The Artist

The Artist

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I Dedicate this book to Mariam Diallo, for helping me the whole time,

Lexi Oliver, and my Mom.

Maple Leaf Writing Project

Brattleboro, Vermont

Copyright 2019

Hello, my name is Maya Pitch. If you want to know some stuff about me know that I am 27 years old and I am an artist, and when I was younger that was all I wanted to be.

When I was a child I would draw all the time, and attempt to paint.

My version of a tree was a few lines going in different directions. But no matter how much I messed up I would keep on going. I would draw/paint emojis, people, sunsets, plants, unicorns, horses, barns, and pretty much anything I could think of.

Growing up I had a friend named Rebecca. Rebecca was a really good drawer, way better than me. Since Rebecca was so good at drawing I got some tips from her. Mainly how to draw animals and stuff like that. Just from those few tips I became an awesome drawer too.

But not everything in my life was so perfect. One night my parents went on a trip in the car, but only my dad came back. My mom died in a car crash. My dad was badly injured. They both went straight to the hospital. I found it really hard to even draw anymore, and you know that feeling when you get punched in the gut and you can’t breathe? That’s how I felt except I felt like that had happened to me 1,000,000 (one million) time’s.

Months passed, and sparks flew. By that I mean me and dad started going to church. At first it was really weird and different. But that’s because we weren’t used to the music, or the preaching. The preacher’s name was Matthew, which is kind of funny because that's a famous book in the Bible. The first sermon was about how God does everything for you, and how he created everything on Earth, and he created Earth. It didn’t really make sense at first. But I mean we learned a lot from it. My mom always talked about a God that she believed in, but I always thought that she made it up.

Heaven is a place where people who believe in God go. Heaven is pretty much the after life except way better than the first life. In Heaven you get whatever you want, and everybody and everything will be perfect. Plus you won’t have a bedtime, and you can have ICE CREAM SUNDAES whenever you want.

I continued to draw, but most of my drawings were of my memories of mom. But just because my drawings are of mom doesn’t mean that I’m still sad about the accident. I’m not saying that I don’t miss her, just that I don’t cry my eyes out when I think of her.

Time went by and I didn’t even think of my mom that often anymore. I started to draw random creatures like llama man, and elephant lady. I also made a comic book of them that I will admit wasn’t the best. But hey I tried!!! After I made the comic book I realized that I didn’t really like to write, like at all. So I kept drawing, and I personally think that I got way better than I used to be. Unless you think that a couple of scribbles is better than a piece of artwork that looks like somebody has been working on it for 10 years. Because then I became worse at drawing.

Before I knew it, I was 13. I didn’t feel 13 though, I felt 12. Sadly. I always wanted to be a teenager, but once I finally turned into a teenager I wanted to be a little kid again. My only wish was to be a newborn all over again, with my mom. But I guess I just have to deal with it until I’m 20 years old, which is in 7 YEARS. But until then I am going to try to want to be a teenager. So this the list that I wrote down to be what I thought was teenager like.

1. Be overly lazy and take naps all the time.
2. Have a fancy phone
3. Drink lots of coffee
4. Fail in math
5. Have a boyfriend (optional)
6. Watch more PG 13 movies

And best of all

7. Do art no matter what anybody says

Finally it was the first day of middle school. Well I shouldn’t say “finally” because I wasn’t at all excited about it. But I guess I had to be excited about it to have a good day today.

As I was walking to school I heard the bell ring. I walked through the door and everything seemed to be fine. I mean nobody was talking to me so that was a good thing. Mostly because I have absolutely nothing to say besides “Hi…” I mean I have talked to people in elementary school, but that’s different. These are teenagers we’re talking about, not little kids. I went to my very first class, and guess who I saw. Rebecca!!! I went over to go talk to her but right then class started. I wanted to go sit next to her but somebody I haven’t seen in my entire life was sitting there.

After class I went over to go talk to Rebecca. So this was our conversation.

“Hey Rebecca!!!” I said.

“Hey, what’s up.”

“Nothing’ much. Who’s the person you were sitting with during class???”

“Oh, that’s Kayla. We met in the summer at the pool. She’s really nice, you should definitely meet her.” Said Rachel.

“Well maybe later, I’ve gotta go to my next class. Bye!”

“Bye.”

So I guess that I should meet her. Or I could just ignore her and only hang out with Rebecca. But this is middle school and your supposed to make new friends. So I guess I should give her a chance. I’ll try to talk to her during recess. Oh wait we don’t even have recess in middle school. That sucks. I’ll try to talk to her during lunch, with Rebecca of course.

A few hours later it was lunch. I went over to Rebecca, and asked her

“Where’s Kayla???”

“Oh she’s in the bathroom. Said she needed to call someone.” said Rebecca.

“I’m gonna go check on her, maybe have a little chat.” I said.

“Ok, but don’t say anything bad about me.”

I started to walk closer to the bathroom, but then I heard a scratchy voice that I knew wasn’t Kayla. I listened for a little bit longer to try to find out what was happening. I peeked to take a look, and you wouldn’t believe what I saw. I saw her talking to the mirror. And what was in the mirror was not her reflection.

You know, I never believed in magic but now I was starting to believe it. I was starting to remember all the ghost stories from when I was a little kid (10 years old). But this wasn’t any of the ghosts that I heard of as a kid. This was a ghost that I had dreamt of when I was a baby.

That’s really the only thing I remember from baby hood. I told my dad about it once, he didn’t believe that it was real. In my dream the ghost didn’t have a name. So I started to call her Lulu. She pretty much tried to protect me from something she called “The thing.” I’ve always wondered what it was, but I can never figure it out. I mean it might be jewel necklace my parents gave me when I was born. I have no idea why they did that though because I definitely could have choked. Anyway, I’ll continue this story.

So Kayla was talking to Lulu, but I looked for a few minutes longer and I couldn’t believe what I saw. Lulu started to turn into something very strange. I think it was something like “the thing” that Lulu was talking about in my dream.

I didn’t want to look any longer so I went to the cafeteria and told Rebecca she was busy.

Hours went by and finally school was over. As soon as I got home I went straight to a piece of paper and a very dull pencil that had unicorns pooping rainbows on the part that is normally yellow. But I started to draw what I saw.

So I started to draw Lulu but Lulu looked like she had seen the person who had killed her.

The story behind Lulu was that she was a very nice little girl and then all of a sudden she felt this thing controlling her. Her mother once told her if there was a demon controlling you go to the basement because that's where the demons they can’t stand but leave. Nobody knows why they leave when you go to the basement, they just go to the basement and leave.So that’s what she did, well tried to do anyway. She went to the basement sat on the chair her mom made out of fabric and cut up wood, and she sang a song with her eyes closed.(For some reason she thought it would make it work better). But when she opened her eyes she saw a rope with a little circle at the bottom. Instead of running upstairs she went to go check it out. She realized that the circle kinda looked like a necklace so she put her head through, meanwhile something was at the other end of the rope. Lulu felt strange because her feet were just barely touching the ground. Before she knew it kRaCk she was now a ghost. Ever since then she called the something “The thing.”

I don’t know why but I just can’t help but think that “The thing” had something to to with Kayla. Maybe Kayla was really a ghost undercover as a person. Maybe she was “The thing”!!! Woops, I think my dad heard that. I probably shouldn’t say that out loud anymore. Or ever…

My dad getting kind of suspicious. It was really weird, and strange. Like, my dad was standing by my bedroom door trying to listen to what I was saying. And he was looking at the pictures in my sketchbook. (which was pretty much all of Lulu) Maybe he was starting to think she is real.

I wanted to do something besides think of Kayla, The thing, or Lulu. So I started to do my homework. After a few minutes of that, I really felt like quitting, because trust me math homework is not fun. But after what felt like centuries, I finished. Don’t get excited though because then I had do do Science then Spanish, and then English. And finally I was done with the world's most boring and hardest homework ever. But the good thing is that it distracted me from what happened at lunch.

I was super tired from all that brain work. But that didn’t stop me from doing art. I painted what looked like a cat queen thing. I honestly have no idea.

Anyway I told my dad about Lulu again, but this time I acted really scared and worried, and he finally believed me. My dad knew that the principal wouldn’t believe either one of us. And if he did then he would go crazy, and tell absolutely everybody he knew. So, he told them that somebody was bullying me. My dad moved to a different state right away.

I started going to a completely different school that was normal. Yes I do miss Rebecca, but I don't miss Kayla. I mean I never even got to know her, but why would I want to get to know her. But I had a great time at my new school. There’s no magic, no ghosts, and no bullies. I never got to figure out about Kayla, Lulu,or the thing. But I did see Lulu in my dreams sometimes. If I’m lucky I can hear her voice saying “Hello Maya”. Lulu was never there, but I saw her and heard her in my dreams from far away. Which is okay with me because honestly I didn’t really want her near me.

But I did see Kayla on the streets sometimes though, maybe she was on vacation?

I really don't know. But anyway my life now was pretty normal, and I made a bunch of new friends my best friend now is named Cici.

Cici was always there for me no matter what, even if she was mad at me. Plus she is super fun and funny. And she LOVED art just like me!

So my life went on, normally. And art stayed with me forever. I became so good at art I couldn’t stop, I just kept on going. I also got really inspired by famous artists like Vincent Van Gogh, and Leonardo da vinci. And also Frida Kahlo.

So yeah I kept on going with my life and it turned out pretty good, I would say anyway. Even though at the beginning it wasn’t so easy. But that didn’t stop me from trying to make my life better.