Colors

Lorelei groaned. This art project was taking forever! She glanced longingly at her air-pods; painting was always much easier with music. But as she reached for them, laughter exploded in her ears, the taunts of her classmates freshly brought to her mind along with the word that started it all, synesthesia. . . .

No! She roughly shoved the air-pods away, refusing to think about her sixth-grade class in the new school, burying her mind back in her work.

But several hours (and several sketchbooks) later, she grudgingly pulled them back out. Flipping to her favorite station, she readied her pencils and paints; setting her canvas in just the right position; picking the perfect paintbrush—and then, the music started.

Colors rose and fell before her eyes, blues, greens, reds each perfect for their song, the gentle lilac of classical falling into the raging orange of rock, a remix of the iridescent blue of pop and the rustic yellow of country blending to make a brilliant hue of green.

These colors spilled across her canvas in lakes and rivers, sprawling forests heralding mountains with great birds of prey flying amidst their peaks, and huge spiraling cities with people wandering their streets. Vast oceans with dolphins playing in and out of their navy-colored waves.

All this and more poured from Lorelei’s brush and pen, her hands moving in time to the music. Caught up in a world formed by it.

Eventually the songs ended, and finally Lorelei stepped back, satisfied with what she’d done.

The next day when she presented her art project to the class, she explained how each color represented a song genre, and the shades a specific one. She explained how synesthesia worked, how different senses were “cross-wired” in her brain, causing her to see different colors upon hearing music.

After her presentation, Lorelei braced herself for more teasing than ever, but her classmates seemed almost . . . in awe. Several even asked her after class if she could explain more, show them how it worked!

Maybe . . . just maybe, middle school wouldn’t be so bad after all.