The room was plastered faint yellow on the walls , a dream catched jingled on the window .
There were mountains of paintings stacked at one corner . Even the owner of the room had spash of colour here and there on her skirt .
For someone who looked so obsessed with painting, she was wearing rather dull grey clothes .
I could see that she was furious .
Jasper started cleaning the shrads of of glass jar with ease as if that was a regular occurrence.
The woman infront of me looked more furious. Her hands gestures became quicker with anger and finally she threw a tray of dried colors at us .
" Should we leave now ?," I asked my brother and bowed at her ," I am so sorry ."
" Nah , she will come down ," Jasper looked back at her ," Shasha , do you want to see what I brought you from home this time ?"
Shasha rolled her eyes . She could not believe the audacity my brother had .
Jasper brought out what looked wrapper of a gum , it was minty blue in colour.
Even I knew that it looked like a death wish ," You brought her a candy wrapper?"
I didn't know how to apologise for this empty bin that was in place for a brain inside my brother's head.
Maybe if I talked about his upbringing, Ms . Shasha could understand.
I met her amber eyes ,that looked like they were melting lava in anger .
" Look , didn't you ask me what colour I thought that would suit the ribbon on that painting of yours ?," Jasper grinned like he knew that he was the winner ," When I went home , I immediately thought this colour would suit your painting, since I do not know the name of this colour, I brought the wrapper
"
Shasha picked up the wrapper with gentle fingers from his hand , examining it under the sunlight.
Even with her head bowed down as she concentrated on a insignificant piece of wrapper, I could see a small smile on her lips .
Jasper was stupid . I would admit that . But he was also a very attentive child .
Since young , he was really simple minded but always surprised us with how caring he was .
Jasper put his hands on hers. Suddenly I felt like I was watching something very private . Something that was only owned by them .
" Sasha , I am back ," Jasper signed the word as he spoke .
Sasha then answered him with her hands .
I did not know exactly what she was saying but I was pretty sure that it means close to something like -
' Welcome back .'
" I started working in one of the hotspring in Yokkaido city since workers from there often volunteer in St. Maria's nursing house . From the intel of Sunshine, we already knew that Mira Palmer was staying here ...but when I reached here , I found out that it was a nursing home for terminally ill patients . Ms. Palmer , has been living here for last ten years ," Jasper said , as he sat down on the sofa next to me , before us , Ms. Sasha was too engrossed in the painting with the wrapper in her hand , I could see that she was adding a ribbon on the girl she had painted before her . Even someone like me , who had no idea about paintings , Sasha's work looked hypnotizing, maybe because she had been locked up for decades here , the way she viewed the people in her painting , they seemed different. They looked eerie .
Even the one that Sasha was drawing now had the same black eyes like her other paintings . People , animals - they all had the cold , black eyes void of emotions.
But their surroundings were magnificently drawn with bright colours and clothes and flowers - most of them were probably drawn from the painter's imagination.
Almost as if those people were floating in beautiful dreams but could not be happy about it.
" Shasha , here , has not had a single family visit her for last five years . The last time her mother came , she was made to sign a bond paper about letting her identity be borrowed by someone else and that was it ," Jasper sighed .
" How did you find out about it ?," I wondered, since Sasha certainly did not look like someone who would talk about her history too easily.
' Was that cause they had become already that close ? ,' I wondered in my mind but could not spell it out .
I knew how Jasper was looking at Sasha . And I knew my brother enough to know that Sasha was not just a friend to him..
" Obviously, I had to sneak a peek in her diary ," Jasper lowered his voice , even though our guest couod not hear anything ," The more I think about it , the more angry I get . Sasha is now not even allowed to use her real name Mira Palmer, anymore."
" Well it's not uncommon for specially abled children to get different treatment in upper class families," I shook my head ," Still...they could have visited her ."
" Sasha....she is just very lonely ," there was pain in Jasper's voice ," She rarely let's people in her circle cause she is afraid that they are going to abondon her . All that anger from her was because she thought that I had left her . I am her only friend and that's why she was scared and she was doing those things ...Sis , if she offends you , I am apologising to you for her ."
My brother bowed at me. A part of my heart stung , cause I realised that I was the outsider here .
Jasper....he had always considered to me as the closest person. That was the privilege I had earned since I was connected to him from the day he was born.
I felt like I was losing my place there .
But another part of me was relieved ... that... maybe he was finding someone.
I was always worried that Jasper would never have a partner since he did not have exactly a positive view from watching our parents' dynamic from his childhood.
He was more bitter than I was cause he had faced the storm more than I did . Hence , he was broken and battered.
I knew that Jasper had hard times bring friends even with his peers . But here , he was consoling a wounded heart in his own way .
It did matter if we were growing apart .
I wanted to cheer him for the path he had chosen.
" Tell me , Jasper , how did you two become friends ?," I asked .
Jasper laughed shyly ," Oh hell , being friends with her was very hard ."