Not For Kids by Todd Brabander

Author:Todd Brabander
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: horror, cemetery, monster, collection, oregon, circus, northwest, short dark fiction

Paint

~~~

Dustin grabbed my arm and pulled me close. “Listen, I know we’ve known each other for like two minutes, but can you do me a huge favor and please not fuck this up for me?”

I just about had enough of Dustin. He was a stand-up guy in a great suit with eyebrows that were too dark and too perfect for his face, but he was demanding, and he had been at my side for the last three weeks.

This was my first Primunion. It was an honor that very few people in my field ever got a chance to witness. Only the very best of the best ever saw this place, buried deep in the Ecuadoran jungle.

It had been nearly five years to the day since I’d received my Master’ of Fine Arts degree. I graduated at the top of my class. “A prodigy” they called me. Unfortunately there aren’t that many companies looking to fill a prodigy position.

My father was sure that my art degree was a waste of money. “You should have just spent it on lottery tickets,” he told me. Dad was an account manager at a financial planning firm. Money was there to create more money. If you spent money and didn’t get a measurable financial return then you failed in his eyes. He leased all his cars. Vacations were all write-offs. We spent our summers in Cleveland or Dallas so he could get some work done. Network. Press some flesh. We never went camping or went to Disneyland. That would have been a waste of money. He died the year after I graduated. I felt as though I was freed from his judgement and disapproval. But I also felt cheated—I’d never get to show him that I could make it as an artist.

Right out of college I took some odd jobs, and I did some teaching at the community college. My big break came when I won a design award for my work on a veterans’ memorial. The little town of Roaker had lost 21 young men in the Vietnam War. One percent of their entire population. I came up with a design that utilized 21 golden pillars to support a pedestrian walkway over the bank of the Roaker river. It was not only immensely meaningful to the citizens of the tiny town, it was useful and beautiful. They loved it. I get letters thanking me and showing me pictures of weddings on the esplanade.

After the award I started getting more interesting work; I was hired to design a city park, I was brought in to do a mural inside a federal building, and I was commissioned to build a concert hall repurposed from an old brewery building. But it was only after all this that I finally found my calling.

Some people call it graffiti. It takes many forms. One of the most common examples is called tagging—writing one’s name or handle in a stylized way in a highly visible place. Tagging started off as a way for gangs to claim territory, but most tagging you see today is kids-being-kids.

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