Chapter 18: Chapter Eighteen - MARKUS
Markus had been an idiot. He knew he had. But he didn’t know how to fix it. It hadn’t surprised him when Gracie had declared she was an artist. In fact, it fit her perfectly. But he’d had no idea how to continue that conversation. He didn’t understand painting a location or a person when you could just take a picture.
As for all that abstract art with weird shapes and colors thrown up there…anyone could paint a square. What made that so special? Picasso couldn’t even get basic human anatomy right, and yet he was famous for putting noses where chins should go.
All the same, Markus could tell this was something that was important to Gracie. It seemed she wanted to make a career of it, but he knew the cliché of the starving artist was based more on truth than fiction. So he’d spent the entire bus ride trying to think of something encouraging to say to Gracie.
However, by the time they’d reached Lancaster, where the Amish farm was, he still hadn’t come up with anything, and Gracie hadn’t seemed very pleased with him. At first he’d tried to keep up with her on the tour, but she’d always seemed to appear on the other side of the crowd or building, or disappear completely.
When they’d walked out to the one-room schoolhouse, he had been about to make his way over to where she stood—he’d wanted to apologize and make things right again. But when she’d met his gaze, he had realized he still didn’t know what to say. What was he going to apologize for, not knowing how to say something nice about her lifelong dream—her passion? He’d dropped his gaze, but by the time he’d looked back up, she had been talking to Cameron.
She must have made that guy’s dreams come true, because he was talking animatedly with his hands, his expression open and excited. Markus hadn’t been able to hear their conversation, but they hadn’t stopped talking until Mrs. Krump made them.
Markus had screwed up. He had to fix it before they headed back to Minnesota the next day, but how? He stayed at the back of the group for the rest of the tour, watching Gracie. She didn’t strike up any more conversations with Cameron, which was a good thing. And then, just as they were about to enter a small restaurant that the Amish community ran, he saw a small girl sitting on a porch. She had on the typical Amish apparel, but she stood out, because she held a sketchbook and a pencil. She wore a grin as she drew, and that was when Markus knew what he had to do.
Markus didn’t know anything about art, but if he couldn’t explain to Gracie in words what was in his heart, maybe he could show her. It would be his first real attempt at drawing, so it was almost guaranteed to be awful, but he hoped Gracie would still understand what he was trying to tell her.
As soon as they got to the hotel that evening, Markus put in earbuds, sat down at a small desk, and pulled out a stationery pad that had the hotel logo at the top. Next to it was a pen with the same logo. It was all he had on hand, so he hoped Gracie would understand.
He sat down, and he drew.