Spontaneous Euphoria

Carmen sighed hopelessly sitting at her kitchen table wrapped snuggly in her grandmother’s floral crochet blanket. The falling leaves brushed against her window as her windchimes danced in the crisp Fall wind. She was finishing a lackluster TV series finale to an already lackluster series. But, she and her younger brother got hooked on it a few years back. They used to watch it together every Friday until he went away to school. Now they would watch it when they could and text each other reaction memes and gifs. Unfortunately, she still wasn’t finding any inspiration even after watching the shows her friends recommended. She had been in a daze as of lately, maybe it was the somber cloudy days keeping her on pause. However, she had to find a way to resume as she had something important planned for this Thursday. She needed a solid story to write for a creative writing event at her former middle school to inspire students on the importance of finding their passion for writing. Yet, recently she was struggling to find hers. Everyone, she would usually call was busy with their problems. So she thought of an old friend, one who used to give her inspiration, David.

David although a seemingly simple guy had a dream to one day become a successful painter. His day-to-day journey interested her because every day he fought for something it seemed he would never achieve. She stood up leaving her blanket on her chair as she walked off towards David. She started to feel what she thought was inspiration but instead, it was just indigestion.

David looked the way she had remembered. They never talked but had a mutual understanding since Carmen, played a major role in influencing his many life decisions.

He was what Carmen wanted to be, a carefree dreamer who enjoyed every bit of what his life had to offer. He wasn’t afraid to meet new people and to try new things, even if he failed. Art was his passion and he failed at it daily. In between his daily tasks of both freedom and restraint he painted at least one painting a day. He’d mimic paintings from famous painters and would change the style or color. However, the paintings never seemed to grab enough attention. Day and night he painted. Some days became more hopeless than others and it was as if he aimed his desires at the wrong dream. To be fair he wasn’t the only artist in town & although he had some admirers he had fewer customers, something was missing. However David never seemed to be discouraged by any of it, he never gave up.

As always, time flew by when she was with him. False days turning into real hours while moments move quicker than the last as if they were escaping. David threw away painting after painting, feeling a sense of lacking. He rearranged his living room and played a different tune on his stereo. He then changed his appearance a bit, which included changing his style and hair color a few times in search of inspiration. After what seemed like a standstill, something eventually changed.

It was very sunny out so David decided to walk to the new contemporary art museum that recently just opened. Carmen watched as he bumped into some familiar faces and socialized for a bit. Time paused momentarily when the digital chirp of her mother’s favorite “Death Cab for Cutie” tune suddenly played. It startled her as she remembered she forgot to put her phone on silent.

“Hey, Carmen darling, How’s the writing coming?” Her mother sang playfully over the phone. She could hear background chatter, laughter, and jazz instruments playing sonorously in the background.

She seems like she’s having fun, don’t be a downer okay?

She thought to herself remembering today was her mom’s first day of retirement. Her mom was spending it on a cruise ship with her closest friends. She smiled thinking it was just like her mom to give her a ring. Carmen took a deep breath to change her energy to match her mother’s.

“It’s going...I had to step away for a bit. Looking for that spark of inspiration but I think it’s around the corner, I’ll get there!” She rolled her eyes hoping her mother couldn’t hear her facial expressions.

“You will honey, remember you’re a talented writer! Just do the best you can, that’s all you can ask of yourself.” Her mother paused as Carmen agreed.

“I wish you were here, there’s lots of inspiration. We’ve gone out dancing, haven’t done that in forever (almost broke a heel). The music and food are fantastic! I’ll eat an extra slice of cheesecake for you. When I come back to town, we’ll have a ‘girl’s day’ just the two of us.” Her mother gleefully expressed.

Carmen smiled, feeling a bit more motivated. Her mother was always good at that. Which, is what made her Filmer Middleschool’s favorite sixth-grade teacher. As well as a New York Time’s Bestselling author. It was her mother, after all who helped her get this gig and she didn’t take it lightly. She felt she had to prove her newly found placement as a recognized fantasy novelist and wasn’t just sipping from the nepotism glass.

“Thanks, mom you always know what to say, now go enjoy your trip, and don’t worry about me I’ll get it together.” This time Carmen’s smile just naturally happened.

Her mom made a kiss sound and wished her well as they hung up.

David’s life resumed.

She noticed David was in the middle of a conversation with a woman. She had violet-colored hair and her name also happened to be Violet. They chatted throughout the day while checking out other paintings. Violet asked him if he’d like to go with her to the art festival tomorrow and without hesitation, he agreed. When Violet walked off he let out a small cheer. Carmen chuckled.

The next day David got up and met Violet at the festival. After going to a few concession stands and looking at various art pieces, the two noticed an area with art easels. Violet encouraged David to paint. However, he kindly declined not feeling up to it. All of a sudden, Violet's eyes lit up and focused in a different direction. It was as if she were a child in a game shop. She made her way over to a small garden right behind the area with the easels with David following closely behind her. They happened upon her favorite flowers, violets. She picked a few and beamed as if she had just won a grand prize. David paused, noticing the instant glow of joy all over her face, and had an “a-ha moment”. He agreed to paint her but asked her to pose with the flowers. She nodded excitedly as they walked back to the easels. She explained how much the violets meant to her. She expressed that when she saw a violet they made her almost go into a dark place as she missed her grandmother. But, those thoughts were overshadowed by her feelings of joy. Violets made her reminisce about the best parts of her childhood. Helping her grandmother water her violet garden. And later running through the violets with her beagle, Scotty.

David took all that into account and began painting a beautiful portrait of Violet smiling while sitting amongst a field of violets. Violet loved it. Carmen observed closely as the painting had almost truly come truly to life. The two stood back in amazement and Violet asked if she could keep the painting. She also asked if he would be interested in painting a few of her friends, for a commission of course. He agreed, telling her to invite them to his place. With a spark in his eye, he seemed excited for the next day.

The following day Violet brought over her friends. David provided them with snacks. He then began finding out what brought them joy, and painted each of them respectively. All were painted with smiles in the center of puppies, fruits, or sports balls. One of her friends, Mike, owned a gallery inside the new contemporary art museum and asked David if he could put some of his work up for a pop-up event tomorrow. David gleefully agreed. He named the newly curated collection “Spontaneous Euphoria”, in homage to Violet’s spontaneous joyous reaction when she found the garden of violets.

The next day, David met Violet at the back entrance of the gallery. She greeted him and walked him over to a group of guests who were admiring his art with drinks & hors d'oeuvres in hand. Unfortunately, no offers were made. This went on for the next few hours. Despite, Violet’s multiple attempts, to usher over new, potential customers.

The event was coming to an end and David had started to take down his work. A man dressed rather casually walked over to him telling him how he had been an admirer of his work for a while and was loving his new collection. David, although somewhat defeated entertained the man, and expressed his gratitude as the man continued. He offered David $20,000 for the entire collection of “Spontaneous Euphoria”. The man also mentioned that he was the private owner of the new contemporary art museum. Overjoyed and in shock David at first denied stating that it was too much but the man insisted. And that he had already written a check. David realizing the man wasn’t joking tried keeping his composure but thanked him profusely. The man said he’d be back for them the following day and walked off. Violet noticed his excitement and quietly cheered for him.

Carmen watched grinning from ear to ear as a game badge appeared above David’s head along with a cheerful tune letting her know he had achieved his goal. Right before closing her game, she saw what she thought was a wink from David and she did a little clap for him.

“I’ve been thinking about this too hard. Thanks, David even if I did embellish your story a bit it helped.” She leaned back away from the computer and thought to herself.

“Spontaneous Euphoria” what an awesome theme.

All of a sudden she heard a noise downstairs. Looking over at her clock she realized it was her boyfriend Jamie.

“Hey, babe?” He called upstairs.

She nearly ran down to tell him how she had finally come up with an idea and a theme name for her project but, froze when she got to the bottom of the steps. Jamie was holding a small black notebook, which she recognized was her grandmother’s and she hadn’t seen it in a while. It was filled with checklists, tv schedules, and letter drafts. Every page of what could be described as scribblings to anyone else meant the world to Carmen. She started to smile as her eyes filled with tears. When she read them she felt like she was listening in on their phone conversations, which were simple but always meaningful and they always brought her joy. Maybe that’s the point of all this. Finding joy even if that joy was someone else’s.

“I was cleaning out the car and found this in the pouch in the back of the passenger seat,” Jamie stated.

“Thank you, Jamie.” She said warmly. As she allowed her tears to fall she carefully received her grandmother’s notebook. She held it close to her heart and swore to always keep it there.

Jamie smiled as they looked into each other’s eyes.

“Did you find your inspiration?” He asked genuinely curious.

She bit her lip and smiled, “Yes. it was joy, and it was here all along.”