The Return of Blue

Blue’s return corresponded with the time Red was pining for Cobalt Blue. In other words, it was a time in which no amount of perfect assertiveness by Blue would exact anything resembling a desired response, which Blue learned rather quickly, as Blue was not quite perfectly assertive.

At Pumpkin’s house party, Blue opened with what he considered a firm “Hello.” That was when Red turned to look at him, and that was when Blue’s color sort of drained. Blue’s preparation for this confrontational moment included imagining every conceivable reaction Red might have after his initial hello. From rage to excitement to needing a refresher as to who he was, Blue was ready, except, of course, for the look Red actually gave him, and that was one along the lines of, “You look very ill.”

And Blue somehow knew it was true. He had been so concentrated on his prepared remarks that depended entirely upon whether Red greeted him with love or revulsion or lack of recollection that he had stopped eating altogether for at least a day and was looking quite peaked as a result. In addition to looking pale and sickly, Blue also, though he never would admit it, may very well have been suffering through an anxiety attack at the time he opened with the allegedly firm “Hello.”

In Blue’s defense, once he realized he could not draw on any of his prepared remarks, which included “It’s good to be seen,” and, “Lighten up, so I had a little crush on you. Big deal,” he understood there was no recovery to be made. While Blue strolled away into the sunset (there was in fact a sunset commencing at the time) and into his second banishment, Blue at least did so with a brief smile of genuine amusement at the turn of events he initiated and was now suffering through.

Certainly it was no moment of triumph, for nearly every color was laughing at Blue’s latest train wreck in the pursuit of if not Red’s affection then rather her mere attention.

But in that brief moment when Blue held his smile and eyes to his brothers and sisters in the aftermath of a legendary face-plant, Blue’s looks went from peaked to pretty, somehow.

That’s how Green remembered it, and lots of colors believed her and repeated what she had to say and ended up defining the moment, again not as triumph but rather as nuclear disaster averted and replaced by only sizable natural disaster.

Blue understood the massive damage control Green had influenced by way of Pink who brought news of things and chocolate cupcakes. For the first time Blue understood the powerful alliance a Blue-Green relationship might command. Blue retreated to a mountaintop and when Pink arrived, Blue took the cupcakes and sent her home and that was the end of Blue and Pink.

This is the fourth part. Here's the fifth.