It’s All Abstract

A word prompt from https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/

Dana sat on the plastic seating area, and looked at the painting, supposedly worth one million pounds. She tilted her head to the left, and to the right. There was nothing discernible between the splodges. The more she looked at it the less she understood.

‘I see you’re looking at the newest painting in our collection.’

A young lady, about her age, sat next to her, and her face relaxed into a smile.

‘Yes, I mean it is different,’ Dana said.

‘It is beautiful, the colours, the way they spread across the canvass, amazing. Tell me, they say everyone sees something personal to them.’

She looked again, unsure of what to say, truth was, she only went into the art gallery for some time alone. A place to think about where to go next. Not sure she would even return home, or leave, with the money in her pocket.

‘Steps, leading away from danger, the reds, and purple remind me of bruises,’ she looked down for a moment, too much information for someone she hardly knew. ‘It’s foggy, uncertain, but the flashes of white are hope for the future.’

‘Do you know what I see,’ the young lady said. ‘A brave woman, who has the foresight to leave a marriage, a violent marriage she wasn’t in any way to blame for.’ She wasn’t focussed on the painting, but on the bruise on her arm.

It was old, but there were many on her body, which were more recent, more painful. She held her wedding ring in the palm of her hand. A never ending symbol of her loyalty, it was the first time she took it off in twenty years.

‘I’m a foolish old woman. Where will I go? How will I live?’

‘There is a shelter a few miles from here, I will take you there myself. From there they will help with lawyers, and somewhere to stay until you can think of where to go next.’

‘Why are you helping me?’

‘You deserve it.’

‘I don’t, I made a promise, to love, honour, and obey.’

‘He made a promise too, and broke that by hitting you.’