“How much do you love her?” I demanded.

His face flashed with so much emotion, and he said, simply, “She guessed my favorite color first try.”

“I’ve never had a favorite color before. I haven’t cared about color. I don’t care what color t-shirt I wear, or if it is spirit week or not. Blue is blue. There is no emotion, no feeling, no memory. I could have happy if I was born colorblind, simply because in my life I have no need for color. When I met her she asked my favorite color. I didn’t have a chance to tell her I didn’t have one. Her face was all lit up like a little kid’s and she shouted ‘yellow!’ standing on her tip toes so we were eye to eye. I didn’t have the heart to tell her no…..and suddenly, I couldn’t look at yellow the same. It brought up the memory of her. How her hair smells like coconut and sandalwood. How her two front teeth are slightly crooked, and how her nose wrinkles when she is confused. She made me WANT to have a favorite color……and now I do. I can’t look at colors worthless, because she is an artist. Her bracelets are so many shades of color, and they help express what her paintings cannot. I have never cared about color until I met her. Blue was blue. The color of my eye. My father’s eyes. My cousin’s eyes. Nothing was entirely special about that color, and yellow was simply the color of the sun and rubber ducks. But now….now color is so much more. She gave me a favorite color.”

He paused.

“She hates saying bad things. She told me once, ‘I am made up of milk. One bad word and I am soured. For days I feel angry, lost, sad and confused. I feel guilty. I feel like the words I said were boomerangs and hit me with a force harder than two tons of steel.’ I have had no probably ever expressing myself. Words, stern, angry, sad or not, easily come out. With her, it is like she keeps them on the inside until they dissolve because she knows how hurtful they are. She knows the impact of words, and how they effect people. That is dangerous and wonderful. She can tear someone down with one sentence, and put them on cloud nine with one word. That is a gift. She has started teaching me the impact of words, how what say starts a chain reaction. Now, I watch my words, because I can. And I will. For her.”

He nervously mumbled, “She changed my life…………..isn’t that love?”