The Art Room

He was an artist, she was a critic. Pray tell how this could ever work out. ONE SHOT.

The Art Room

Sew was an artist, a beauty of all creation. He lived in a messy one room apartment that reeked of chemicals that couldn’t possibly be healthy. His bed was neatly made, its’ pillows pressed neatly against the quirky quilt found at a local garage sale. What made this stand out in his earth toned room was that everything in his room was in a chaotic blur. Clothes were spread out into the floor and slowly gathered into a corner. In the closet was a painted desk clattered with cheap paper with ball pointed scribbles.

To the corner left side of the room was a small, stringy basket. In which under the scratchy cotton popped a head. The scruffy Chihuahua scrambled onto the tiled floor and slid its’ way towards the right side of the room. The dog stopped at the broken oven and started to scratch at it, sniffing at the bottom before doing so.

A yawn erupted from the pile of clothes and Sew lazily got up. He stumbled, pulling up his checkered boxers as he made his way towards the kitchen. Then, he crouched down opening the oven and pulling out a bottle of orange juice.

“’Morning, Hank.” Sew greeted and he took the cap of a can and set if on the floor with its’ opening up.

The dog yipped before Sew poured the warm juice into the upside down cap.

Hank gleefully licked the juice with his petite tongue; Sew crouched to his knees watching him do so. After the juice was just a little but gone, Hank yipped and jumped around Sew before running under the table.

“Stupid tramp didn’t even finish it.” Sew said, he picked up the cap and drank it, then throwing it aside.

Wiping the substance off his cheeks, Sew grabbed his pants and jacket.

“Ready, Hank?”

The dog tapped across the floor and through the door Sew opened. Sew laughed before grabbing his sketch book and dashing after his dog.

“It’s no good. The colors do not match at all.” Elisa said, she waved her hair behind her cutely ears before turning around from the man.

Her assistant wanted to die then and there. How could she refuse this man’s offer? It was idiotic, it was stupid. This man was possibly the greatest artist in New York! He was fresh, he was young, and he was possibly one of the secret underground prodigies!

“So sorry sir-please wait right here.” The assistant coaxed the man in front of him and then ran up to catch up with Elisa.

“Don’t even try it,” Elisa sternly spoke, she grabbed her folder off her desk at she walked, “It won’t work Donovan.”

Donovan girlishly caught up to Elisa.

“What was wrong with this one?! His art was just fabulous!” Donovan argued. “Please reconsider Miss Elisa!”

“His colors were off. He mixed earth tones with something entirely of neon color. Clever, but it will not work out in the Art Room.” Elisa answered as she slowly inspected her folder.

The Art Room was a project going on for about five years in IGUNK studios. It was a project that took a giant plain room and filled it with furniture that was cleverly painted. The walls were painted first, and then beds and other painted furniture were added. The furniture had to have a unique painted style on it. Any artist would be interviewed by showing a sample of their artwork. If they were approved, they were given a plane piece of furniture and paint.

However, there were rules. First, the rooms change every year. So your furniture will only be featured for that year before being shipped to IGUNK’s studios in California where it was hauled into a museum of some sort. Also, there were themes that went along with the rooms. Last year it was “Blue City” themed, this year it would be “My Dear Earth.”

It was a hit every year-people flew in from around the world just to stand five minutes in the Art Room. Opening night for the Art Room was always chaotic and packed with all the high paying celebrities. But near the end of the night, when the showing would almost be over, all the artist that have contributed to the Art Room would seal their names in the door which had led to the art room. It was here they would be given eternal acknowledgement and glory as an artist.

“I wanted a forest, he gave me a fire.” Elisa finished. She opened the glass doors and strolled out if IGUNK studios, leaving Donovan crying in the polished floor.

Pish posh. So what if she was picky? Her cousins had left the studio into her care as a dying wish. She had a right to be stingy!

Elisa snorted and walked towards her Mercedes. Upon opening it, a feline jumped out into her open arms.

“Poor baby…” Elisa cooed and she stroked her pure bred. “You okay, Honey? I’m sorry I left you in the car; I thought it was only going to take a few minutes. Unfortunately, the guy’s art was literally a drag.”

Elisa rolled her eyes to emphasize her point. Honey mewed as Elisa gave her one last stroke before setting her into the passenger seat.

“That’s right, Honey. I remember.” Elisa said. She slid into her driver’s seat and clipped her seat belt on. “To the park it is.”

If I was a mountain and she was a balloon, would that make you a tree?

Nope.

Now listen, if I was a mountain and she was a balloon, would that make you a tree?

Yup- to Sew at least, he may not have looked like it, but he was surely a clever sonova gun. He so well in fact had put ice underneath his broken oven for example to keep everything inside it cool. The orange juice was just warm because the ice had melted.

So for him to forget his pencil wasn’t really dumb, it was just he had bad memory.

“Dang it,” Sew said, he let Hank loose to go harass some children. “Now what do I do?”

It was then he noticed the grass underneath his feet and the colorful flowers growing next to his feet.

Sew grinned.

As said before, he was one clever sonova gun.

Well, it isn’t possible for humans to become a mountain, balloon, or a tree.

Elisa had rolled her eyes at the joke. It was idiotic and just completely insane. Also it made Elisa think of her ex boyfriend, whom she had broken ties with ages ago.

Okay, so they broke up a week ago, and Elisa was still in the habit of calling him for current boyfriend but that did not matter. What did was that humans could not turn into mountains. Period.

“Oh good lord, look at all of them.” Elisa said as she pulled into a parking spot. She rolled down her window and lazily looked out into her surroundings. Kids were jumping around anxiously as parents cried for them to stop and settle down.

Honey whined and leaned on Elisa’s leg.

“I know, Honey. You need your sunlight.” Elisa acknowledged. She gave a final sigh and opened her door, cradling Honey as she did so.

After taking out a few folders from her trunk, Elisa settled Honey down into a cry patch of grass. Elisa promptly dropped a blank folder on the patch next to Honey and sat on it, taking out a pen and finally getting in some work.

But something was off, something to the corner of her eye. Out of all the smiling kids and desperate parents, a guy sat among the chaos, a sketchbook in hand. He lowered his face into a solemn expression and gracefully picked up a…blade of grass?

Elisa had to double check as she watched the guy smear the grass onto his sketchpad, then taking a yellow petal off a flower and doing the same. After a few seconds, there were a mixture of petals and grass lying on top of a piece of paper next to him.

He had such a happy, innocent expression on his face. Then, he held up the sketch book to the sky and smiled. He held in himself confidence as he settled the book back on his lap and picking up a pale, pink flower.

You could almost hear the bad guy’s music in the background as he tore the flower apart in a murderous frenzy.

Sew carefully picked the light pink petal off the flower before gracefully settling it to the scrap next to him. He wasn’t going to waste the discarded petals oh no. He was going to place them in a jar to make popuri. Girly? Nah, just made his apartment smell better than a case of milk gone rotten thanks to melted ice.

He smeared the color out of the pink petal, giving his geisha pink jewelry in his hair. Now if only he had roses to make her plump, red lips.

“That’s disgusting.”

Elisa gasped and covered her lips. She so did not mean to say that. Sure, she was thinking it, but when she saw him smear the life out of that petal the silence simply had to be broken. The picture in front of her was a mess of grass and petal juices. The guy’s fingers were messy with the juice and Elisa was positive that underneath his nails were pieces of grass that would take ages to get out.

Sew was taken back by the woman in front of him. Rude, much? What was she? Some kind of art critic? Certainly she had no right at all to pop out of no where and discriminate his art like that. If anyone had a right to be disgusted it was him.

No. Sew whispered in his mind. Be cool. She probably doesn’t know anything about art. Think her point of view-he probably did look like a five year old with those flowers.

So, rather than going loco in the head-oh…

“Well then, don’t look.”

Ouch. That did not come out right.

Elisa scrunched her nose. Was that an insult? Well doing that on paper and calling it art was certainly one.

“I’m sorry. It’s like watching a five year old doing finger paints and calling the smear a “car”.”

Okay, Elisa wasn’t this mean, it was just she was frustrated from that…thing with the man earlier today. Meaning she was still pissed that she couldn’t find a couch and it was already May, note that the room would be opening in June.

Was this girl anal or what? Sew subconsciously hid his sketch pad away from her. So he did look like a five year old. She didn’t have to look! She still doesn’t have to.

Sew looked at his pile of petals and grass, wondering if he really did look stupid. The park was crowded today. People were probably thinking he was an idiot-an idiot who smeared plants on paper and called it art. Sew looked at his paper and no longer saw a graceful geisha; instead he saw a mass on of colors and screw ups.

Elisa nodded in satisfaction as the boy in front of her went into cold realization.

“Here,” Elisa said, throwing then a HB pencil on top of the pile of broken flowers. “Take it.”

Sew looked from the pen and petal. Should he take it? It would be useful…but…Sew looked at his unfinished work. Then, he slowly gripped the HB pencil.

“Wait.”

Sew looked up to see Elisa beckoning to the sketch pad. Sew nervously resisted the urge to leave, instead he handed her the sketch pad, finding it surprisingly heavy as he picked it off his lap.

Elisa picked the pad effortlessly off his trembling hands and flipped the pages to stare at the horrid art in front of her. Gripping the paper, she ripped the petal juice art from the sketchpad and gave it back to Sew.

“There, now you have a clean start.” Elisa said and she carelessly folded the paper in her hands and walked away.

Elisa felt proud as she left the crumpling artist, thinking that she had saved an artist from looking foolish.

And she did.

Sew laid lazily on his kitchen tile, his sketch book open and resting next to him. Dry flower petals and grass clippings were piled in the trash can. The pencil that the super nice lady had given him was forgotten on the stack on newspapers next to the door.

It had been two weeks since then and Sew had not been able to draw a single thing.

Hank yipped and jumped around Sew, licking his cheek in the process.

Sew rolled his eyes and used the tips of his fingers to scratch Hank’s head.

“I get it, I get it.” Sew said and he got up. He strolled to his new, portable refrigerator, which was surprisingly cheap. Opening the plastic door, Sew took out some water and poured it into a small circular plate.

Sew sat on a chair and watched his Chihuahua slurp its’ water. When Hank took the first sip, he made a maddening sound and crawled under the table, discarding the water.

“It’s either that or nothing!” Sew yelled at his dog. “I’m not giving you orange juice!!!”

Once again, opening the miniature refrigerator, Sew subconsciously wondered why he had packed those ice packs underneath the oven. Sure it was cheaper, but it was idiotic because the ice had melted in merely two days. And only if he had the fan on to high.

Sew poured and water in a different cup and sipped it.

Hank yipped and jumped before hiding under the table.

“Dumb tramp.” Sew said and he drank his water.

After the cup was drained, Sew took the water his dog refused and dumped it in the sink.

Dumb tramp made him go waste water.

“We’re already two weeks until opening night Elisa!!!” Donovan yelled, he frantically tried to keep up with Elisa’s fast paced jog. Of course it wasn’t easy. Donovan wasn’t the young, handsome man he used to be! Now here he was, a man of Forty-five in his working suit, chasing a woman in her early twenties.

“I know, I know!” Elisa breathed out. Oh man, if only she had her music, then she could just tune him out and continue with her jog.

I mean, she could’ve out run him, but Elisa was a lady, and she had to deal with Donovan sooner or later.

“We need to get a couch!!!” Donovan yelled finally before collapsing on the concrete, breathing in shallow breaths as he did so.

Elisa felt a nerve go down as she ran away from the fainted man. She didn’t run that fast, did she? It wasn’t until she stopped to take in deep breaths that she realized she simply sprinted from Donovan.

Halting to take deep breaths Elisa let out a scream of frustration, making all the people turn to her of curiosity. But Elisa didn’t care. Since when did the art industries turn to frustrating?! So chaotic?! So…incredibly useless?

I live for art, Elisa. It’s probably why I’m still single, haha.

Elisa wanted her cousins back, she wanted to hear them. Why did they entrust her with the company? Oh Lord, she needs them. Elisa wanted guidance so badly…

Ten years a go, a thirteen year old girl popped her head around a corner. Excited and curious, she ran into her older cousin’s side and curiously glanced on his scrap of paper.

He laughs as she leans into his shoulder to watch him draw.

“What’s up, Elisa?”

She’s grinning, happily tracing his lines with his eyes.

“Where’s Chex and Abby?”

“They’re in the basement, trying to see if they can mix charcoal and paint together.”

She scrunches her nose at this.

“That’s weird.”

Her cousin pats her head affectingly.

“That’s art.”

Elisa stops. She slowly opens her jacket to pull out a folded paper. Unfolding it, she stares at it, her eyes roaming every corner of the scrap.

“Here at IGUNK studios, we welcome anything! We’re anything! Given Anime or cartoons, we’ll welcome it. Because we…”

Her eyes roam to see a geisha, her light green hair and outline framing her lovely body. There were pink smudges to resemble pink petals and jewelry. There was a faint yellow spot to the corner of the paper to represent the sun. And, the same color was used to highlight the geisha’s oval face.

“Because we…at IGUNK…believe that anything could be art.” Elise repeated to herself.

Elisa slowly brought the paper to her face.

It smelled of flowers.

What beautiful art work! How splendid this was. Naturally earthy, simply clever with elegance…it was perfect for the Art Room! Oh, how she had said nasty things to that boy.

If only she could find him! She would apologize immediately and welcome him to IGUNK staff!!! If only-

Elisa then spotted a guy sitting on a bench no less then five feet from her.

It was him.

It was you! It was always you!!!

Sew wanted to cry as he clutched his book ever so tightly.

But John gave Lucy a wistful smile as he got onto the bus and-

“It was you!!!”

“You said that already, Lucy!!!” Sew cried, “Dang it Lucy! Go run after him!!!”

Sew paused and stared up to the real life Lucy, dropping his book.

“Lucy?” Sew spoke, his voice barely above a whisper.

Elisa coughed nervously and steadied her weight onto her right left. Dang it, she just couldn’t feel like a professional in her jogging clothes.

“No…Elisa. We met?” Elisa replied nervously at the mess in front of her. Good lord, was he okay?

Instead, Sew tossed his head to the side, as if straining to think. Elisa. Elisa. Elisaaaa...

Pen girl!!!

“Oh yeah…you.” Sew said in realization. He uncomfortably felt unconscious when she began to wonder her eyes upon his romance novel.

“You uhm…read ‘Ladies and Mice’?” Elisa asked nervously. Dear Lord, the book looked tattered as if it was read over and over…

I mean, it was a good book-probably one of Elisa’s favorites. But she had never ever ran across a man who-

“Yeah, I mean no. It’s Hanks…?” Sew blurted out, thinking instantly of his dog. Could Hank even read? He was a pretty smart dog and all but- Sew then mentally slapped himself for thinking for highly of his Chihuahua.

“Oh…Hank has good taste. How old is he?” Elisa smiled politely. Just try to ease into a comfortable conversation. After all, she was talking to her feature couch artist.

Sew smiled.

“Oh I got him few months ago, he’s five now.”

…oh…

Elisa jerked back in surprise. Five? But wasn’t this an Adult novel?

Sew’s breathing was cut off as he realized what he said. It was okay. Breath deeply, Sew was definitely a smooth talker when it came it situations such as these.

“I mean! Well, Hanks’ three…three years older than he was. Like, I moved in three months ago and he’s three years older then I…expected?”

“Uhm, right….”

The wind blew and a leaf landed on Sew’s head.

“So!” The two exclaimed but they were silenced as they waited for each other to speak.

“You got a leaf in your hair…” Elisa mumbled.

Sew said his thanks and plucked it out.

“Hey, do you want to go get coffee? My treat.” Elisa offered. After all, what better way to make friends than a cup of Jon?

“Nah, I have to go feed Hank…he’s probably starved by now. That dumb tramp…” Sew laughed.

Elisa paused.

“Tramp?”

Instantly, Sew got up and panicked. He reached around for his jacket and picked up the scattered book. Then, swerving around to Elisa, he hooked his arm around her shoulders and started to stiffly walk towards whichever way.

“You know what?! Coffee sounds great!!! I love Coffee!!! Haven’t had it for ages!!!” Sew yelled.

“Yeah?” Elisa squeaked out, knowing full well how awkward the situation was.

“Yeah!!!”

Dang it, Sew hated coffee. He stared into the pool in front of him. Taking the sip, he strained his smile to Elisa. Though, no matter how much milk and sugar he poured into his drink, it still pretty much tasted like crap.

“It’s…good. Better than I remembered.” Sew said and as he did so a drip ran down his plastic mouth.

Elisa smiled nervously. Who was he kidding? She was positive that half his drink was filled with the full contents of the milk and sugar. This was just an insult to the café.

The two were at “Cha Bean”, one of the most secluded Coffee Shops in New York. It served only one of the best coffee with unique flavors such as apple or cherry mint. Tourist tried to look for it, but it was hidden down a row of steps. Another thing was that only IGUNK studio members and their guests were allowed in.

It was a beautiful place really, Ankle, one of the three founders of IGUNK, designed it after all. The place had a cross between the western and eastern look. Metal lanterns hung through the middle of the hexagonal room in a cluttered line as stars. Pillows and high chairs were scattered around the room, along with proper table counter parts to compliment them. To the near end of the room was a tall, narrow glas window that hung a long curtain.

Elisa fingered the folded paper in her hands as Sew forced himself to take another sip. Taking a closer look, Elisa realized that he seemed to have brushed his hair. Last time she saw him he was so messy and dirty. Now it looked like he just came out of a car washed all clean and-

“So...Elisa, right?”

Snapping back into reality, Elisa gave the boy in front of her a polite smile.

“Oh yes, Elisa Duong.”

“Cool, uhm, Sew…okay don’t laugh, alright?”

Elisa nodded uneasily. Why would she possibly-

“I’m Sew Kit.”

Oh…Elisa strained to keep her face straight. Biting her tongue, Elisa had to bite it to keep herself composed.

“I…hah…See.” Elisa let out.

Sew twitched. Did she think she could hide it by covering her mouth? No. Politeness won’t work with Sew Kit!

“Just let it out! It’s stupid, I know but-“

Elisa waved Sew off as she giggled.

“No! You should be proud of your name! It’s different! People go for that!” Elisa insisted.

Sew, for some strange reason, felt his spirits rise up at Elisa’s compliment.

“Really?”

“Yes.” Elisa said, composing herself. “Which reminds me! This…”

Elisa spread the drawing of the flower geisha on the small coffee table.

“This is genius.”

Sew spat and took up his coffee cup. He glared to his side and sipped. Even if he hated coffee, it so dang addicting.

Maybe that’s why he never drank.

“Don’t be like that!” Elisa protested. “It is beautiful! I was stupid, really. You shouldn’t care what I thought!”

“Well, it’s pretty stupid.” Sew said. “Besides, the pencil you gave me draws pretty well.”

“No, this…is genius. It’s beautiful!” Elisa said. “Here. I work for IGUNK studios, in fact, I own it. Please, we’d much like you to join us.”

Elisa dropped a card down to the table, in which Sew stared wide eyed at. IGUNK? That place was legendary, over most of their comics and novels have been made into movies or cartoons. In fact, Sew was pretty sure they did most of the animation for the cartoons themselves. Yeah, IGUNK did everything coming to think of it. Clothes, movies, cartoons…just how did this anal girl become owner?

Picking up the card, Sew inspected it, flipping it to one side to the other.

“What’s this? I thought the original owners were Ankle, Chex and Abby Doe.” Sew said and he tossed the card back to Elisa. “What’s the deal? I know they didn’t die of age; they all should be thirty – forty something now.”

“Try airplane accident. All three of them wanted to do ice sculpting so they decided to fly to Alaska. Unfortunately, their private plane crashed in a blizzard. They landed safely but froze to death.” Elisa said. “That was three years ago. They left the company to me.” Elisa explained sadly.

Sew suddenly felt his hopes crash. Those three were his heroes. In fact, a couple years back, Chex and Abby painted a basement out of charcoal and paint. Sew was lucky to sneak into the colorful room and witness the beauty before security threw him out.

That time, it was that time that had inspired Sew to use those beautiful flowers in the park to draw…

Sew looked at the paper on the table.

A geisha.

“I’m sure, with something as creative and different at this. They would have wanted you to join.” Elisa smiled. “I’m in fact willing to place my job on the line.”

Sew slowly picked up the paper, then, he dipped his finger into his coffee and spread lines across the paper, giving the geisha a vividly oak kimono. He continuously did this, giving the lovely girl shoes and making her hair more hazel.

“Sir, what are you doing?”

Elisa smiled at the waiter, who disgustingly glanced at Sew. Few people had in fact started to glance at their table with ignorant eyes.

“He’s making art.” Elisa answered simply; she leaned into her hands feeling somewhat proud.

The waiter gave a disapproval sigh before turning to walk away until Sew’s voice caught him.

“Hey man, you got some roses for her lips? Oh and get tea for her skin.”

Some people then began to give off disgusted notions as Sew then licked the coffee off his fingers.

“Artist these days…” The waiter said and rolled his eyes, strolling behind the counter to get the tea, but not before swiping a rose off one of the tables.

“That’s right.” Sew confirmed, “I’m an artist. Oh, and ‘Ladies and Mice’ is probably one of the greatest books known to man kind.”

With that said, he continued to work.

“I’m nervous.”

“I’m more nervous than you.”

“Heck nah! That ain’t your couch in there! I wonder if the paint is dry…”

Elisa whipped around to Sew and smacked his head.

“No ones’ going to sit on it!”

“It’d funny if they did-they’ll have painted leaves on their butts.”

“Stupid.”

Opening night was here. June had finally come and the Art Room was ready for its’ grand opening. People crowded around the tall tower and some were standing in the building directly across the Art Room to see if they can glance through the window.

It was seriously that big of a deal.

“Man oh man, almost time. I get to see it first, right? Right?” Sew anxiously asked.

“Yes Sew,” Elisa said. She rolled her eyes over to the other artist behind her. “Along with every other Art Room artist in this room.”

“No, no! I want to go in first, though, okay?” Sew pressed on.

“Alright, alright. Go stand in front of me.” Elisa said. Sew gleefully jumped in front of Elisa.

Honestly, Elisa smiled. Sew was such a child, despite his clever thinking (Elisa saw the ice oven and was clearly impressed). He wore his supposedly “nice” pants with a black tee that had painted ties on it. Other than that, he wore pure red converse with holes that showed his, awkwardly painted toes. Though, it was Sew and Elisa had to learn to deal with her new side artist. Yes, she said side. In IGUNK, you have to work your way to head artist.

“Man, I’m so psyched.” Sew said and Elisa gave him a reassuring smile.

“Look at the top of the door. See those three names?” Elisa asked and she gave him a pat on the back.

Sew leaned his head back to look at the top of the door, bumping into Elisa in the process. As his eyes traveled upwards, he began to read up the names of various underground artists, some of which had become famous. But as Sew kept looking up, he eyes paused at the top three names.

THE ART ROOM ARTISTS OF IGUNK STUDIOS:

Ankle Doe

Chex Doe

Abby Doe

“I’m going to be on the same wall.” Sew whispered. He leaned into Elisa for support.

Elisa placed her hand on Sew’s shoulder and slightly pessed.

“That’s right. At the end of the showing, you’re going to write your name on the same door as theirs’” Elisa whispered into Sew’s ears.

Sew turned around and grinned, grabbing Elisa into his arms.

“Thank you so much.”

And Sew honestly meant it. The woman in front of him was so incredibly wonderful. Okay, so she was still anal and pissed when he showed up in his black tee and good jeans. But never the less she was wonderful. But come on. How could he compete with her IGUNK designed clothes? Her skirt had reached her knees and flared out, it was pale pink with laces at the bottom. On the abdomen was a stitched red heart. She wore a white laced shirt with a red striped jacket over it.

“It’s time,” Elisa said and she let go of Sew. “Let’s do it, Mr. Kit.”

“That’s Mr. Sew Kit.” Sew said and he grabbed Elisa’s hand. “And soon it’ll be Head Artist Sew, or Kit. I prefer Sew.”

“Shush, you’ll have to beat Head Artist Duong first.”

Sew’s eyes bulged out.

“You? But-“

“Hey, the door is opening.”

And the door did opened, through it led an artist.

A thirteen year old boy gets caught looking at a colorful basement in IGUNK studios. He kicks and screams as the security guard pushes him out the doors.

“Just you wait! You’ll be opening those doors for me one day!”

A laugh erupts from behind him. The boy turns to see a guy sitting on the edge of the sidewalk in front of IGUNK. To his side is a sketchbook, opened. The guy takes out a cigarette and heaves it in, then blowing out.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.”

The boy peers over at the man and glances to his open sketch book. He picks it up and inspects it carefully.

“You’re pretty good.”

“Thanks.”

“Are you in IGUNK?”

The man looks at the boy and gives off a humorous expression.

“I don’t draw for IGUNK, but I do look over the head artists’ stuff.”

The boy grins.

“You look over Chex and Abby Doe’s art?! That’s so cool. You should draw though, you’re really good.”

“Yeah. But that’s not my dream.”

“What is?”

The man smiled and points to the IGUNK building.

“That is.”

The boy looks ignorantly at the man in front of him.

“But-“

“Ankle!!!”

A van stops in front of the building. Its’ painted on with spray paint the designs so confusing and addicting. Through the tinted windows, two shadows moved about, waving towards the boy’s direction.

“Snap.”

After saying this, the man puts out his cigarette and gets up.

The boy is speechless.

“My sketchbook.”

“Ri-right.”

“Thanks.”

The man hops in the van as two silhouettes stare at the boy through the tinted window.

Before closing, the man stares at the boy, grinning.

“See you in IGUNK.”

End.

This story is dedicated to my brothers.

So yes, there were many little hidden messages in this thirteen page one shot. So, taken that I am bored I will go over the details on making this story. Come, you don’t have to read, but at least humor me and skim this.

First my Mister Sew Kit. He was such a fun little booger to make. He’s one of those typical artists who never get the attention they deserve. He’s not like those popular anime artist, no, Sew actually has an art style that’s either realism or stick figures. He’s such a good kid…

Okay, so you read the part about Sew’s room, yes? Of COURSE you did. Okay, you have how his bed is neat and clean where as his room is messy right? OKAY. GET THI8: There’s a secret reason for that. Gasp. Okay, the bed in someway resembles, I guess you could say…his life. It’s hard to explain. But, his real self is messy, just like this room. But you know how most mothers always say to do your bed? Well, he does this. This just states that he just can’t let go and doesn’t really follow his own way. In a way, the bed kind of explains why he is so sensitive to Elisa the first time he meets her. This explains why he listens to Elisa- because he simply doesn’t know what to do. I know the symbolism is very vague and small, and if you got it the first time I would be very surprised.

Next up, my darling Elisa Duong, oh, my sweetie. She’s lived such horrible life since her dear cousins left. Yup, very sad story concerning her, but I will not explain that. Maybe in my next story I will.

The only symbolism I connected with Elisa is when she’s running. It’s not until she stops to catch her breath that she realizes how much Sew’s artwork is special. See? That was just plain obvious-if you didn’t catch that shame on you. ;

IGUNK was made by my brother and I really do not enjoy comparisons with iPODS and all that good stuff. So please refrain from those types of comments. :D