NaNoWriMo Day Nine
It didn’t fit with everything else that he had in the house, with any of the other décor, a blurry painting of a lady with a parasol. She paused a moment to look at it. His home and attire had such crisp clean lines, she found it hard to imagine that he liked art like this, though upon closer inspection, she realized that it wasn’t a painting at all.
It was a framed puzzle. She stopped to look for a bit longer. He did puzzles? And framed them?
“I’m still taking questions.” His voice startled her, sounding from behind her. She turned back and looked up at him, and she must have looked some sort of way because he laughed. “Go on, then. Ask me.” She pursed her lips, before doing so.
“You don’t seem like the type to like stuff like this. You’re so…” She struggled to find the words. Tom raised an eyebrow.
“Look at you, speaking as if you know me when we met a little over two hours ago.” He said, and Natalie shook her head.
“Anyone that spent ten minutes with you would say the same thing. Everything is clean and neat and this painting… isn’t.” She said. Tom nodded, looking at the puzzle as well.
“Yes, I suppose you’re right. By all means, this painting baffles me.” He told her, crossing his arms. “This artist baffles me really. And still I buy puzzles of his artwork.” Natalie found that very surprising.
“Why?” she asked. Tom shrugged, still looking at the painting. Natalie even thought she caught him looking at himself in the glass of the frame, rather than the puzzle itself.
“Because they’re difficult for me to complete, and so they keep me busy. Because somehow, he can find order and beauty in the mess of splotches he creates.” He tore his eyes away from the painting to look down at her, a small intrigued smile on his lips. “And then at the end of the day I’ve created order of chaos and a picture to hang on my wall.” He turned and began to walk again, away from the painting.
