Story The Boy in a Russian Hat from The Catalogue Family Affairs

The story titled ‘The Boy in a Russian Hat’ it’s a story about a boy that can do things that nobody else can. 



Today I want to introduce to you one of my stories in the new collection ‘The Catalogue: Family Affairs’. I will also tell you about the painting that I selected for this story from Cristina’s artwork.

The story titled ‘The Boy in a Russian Hat’ it’s a story about a boy that can do things that nobody else can. And he doesn’t know why he can do that, he fears that he harms people with his ability and while everything seems to be a game, he has nightmares by accessing the people’s thoughts.

He doesn’t want that, he doesn’t want to see their unhappiness and furthermore, he doesn’t know what to do with his gift.

The boy was marked in this way by one incident in his life, and he will carry that mark for ever. It is just a matter of learning how to live with it. Or at least, this is what my story says. You, the reader, can chose your own ending.

Now about the painting! The painting that I selected for my book for this particular story is titled ‘Footsteps’. For some reason the footsteps in the sand made me think about my boy in Russian hat.

Now, Cristina’s painting is entitled Footsteps, and I had to interrogate her about the meaning of her painting. Apart from the obvious explanation of the ‘Footsteps’, the painting was inspired by the idea of imprints. As people go through life, as people walk and live their life, they all leave marks behind. They leave a trail and touch other peoples’ lives, they leave footsteps, and I mean both literally and metaphorically.

Some left behind a great legacy, others not so much, some leave behind a positive mark, others some bad ones, but we all manage in a way or another to leave an imprint on Earth. Let’s remind ourselves about the ancient temples, the thousand years old folklores and myths. Even as a group – the human group, I may define it – as we mark our stay on Earth. As I pointed out just above – some bad ones.

The artwork has also been recently selected to participate in an art exhibition in Satu-Mare, Romania. The exhibition is organised by Union of Fine Artists Romania together with Art Museum of Satu Mare and the theme of the exhibition is Significant Sign/Meaningful Mark/Branded Token/ and I honestly struggle here to translate as accurate as I can the theme. I allow myself to relay the title in Romanian: SEMN INSEMNAT, INSEMN INSEMNAT, IN SEMN INSEMNAT – UAP

And finally, here for you a fragment from the story The Boy in a Russian hat:

"The snow came down harder and already the Boy’s boot prints were completely covered. For a while the Boy heard the men’s heavy boots crunching through the snow, until they were all on the stairs on the other side of the door. He could hear their thoughts now, asking each other which one should talk to him. In their minds, the Boy didn’t see nightmares and that made him feel better. Then their thoughts became muffled and their shuffles in the snow told him that they had retreated to the pub square. They debated for a while but from that distance, he was cut off. The Boy suspected they knew he could hear their thoughts. One of the men walked back up to the house.

He took a step on the stairs until he reached the door, and the Boy felt a sharp connection. It was the old man with white hair. Boy could see in the man’s mind an image of a house with a garden, a house that he had seen before. And more importantly, he also sensed no darkness or fear in the man – like the nurse."

The painting 'Footsteps' is Acrylic On Canvas, 60 x 80 cm, and do I need to remind you that all paintings included in the second collection of stories are on my website under Author - The Catalogue page. Scroll until you see the painting with the poppies, and there you can find out about Cristina.