Part 2~

Ella was seven years old when she finally learned how to hold a paintbrush correctly. "But it feels weird!" she complained as her father patiently tried to show her the correct grip.

"But that's how you are supposed to hold it." he replied in a whiny voice. She grumbled and held it like he had shown her. She took a dark blue paint stroke across her canvas with the new grip and was surprised at how good it looked. She laughed and her father corrected the way her pinky finger gripped around the brush. "What are you going to paint with that dark color? Whatever it is it must be dreary." he said looking at the dark blue on the canvas.

"I'm gonna paint the night sky!" she said excitedly. He smiled and let her begin before leaving to go cook dinner. Ella took another paint stroke and frowned at the bland color for the star. She went to her closet and looked through her colors of paint. She picked up the neon pink, green, blue, orange, and yellow, deciding she wanted the stars to pop out. She painted a small butterfly at the bottom of the canvas before covering the night sky with the dark blue color. At this point the butterfly was her signature, showing up on every painting that she had painted.

"Dad!" she yelled from her room. "I'm done!" Her dad walked up the stairs to his daughter's room. On the canvas was a complete painting of the night sky with neon stars that seemed to twinkle. A small butterfly with bright blue wings rested on a flower in the bottom left hand corner.

"It's beautiful!" he said beaming at his talented daughter. Then he grew more somber "I wish your mother could see it." She had died two years before to cancer.

"She can." Ella said reassuringly. She looked at her father worriedly. "Weren't you cooking?" He jumped up and ran down the stairs finally calling up to Ella.

"It's fine. Don't worry, the house is not going to burn down on my watch!" he yelled from the bottom of the stairs.