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Eric Chapman's first day in Piffling Vale was also the day he saw colours for the first time. He went to church to see the funeral being given by those who would soon be his competitors. And one moment the place was in black and white and the next there was an explosion of colors in front of his eyes.
Everything was suddenly more beautiful, more alive, made him feel grateful for all the choices he had made that had ended up taking him to that island at that time. All the colors were beautiful, but the one that most caught his attention was red of the hair of a young woman who he would soon learn to be Georgie Crusoé. And for the rest of the ceremony Eric paid attention to the girl with red hair, not the pale man dressed in black and gray by her side.
.
.
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A few years had passed since that day, and Eric saw colours in all of them. But the identity of the person responsible for bringing colours into his life was still a mystery. At first he thought it was Georgie who was his soulmate. In the years that followed he had many other suspicions. For some time now his main theory was that maybe there was someone who came to the island just for that funeral and left while he stayed.
He tried not to feel too bad about it, he had a good life in a beautiful community, and he had good friends.
On that particular day he had no funeral scheduled so he crossed the square to see his favorite people on the island.
"Good morning Georgie"
"Hi," she replied.
"Is Rudyard here?"
"In his bedroom"
"Do you mind calling him for me?"
"Yes, I mind, do it yourself"
"Okay"
Of the members of Funn Funerals Georgie was the only one he felt still genuinely disliked him, it was bizarre to think that he had spent so many months absolutely convinced that she was his soulmate.
When he arrived in the room for a moment he just watched Rudyard, he was at his desk writing something.
"Good morning Rudyard" he said.
"Chapman. What do you want?" Rudyard said without deviating his eyes from what he was doing.
"Nothing, just bored. No one has died lately" Eric said sitting on the bed.
"I know, it's awful"
"I'm not sure if I would say it's awful. And besides, you have your job as an archivist, you shouldn't be that bored."
"And you have your thousands of other little businesses"
"Yes, but it's not the same ... what are you doing?"
"Just drawing something I want to make"
"What is it ?" Eric got up to see the drawing.
"It's a piece of furniture for Madeline to put her hats"
"Does Madeline wear hats?"
"No, but I think that if she decides at some point in the future to start wearing she would like to have an appropriate place to store them"
"You are very good to her"
"As she is to me. She is my best friend"
And for a moment Eric Chapman found himself with the peculiar thought that he was a little jealous of a mouse.
"Since you're standing up do something useful and pass me the blue forms on the shelf above my bed"
Eric did it without thinking much about it.
And then he thought.
"Rudyard, how do you know the paper is blue?"
"Because the J-17 forms are always blue, they came with an error so I use them as scratch paper. And also because I can see that they are blue"
"Since when can you see colours?"
Only then did Rudyard realize the reason for Eric's question.
"Some years"
"How many years?"
"I'm not sure"
"Would the number be the same number of years, months, days and hours since we met?"
"...yes"
Eric took a deep breath. He thought that the moment when he found the person who had made him start seeing colours would be one of pure joy. But now he was just confused and angry.
"You are unbelievable. Why didn't you tell me?"
"It happened to you too, you were there when it happened"
"There were dozens of people at the Church Rudyard, all of whom I met that day. I didn't knew it was you. But you knew it was me because I was the only new person on the island. So yes, you should have told me."
"Welll...that is an opinion that you are allowed to have. But it is not one that I share"
"You are unbearable sometimes"
"And I am your soulmate, what does that tell you about yourself?"
Eric left the room and slammed the door.
Georgie came to scold him but she stopped herself when she saw the expression on his face.
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.
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A few hours later Rudyard found Eric on the beach, sitting on the sand, looking at the sea. He still seemed as anguished as he had been when he left Funn Funerals earlier that day.
"Chapman"
"Rudyard"
"I told my sister and Georgie why you were so upset and they agreed with you instead of me and said I should come and apologize"
"That is not an apology"
"I am sorry. Happy now, Chapman?"
"No"
"May I sit here ?"
"Do whatever you want Rudyard, you always do"
"Okay then I will" Rudyard said and sat next to Eric on the sand, their shoulders touching. When Eric said nothing, he continued, "I used to think that all the blues would be the same, the sea and the sky, that the only distinction would be texture and depth. But they are all so different. I still haven't gotten used to it completely. And there is days that the sky gets sort of pinkish before sunset, nobody told me about that "
"I was also surprised the first time I saw it"
"Chapman, I really-"
"You are my soulmate, the least you can do is call me by my first name"
"It will be hard to get used to it, anyway, I'm really sorry. I wasn't sure if you knew it was me or not, but I knew it was more probable you didn't. And I thought it would be better for you if you didn't know "
"It wasn't. I waited my whole life to meet you"
"And I spent my entire life being sure that I would never have a soulmate. And then one day out of nowhere I got one"
"Why would you think that?"
"Well ... because there are certain things that people are expected to do with their soulmates and I have no interest in those things"
"Are you talking about sex?"
"Yes"
"And love, romance, these things don't interest you too?"
"It would be selfish of me to want these things, when I am not willing to give everything else that usually comes with them. And I know you are not like me in that aspect"
"That was not my question, do you want them?"
"Yes, I think I do"
"I want them too"
Eric kissed him. It was sweet, but for a moment he thought that maybe it was a mistake, because Rudyard looked worried when the kiss ended.
"I'm sorry. You didn't liked it?"
"I liked it. Another thing that Eric Chapman is good at. Shocking… but I don't think you should kiss me just because you know I'm your soulmate now. I'm still the same person I was yesterday"
"That wasn't why I did it. Rudyard I always liked you, and wanted to spend time with you, even when it didn't make any sense. Maybe I should have figured it out sooner that it was you. I wanted to kiss you many times before today. And I want to spend the rest of my life with you, loving you and making you as happy as possible in all the ways you want "
"Good lord Chapman, we haven't even gone on a date yet. Save those things for later. And people say I'm the weirdo"
"If you count all the times that we spent time together as dates we had a lot of dates"
"I don't count those as dates"
"Okay then, Rudyard Funn would you like to go on a date with me?"
"Against my better judgment, yes Chapman, Eric, I think I would like that very much"