A million shades. A short story of fiction

Source

Sometimes, what we see as a defect in us is what makes us unique in the face of others.

As a child, I used to think I was sick. I saw what others could not see, however, growing up in a society where seeing is believing, makes coexistence difficult.

Thousand years ago, our species lived in conflict and wars did not stop. The effects of biological weapons resulted in a reduced inheritance to shades of gray. With the passage of time, humanity became used to white and black.

It all started when I suffered from an unknown disease and received an experimental treatment. When I was finally discharged, I began to see beyond white and black.

My mom got upset when I started asking what they had done to our house because it had stopped being gray.

"Iris, don't say nonsense," was what my mother told me.

But the perception of my surroundings had changed forever. The plants, the flowers, the sky. Suddenly the world around me was flooded with shades beyond the monotonous and ancient gray.

I was stunned by the nuances that our sky could acquire constantly, from dawn till dusk ... A gift from the universe that only I could appreciate.

So much was my insistence, that my mother worried, took me to the best doctors in our city.

As much as they did tests, the doctors did not explain how I could see a range of tonalities far superior to that of any other person. Dyes that for many did not exist, for the simple fact of not being able to see them, measure them and analyze them with their own eyes and instruments.

That's when tired of so many studies, I asked Mom:

"Mom, do you believe in the existence of God?"

And she answered astonished:

"What do you say, Iris? Of course, I do! I pray to God every day to heal you"

"But you can not see God, can you?", I asked again

Then my mother understood what I was trying to say ...

However, at school, it was another story, one less tolerable. My classmates didn't believe me because they could not see with their own eyes those strange tonalities. At that time, I isolated myself from almost all of them. Except for my friend Jake, who also did not understand what I was trying to explain, however, that didn't stop him from continuing to be my friend.

We always fear the unknown. I had a hard time understanding this last. Fortunately, a good friendship overcomes all obstacles.

How could I explain that a fruit changed its color from unripe to ripe? The apples, the bananas. I was fascinated with those miracles of nature. How could we be so blind?

Most people called me crazy, so I chose not to mention the wonders I could see, so I could be accepted by society. However, I did not stop investigating and looking for why I was different and the mystery of those tonalities.

It was many years later, when I was in my archeology internship, investigating the ruins of a city destroyed by the old wars, that I found a book that gave a term to those strange nuances, called them "colors". And our species was able to see up to a million of them.

In a very distant past, our eyes, internally, had structures called cones which were responsible for allowing us to perceive colors.

I was pleased to know that each of those colors had a name: yellow, green, blue, red, violet, orange ... It was easier to identify and remember them.

Finally, I knew that our sky was blue ...

"But the sky is not always blue, mom"

"I know, honey, the sunsets are painted with reddish and yellowish tints ..."

"But don't tell your father, it's a secret between you and me" ...

I had much time without writing a story of my own inspiration, without having to do it because of some contest. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do when writing it.

Keep spreading the Steemit love

Thanks for passing by!