Cielo

Day 1

It started on a Saturday in mid-May. The normally cool May breeze had stagnated. The blue skies were cloudy and grey. Rain, perhaps. That’s what they thought, anyway. That morning, crowds of Cielo citizens squeezed through market stalls as they negotiated pricing on fresh fruit, vegetables, and fish. Down adjacent streets other vendors opened the doors to their shops and sold their goods. A young woman named Rio propped open her studio turned gallery. She had erected shelves and easels of her many paint-covered canvases—as many as she could fit beside her tiny doorway. Rio was, as the stereotype goes, somewhat of a starving artist. Aside from the safety of her mother and abuela constantly pestering her to move back in, she was struggling. She was determined to make do on her own, which meant that she needed to actually figure out how to sell her art. The problem, though, was that no one seemed to want to buy it. They’d glance it over as they passed, but no one took interest enough to venture into the gallery and appreciate the details. Rio found it quite infuriating, to say the least. Perhaps what she needed was to find a town—no, a city—away from here where the people loved art just as much as she did. Not that her mother, abuela, and younger brother would let that happen. They needed her.

Just as people in the streets began to thin out, an uproar of thunder erupted from above the small town. Shopkeepers scrambled to bring their things inside, including Rio who rushed around pulling her paintings from the walls and shelves outside the gallery. The first drops of rain poured down the second after she managed to grab the last few canvases and bring them in. People took shelter from the cold rain and watched as it cast a heavy blanket of water over the town, wishing it would lighten up so that they could go home. As if maliciously complying with their wishes, the rain simply paused. In mid-air. Each droplet was frozen in time, all the way from the center of town to its outskirts. No one knew what was happening. Before they could figure it out, the rain fell all at once, drenching those who had ventured out for a peek. Those in the center of town could almost write it off as some weird weather phenomenon with air resistance or something. Those on the edge of town, however, discovered something else entirely. At the precise moment that the rain had begun falling once again, a veil had been drawn up between Cielo and the outside world. Panic rose as word spread and people tried to find some way out. They swam deep under water in the town’s torrents and dug trenches in fields, both methods unsuccessful.

When the news reached the town center, Rio and her family realized at once that Rio’s brother had been driving back to town. Rio raced to the main road into town, arriving just in time to see her brother’s car approaching fast. She and others stood in the street, screaming at the top of their lungs. But her brother wasn’t looking and the sound of their voices bounced right back at them. It was then that they found out the hard way that any force pushed against the veil was pushed right back.

Day 60

Rio had not seen her brother since the day he got into the car accident. Since that day the veil separated them. She didn’t know if he was even alive, let alone where he was. One day, her mother came running into her studio and scared her into dropping her paintbrush on the floor. She told Rio that her younger brother had finally come back, that he was waiting at the veil for them. Rio and her mother drove as fast as they could to the edge of town, stopping abruptly at the warning signs that had been put up ahead of the veil. In front of her was her brother, who seemed to be completely healed, aside from a subtle limp. There were tears in his eyes as he wrote on a sign. He held it up for Rio and her mother to see— “I am going to Barcelona to live with Aunt Camila. I will come back for you one day when this is over”. Tears flowed from all three of them and Rio closed the gap between her and the veil, holding up a hand just in front of it. Her brother did the same and Rio’s mother placed a hand on her shoulder. The three of them shared a silent moment, conveying their love without saying a word. When everyone had gone, she stared up at the grey sky that had plagued them since that first day. She cried and cursed it out until there were no words left to be said and she had no energy to yell.

Day 182

Six months. Six months of being even more stuck in the place that she’s been trying to get out of since the second she turned 18. Rio was holed up in her studio, desperate to paint something, anything. Unfortunately, she had been in quite the rut since her brother left. She comforted herself with the knowledge that he was alive, and he was out there with the rest of the world instead of isolated here. Frustrated with the blank canvas, Rio stood from her stool and decided to paint something else for a change. She grabbed a large bucket of paint and a wide paintbrush, then walked over to a blank wall of her gallery. Without much thought, she made a long, curved streak of green across the wall. Then another, and another. Finally, she let her mind run wild with ideas and danced around with various paint colors until a proper mural had formed on the wall. When she finally stood back, she saw her brushstrokes had formed a picture of her small town with vibrantly colored homes, nestled in a mountain and atop cliffs overlooking water. In reality, the town’s buildings were nearly all made of the same color brown stone and, the longer Rio was stuck behind the veil, the duller the town had looked to her. So, her mind had dreamed up a place with colorful mosaic tiles, endless flowers, murals, and bright blue skies. She never thought she’d miss something about Cielo, but the blue sky that hung above them before the veil was so much more beautiful than the grey one that was present now.

Day 365

After that first mural on her gallery wall, people began to wander into her gallery, intrigued by the vibrant colors. It wasn’t just Rio who had felt a heavy weight slowly pressing down on her since the veil came along. One day, an older man came in to see what all the fuss was about and was taken aback by her mural. He nearly teared up at the sight of it and Rio felt a sense of pride that her work was finally being appreciated. Before he left, the man requested that Rio paint him a similar mural on the side of his shop, and she eagerly agreed. Now, a year into isolation, Rio began to feel less alone. She had painted a handful of murals since her first and had begun other forms of art as well. Rio crafted a gorgeous mosaic on the wall right outside her shop for all to see as they passed by. She received endless compliments and even a couple requests to make some from various townsfolk. Rio became a busy woman, but also the happiest she had ever been, even before the veil. Nearly everyone in town had been by to see her art. Even the farmers who lived on the outskirts of town made the trip to her gallery. Rio was realizing that it wasn’t just her who had been affected by her art popping up with increasing frequency around town; the townspeople were too. Everyone had nearly forgetten their isolation from the outside world as they came together to help each other and appreciate the good things that they still had.

Day 1826

Nearly five years after the veil had come up, on a random Tuesday afternoon, a loud crack of thunder sent waves through the town. The townspeople froze in fear. The weather had been the same every day without fail, why now did it change? Thirty seconds after the thunder, pouring rain drenched the town just like that first day. And it too stilled in mid-air. The people of Cielo held their breath. As sharply as it had stopped, the rain fell at once. What followed was even more unexpected. As if someone had turned the saturation up on their town, the sky transitioned to a bright blue as the clouds parted. Golden sunrays shone brightly down on the townspeople as they mingled in the streets. The air itself felt different. It felt lighter, like a weight had been lifted from their shoulders. The town hesitated to celebrate, waiting to see if their truest hopes and prayers were finally granted. Everyone clamored to get to the edge of town, waiting until everyone was together to test it. Rio was the first to step past the sign. Then, she took another step, and another, until she reached the edge of the veil. Everyone was silent. Taking a deep breath, Rio closed her eyes and stepped forward once more. And nothing stopped her. Just to make sure, she opened her eyes and walked forward, not stopping until everyone was convinced. The veil was gone. They were free and connected to the world once more.

Day 1840

The first thing that Rio had done was call her brother, whose voice was deeper than she remembered. He was 23 now, just a year younger than she had been when this all started. Of course, he packed up his things faster than one would think possible and raced across the country to get home. Home. If it still was, anyway. When he arrived in town, the first thing he noticed was Rio’s artwork. He didn’t even have to ask to know that the murals, the mosaics, the colored walls and stained glass—all of them—were hers. He’d always been a fan of hers, even if his younger brother instincts sometimes prevented him from showing it. In Barcelona he’d regretted those moments over the years, when he had neglected to show his love for his older sister while they were still together. This time, when he saw her standing in the doorway of their childhood home, he raced to pick her up and spin her around. Tears were shed from the whole family as they said their hellos. However, Rio quickly perked up when she remembered today’s big event, which she was happy her brother would be here to witness. To commemorate five years of resilience and a new chapter for the town, the people had decided that Cielo had changed so much that it deserved a new name. Everyone excitedly crowded around as it was announced that Cielo would now be called Renacio. The word itself meant reborn, which is exactly what the town had been. They went through hard times together and, though they felt stuck and had many hard times, Rio brought the town together and they were all better for it. Things were simply different now. And, if it wasn’t already obvious that she had changed her mind, Rio wouldn’t be leaving her family or Renacio anytime soon. She needed it as much as it needed her.