If his emptiness was only as beautiful, he thinks to himself as he turns away from the view to look at a charcoal sketch hanging off the wall behind him. The image of a black-haired woman draped in a flowing silk robe warms him. "Perhaps my emptiness is as beautiful." He tells himself as he once again loses his thoughts in the motionless gaze of the woman. The graphite eyes of the sketch stare at him intensely as if she's studying his features as he does hers. Even though she is made by his hands, he sometimes feels like she is the artist who brought him to being. For the last two years, Mark has looked up at the sketch as if it is the only loyal woman for him in this world, his trust in love has been brutally mangled by his girlfriend's betrayal. The night he walked in on them after returning from his first exhibition felt like a dull rusty dagger slowly and painfully being forced through his throat and somehow not drawing blood as it tears flesh and severs arteries until finally cutting off his air supply as it comes to a stop inside his airway. She meant the world to him. The Mondanes moved into the old Bakers house next to the Millers. The house has been vacant since old man Baker passed about two years prior following his wife into the great beyond. Their children did not want to keep the house and decided to sell. While the movers were offloading the largest truck Mark had ever seen, he spotted young Trevor pushing his bike down the porch steps. "Where ya going?!" Mark calls out to his new neighbour as he makes his way towards the front gate, cutting through his mother's lavender shrubs instead of following the paved brick walkway. "Just going for a ride," Trevor replies, a little shy and out of place in the new town. "Let me get my bike too, I'll show you the park. I'm Mark Miller. Welcome to our street neighbour." Mark holds out his hand, trying hard to sound like a grown-up. "Thanks, I'm Trevor Mondane." He says, taking Mark's hand. Looking back towards the truck, Mark noticed the name painted on its side, Mondane Trucking. "Wow, is that your truck?" He asked excitedly. "Yes, my dad has a trucking company, we moved here for his work. He said something about having a big contract with some milling company." Trevor answers "My dad has a mill just out of town by the lake, Miller Pine. Maybe you can visit us there next weekend." Mark says, turning towards his house to fetch his bike. The two of them hit the road and since then they have been inseparable. The second year in high school their street became another family ritcher when the Radcliffs bought the house on the end of the culdesack. And that's when Mark saw Emily. The moment she got out of the maroon SUV he knew he wanted to be with her. He could not put down his sketch pad and pencils fast enough, the five houses down the street towards her felt like miles uphill as he made his way over to welcome her to the neighbourhood. Combing his fingers through his unruly head of curly hair, tugging on his shirt to make it look less creased and reciting his introduction in his mind when he was but two houses away. Suddenly Mark is met with a hard thud! "I made the team!" Trevor calls out as he tackles Mark off the sidewalk and onto a moist lawn. "That's great." Mark manages with what breath he still has left in his lungs. Feeling embarrassed once he noticed the girl with the flowing auburn hair saw him get dropped like a wet towel. "Well, would you look at that," Trevor said as he noticed the new neighbours. "Let's go introduce ourselves." He said as he got off mark and held out a hand to pull him to his feet. "That was the plan," Mark replied once he got up, shaking off the grass from his back and checking his attire for skid marks. Meeting Emily and her father was not the fairy tale introduction Mark somewhat pictured in his mind. Mr Radcliff was a hard man, short on words and Mark could tell, even more so, on his temper. He held out his hand in greeting to the large man in front of him. "Good afternoon sir, I'm Mark Miller, welcome to the street." "Hello, We're the Radcliffs. Here, this goes to the first room to the Left." Mr Radcliff said as he handed a large trunk to Mark. Not shaking hands or making eye contact with him. "Well, I'm off Marky boy!" Trevor called out as he made a break towards the street. He has never been fond of manual labour. Mark wondered if Mrs Radcliff would have a bit more welcoming personality than her husband but could not manage to dwell on that thought very long when Emily introduced herself. Her bright blue eyes and faintly freckled smile dulled out all sound from Mark's world. "Emily, Mom will be here soon. Maybe you should sort out her dresses and hang them in our closet before she arrives. She has to get her stuff ready for her flight tomorrow." Mr. Radcliff ordered when he noticed Mark staring at his daughter. Mark quickly enough caught on to Mr Radcliff's hint and rushed to put the suitcases in the room then exited the house. "See ya, Emily." He called out to her and then to Mr Radcliff he just gave a slight nod of the head before making his way off the property and towards his house where Trevor was already waiting for him. "Are we going to the lake this weekend?" Trevor asked when Mark walked in the front door. "I don't know. Dad said something about having a work thing on there. I guess your parents will be there too. I thought maybe we could hang out by the park instead." "Are we going to invite the soon-to-be Mrs. Miller?" Trevor teased "Only if you can get past Cnl. Spasm. I don't think we will see much of her if he has anything to say about it."Mark replied as he recalled Mr Radcliff's drill sergeant personality. "Leave it to me Marky boy. Lake this weekend and Miss Redhead will join us. Besides, we need to celebrate me making the team." "Deal. But we make it Friday after school. I don't want to be there when the old people talk work." That Friday the two boys met up after school and headed out towards the lake, Trevor hauling a cooler strapped to his bike and Mark leading the way with a backpack carrying snacks and a small portable music box. "Emily coming?" Mark asked as they peaked at the last hill on the way to the lake. "They said so, I gave the colonel directions." "What do you mean, they?" "Well, Emily can't drive and her dad has to be there tomorrow anyway so...." Before Trevor could finish his sentence Mark interrupted. "Wait, you mean there for the milling party?" "Yeah, didn't you know? Mr. R is the new line manager at the mill." "My dad didn't say who took up the position, just said he has a new line manager that's starting next week. How did find that out?" Mark asked as they came to the dirt road leading up to the lake house. "My dad told me the day they moved in. Thought you knew." Trevor said. When they reached the house the maroon SUV was already parked at the back with Emily and her father waiting on the back porch. Mr Radcliff got up from the chair put his beer on the armrest and walked towards Mark holding out his hand. "Mark was it?" Radcliff asked as they shook hands "Yes sir, Mark Miller." He replied "I'm Robert." Mr. R said as he turned back towards his seat to collect his beer. "I'll be back at 18:00 to collect Emily, I trust you'll look after her." The three of them went off to the water after Robert left and spent the rest of the afternoon swimming. By the time Robbert arrived to collect Emily she and Mark were already locked in each other's minds. She fell for him almost as quickly as he did for her and in the next coming years the two of them along with Trevor would seem inseparable.