Artistic License
-- closed thread with @ofoliviasmith --
Rafael looked forward to the dawn shifts for his guard post. There was something about the way the light slowly crept up over the horizon, slowly blessing the area surrounding the hospital in gorgeous tones of yellow, orange, and pink. For a few brief moments, Rafael could relish the beauty of it all before the memories of the last few years came back to remind him of the horror of it all.
This morning, Rafael was early to his post with a few blank pieces of paper and a pencil in hand. He was determined to try and capture a quick sketch of the scene before his shift started. He’d refine the sketch later after his shift ended but he wanted to take advantage of the early dawn light while he could. He climbed up to the lower roof level of the hospital’s main entrance and sat with his legs dangling over the edge. He positioned his paper on his lap and began to do a rough sketch of the landscape in front of him. Seth, one of the other guards, was still on duty and he took a seat next to Rafael and watched him work.
Rafael got caught up in his sketching and didn’t realise it was time to start his shift until Seth had gotten up from his seat and was handing over to Olivia, the guard joining Rafael for the morning (the handover itself was brief: nothing to report, all quiet, good luck). As Seth left the post, Rafael caught the last few details that he could on his sketch before carefully folding the paper and stashing it, along with his pencil, away in one of his pockets.
“Hey,” Rafael said to Olivia as he got up onto his feet. “I promise I’ll be more focused now the shift’s officially started,” he told her. Even though he had done nothing wrong, he still felt the compulsion to explain himself. “Before all of this-” he motioned to their immediate surroundings “-I was an artist. Sometimes I still get the need to put pencil to paper, you know? But like I said, I promise I’ll be more focused now.”