A Girl

Olena Vlasyuk

James Blake is an ordinary  photographer from Haffer, a small town near the seaside.  He is usually hired by large companies to take photos of  goods these companies produce.

His main task is to make clothes, food, building materials, devices, toys and many other things desirable for people through bright pictures they see on their screens.  James likes his job, but only because he doesn’t put a lot of efforts while making enough money for a living. He doesn’t adore it or find it inspiring, he just doesn’t mind it.
Once, when he was going to his studio across the park, his telephone rang, and James sat on a bench to had a conversation with his secretary about new project in New York. Helen said he should fly to New York next Monday to sign the contract with a company that produces tinned food. While he was talking to Helen, a little girl sat right next to him. She took out colored pencils from her small bag and started to draw something in her notebook. When James saw her, his first thought was to slide away to the edge of the bench. Sitting next to him the girl was bald, and this made James feel uncomfortable and strange.  At that moment he realized that she was just a girl who might be sick and had chemotherapy recently, but still he felt uncomfortable and couldn’t explain that feeling to himself.
  “Excuse me,” a bald girl suddenly said, “do you have a sharpener?”
   “No, sorry,” James answered.
   “Oh, such a pity, I ran out of blue to color the pond. I’ll have to come here tomorrow and finish my picture.”
James glanced at her notebook and saw a picture of two swans near the unfinished pond. The drawing seemed very nice as done by 13-14 years old, and James said he liked it. The girl smiled and started to tell him about her plans for this picture, “In the future I will draw a lot of pictures like this and become a famous artist. My paintings will hang in all galleries in the town and rich men would buy them for  thousands of dollars. Once I saw a picture of a blue cow on the red grass, and my mom said it was very expensive. I don’t think it was beautiful, I can do better. And when I’ll make a lot of money, I will build an artist school where everyone can study for free”. The girl continued talking and soon James found out that the bald girl’s name was Kathy, and she used to go to the artist school, but had to quit it because of a cancer. Now Kathy is completely healthy, but her mom said she can’t go to the artist school  because they don’t have money for it as they have to pay the bills for her treatment.
While James was listening, he came up with the idea he can help her. His best school friend, Roy Sand, run a gallery not far from Jakes office, and he had held exhibitions of children works  before. Roy could do a favor for James and hang Kathy’s picture and write her story under the picture to sell it for big money. Or  James could hold a charity exhibition of many sick children’ pictures himself  and  give all the money to make their dreams come true. Or he could take a picture of Kathy’s swans and sell it on the auction via the Internet, like he did with some of his own photos and the antique book his father left him. For a moment James even thought about paying for her school by himself as it  won’t make a big damage to his budget. But suddenly the telephone rang, and after he heard the annoying “Where are you?” his thoughts returned back to work.
“I should go Kathy”, said James, “someday your dream will come true”.
“I know. Good bye!”
“Bye.”
John went rapidly to his studio, where Helen was waiting for him. He had a lot to do today and he also should not forget to buy the tickets to New York on the next Monday. Next day when James went to work he decided to turn off  his usual way and pass by the park. “The way is much shorter if I go near the Council, I should go this way every day”, James thought, and passed by the park where Kathy was probably sitting on the bench and coloring blue her pond.