2015 Writer's Challenge Week #35: Describe a colour without using sight.
Close Your Eyes
I'm old now. Very old. By rights I should have departed this earth many years ago. Strange though, the life of a physician. It's rare in our profession to contract whatever illness is plaguing a patient. No pun intended. One thing I cannot escape though is the effects of aging. My sight has diminished over the past few years, I've come to accept it and now I am fully blind. People still come to me though, to consult, but the physical aspects of my chosen profession are done by others now. No need to express sorrow, I am comfortable in my retirement. I get the occasional questions though, mostly from the children, that stops me and makes me ponder. Questions like what is colour when you can't see it?
Bear with an old man's ramblings and I will 'show' you. First, close your eyes.
Hear that sound? Or rather the lack of it? That still hush in the forest, when the birds aren't singing? There is no wind, there is only calm, and peace and quietness? Occasionally you hear water, dripping randomly, some smaller drops, some larger, some slow, some fast. How about the gurgling in a little stream? Imagine that, if you will.
Now, what happens if you were to accidentally bite the inside of your mouth? Or your lip? Or if you were to lose a tooth, say? You would bleed. The taste of that blood is the taste of iron, it's metallic, of the earth, an odd salty, tangy taste, one you are not used to. Can you taste it?
Let me go on, but you must keep your eyes closed.
What does it smell like when the earth and the forest has been dry for some time and it begins to rain? It is refreshing, you breathe it in deep. It is earthy, with the smell of good, healthy soil, the forest with its trees; cedars, pines, firs, junipers. Dry stone and pavement after weeks or months with no water suddenly releases an aroma that you can't help but inhale feeling it wash through you, lifting you up, reviving your spirits. It is a smell of life renewed, and you don't want it to go away.
You are hearing it, you can taste it, you can smell it, but what does it feel like?
It's a fine dampness, kissing your cheeks, can you feel it cling to your face, to your hands? Or it can be more than that, dampening your clothes, sometimes even causing a chill from the coldness of it as it settles all around you like a shroud. Here, I have a coin in my hand. I want you to feel the coin. Feel the face of it, it's surprising soft though firm, cool, and faintly slippery like it has a fine oily surface. Can you feel that with your fingertips?
The coin is silver, the fine dampness, and the still quiet in the forest is mist, or fog. The drips and the smell of dust after rain is water, the taste is metallic.
My eyes may have diminished now by reason of age, but I can still clearly see. I bet you never thought the colour grey could be quite so interesting!
Describe another colour?
Orange?
Oh dear...
Let me think on that one.