Dreams Of Fame
1.7 - Insanity
Every day was the same.
Giovanna would wake up, in the same clothes she’d been wearing for what seemed to be a countless number of days, use the toilet, then open the fridge to find yet another bowl of yogurt that had been left there by Zoe while she was sleeping.
Giovanna would wake up, in the same clothes she’d been wearing for what seemed to be a countless number of days, use the toilet, then open the fridge to find yet another bowl of yogurt that had been left there by Zoe while she was sleeping.
She’d shower, then she’d do nothing but paint. There was nothing else in the depressing, dimly lit basement.
Zoe would enter once a day to replenish her yogurt supply and take her most recent painting. That was always the highlight of her day.
Rinse and repeat. The same dreary lifestyle, no socialization, and most of all, none of the freedom she’d experienced her whole life up until that point. There was no wide open world to explore. She wasn’t sleeping in a new place every night. And most of all, the love of her life wasn’t by her side to get her through the most difficult thing she’d endured thus far. That is, if her stories actually were fictional.
Sometimes, if Giovanna was especially lucky, she’d hear the echoes of Summer, Travis, and Liberty in the room upstairs. One time, Travis had offered to move the stuff in the corner of Zoe’s house, and started shifting the giant dresser.
Zoe stopped him before he discovered the staircase. No one could know her secret.
She was finally making money, and had even held a book signing with a decent turn out.
Jo didn’t come around as often anymore.
The most recent time she’d shown up, about a week ago, Giovanna overheard parts of their conservation.
“Hey Zoe.. have you seen Giovanna around recently? I haven’t seen her in months.”
“No. But you know her. Always a bit on the wild side. Maybe she ran off to some other town?”
“I don’t think so… we were getting to be pretty good friends. You and her too.”
“I’m sure she’s fine. And either way, she’s missing out on all the great publicity the stories she’s telling me are getting! Her loss.”
“How do you get those paintings for the illustrations, anyway? I doubt Giovanna left you with that many before she disappeared…”
“You’d be surprised Jo. Very surprised…”
Somedays, Giovanna heard voices echoing in the basement around her. There was one day she’d even claimed to have seen her husband.
Sometimes, she’d imagine herself to be somewhere else and paint a vivid scene of a place she’d seen once and just live in that painting for awhile. Imagine herself there with her husband, just like the days of old. Sometimes, Jo or the Zoe that had existed before she'd been thrown into a basement went into her painted worlds with her.
When she saw that, Giovanna couldn't be happier. In her paintings, not a single thing was wrong with her life and everyone was happy. There wasn’t a frown to be seen. Not in her painted world.