Romeo 39-s Blue Skies Alfredo And Nikita Review

Romeo took off his mask.

“I remember blue,” he said. “Tasted like salt. Like the sea before everything.”

And somewhere, Nikita wagged her tail like a promise.

He painted those skies on the only canvas left: the wall of Alfredo’s kitchen. romeo 39-s blue skies alfredo and nikita

Alfredo set down his ladle, walked over, and pressed a palm to the wet paint. For a moment — just a moment — his eyes went distant, like he was seeing something beyond the wall.

Nikita barked once — her agreement noise — and padded over to Romeo, leaning her weight against his leg. She was the color of clouds before a storm. The only white thing left in the district.

Romeo hadn’t seen a clear sky in three years. Not since the chemical rains started scrubbing the atmosphere clean of color, leaving everything a jaundiced yellow-gray. But sometimes, when the wind shifted and the old filters in his mask worked just right, he could imagine blue. That deep, endless blue of his childhood — the one his grandmother called “God’s own ink.” Romeo took off his mask

“There,” Romeo whispered. “Romeo’s blue skies.”

Here’s an original flash fiction piece inspired by those keywords:

Because for one insane, beautiful second — the sky in his painting looked real enough to fall into. Like the sea before everything

The air was bitter, metallic. But he breathed deep anyway.

Romeo smiled under his respirator. “Then you’ll have a window.”