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Tyler had a problem, well everyone else considered it a problem. He had a tendency to talk in colors and no one could understand him. It’s not like he could only say “pink, purple, blue, and orange”, he just had a hard time explaining why he left the house to go to the park alone. The scattering of the leaves laid out like a yellow brick road and the crunch underfoot was loud enough to drown out the chorus of “maybe you should get some help”.
Tyler didn’t want to go to public school. The boys had razor sharp teeth that cut with every syllable spoken his way. The girls were filled with helium that made him dizzy whenever they stood too close. He wanted his mom to go back to teaching him so he could catch the moon in a basket over and over and over again. Tyler didn’t like public school, until he met Josh.
Josh had clouds of pink, purple, and blue that made Tyler smile on the worst days. When Tyler went on and on about the light behind his eyes as his fingers danced across the keys and how the flickering would stop if just for a moment, Josh would tap a rhythm on Tyler’s knee as he listened.
In Tyler’s senior year of high school, all of the colors grew dark. Everything was black, grey, and red and it hurt. The boys grew razor sharp claws that left scars for years on the map of his fragile heart. The girls were invisible and Tyler was scared that he couldn’t see what Josh could. The lights behind his eyes dimmed from a flicker to a fade and his words made less sense than before. No amount of pounding on the white keys could drown out the chorus of “you need help.” Josh did his best to remind him of the pink, purple, blue that waited for him outside of his door, but Tyler felt more blue, purple, pink and his breathe got stuck in his throat more than he’d like to admit.
The tiny dots of white made him feel empty. The red, grey, and black had been drained from his mind, but the blue, purple, pink felt desaturated .Tyler went to school and the boys still stuffed him in lockers. He tried talking to girls, but it still felt nothing like his late night chats with Josh. Tyler felt empty and more afraid than ever before.
Josh showed up on Tyler’s doorstep with the keyboard tucked under his arms and begged his friend to play again.
Tyler’s fingers danced across the keys and he could feel the lightning in his finger tips. Music was the key and he was finally able to unlock the treasure in his own mind.