Competition Thirty Shortlisted: They Start by Banning Indigo by Chris Cottom
When they get to green, Mum buys a Senior Saver Return to Waterloo, pickets Parliament in the rain, a laminated picture of an avocado bathroom around her neck. Even The Daily Mail thunders that colour-free conformity has gone too far, splashes her across its front page, her Moroccan Flame poncho perfect against the ash-grey blouson of her arresting officer.
Fined five grand, she’s furious when I pay, denies I’m her son. Scorning sponsorship from a now-pariah paint manufacturer, she insists she’s found her calling. She blitzes Insta: her vermillion living room, that embarrassing Baywatch one-piece, her signed Deep Purple t-shirt. Teens beg her for selfies, flashing their bra straps of Naples yellow, their sports socks of Battenberg pink. The rain doesn’t stop, misting our country miserable.
After orange is ruled illegal, Mum films herself making carrot cake cruffins, pings the video to News at Ten. The bizzies bash her door down even before the ads, charge her with being a colourist, shout she’s facing fifteen to twenty.
She spurns the prison’s sludge-grey porridge, starts a hunger strike, counts the days on the colour wheel I slip her. ‘Saturday’s cerulean,’ she says. ‘I’d like to keep alive until emerald.’ She talks of the scarlet garter she’d worn as a bride, how her art teacher, Sister Fionnuala, had introduced her to celadon and orchil, to heliotrope and Kelly green.
‘Turquoise today,’ she whispers finally, her cheeks as chalky as her raw-linen pillow. She nods when I mention my aqua blue boxers, knows I’m up for the fight. As the last colour leaches from her, the rain eases and the sky brightens, so I wheel her bed to the window. And there we wait, her hand in mine, hoping for sunshine, watching for rainbows.
Chris Cottom lives near Macclesfield, UK, and likes cycling. His work has featured in 100 Word Story, Fictive Dream, Flash Frontier, NFFD NZ, NFFD UK, Oyster River Pages, The Lascaux Review, and other fine places.
chriscottom.wixsite.com/chriscottom
Colour Wheel by Annick Le Breton – @annick_le_breton_art
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Thats beautiful, an enjoyable read, wonderful feisty theme. Thank you.