Rosa stretches her body and puts her hand on the back of her neck. She stares at the painting in front of her and is not fully content. The colors are not matching to the colors in her mind. There’s an urge to grab the canvas and break it in half. But instead, she walks away from it and lays down in her bed.
She looks at her phone and mindlessly scrolls through her Instagram feed hoping for some inspiration. Nothing. She opens Facebook for updates on the election and is quickly overwhelmed by all of her friend’s status updates.
She puts down her phone and tries a nap instead. Naps have helped her in the past. Her work has always been 50% creative labor and 50% naps. It works for her. She rolls around in her bed but the damn nap won’t come. She only has one more hour before she needs to shower, put on her Starbucks uniform and head to work.
Andy, Rosa’s little sister, enters her room. In her left hand she has an apple and in her right hand a small bottle of Tajin. Before every loud bite of apple, she sprinkles a little bit of the chilly powder. This annoys Rosa.
“Must you chew this loud all the time?”
“Ay, why you gotta have an attitude so early on a Saturday morning?”
“Why you gotta come into my room unannounced?”
“Dang, I gotta RSVP to come into your room or something?”
“It wouldn’t hurt.”
Andy shrugs and stares at Rosa’s painting.
“How come you never draw me in one of your paintings?”
“Because you’re ugly.”
“Ay, why you gotta be like that!”
Rosa gets up and stares at her sister. She gets up and examines the acrylic bottles on her desk. She mixes the pink acrylic with the purple one and gets the perfect hot pink she needed.
“So, are you going to draw me or what?”
“No.”
She hands the mixed paint and a brand new brush to her sister.
“What am I supposed to do with this? You know I can’t paint. You’re the artist of the family.”
Rosa doesn’t say anything and just directs her sister to the painting. Andy puts down her apple and Tajin and starts painting.
“You know I’m going to ruin it for you, right.”
Rosa gives her little sister a warm smile and starts getting ready for work. Andy smiles back and keeps on painting for the rest of the day.
