I propped my canvas to the stand.  The oil paint already in the palette, black and white to create the perfect shades and hues, some red, blue, and yellow.  Today, I’ll be painting the couple giggling below the pine tree. They were both sitting with their backs resting on the tree’s trunk.  The gal rested her head on the guy’s shoulder. It was a beautiful scene I wanted to immortalize on my canvas.  

The painting was carefully placed on the stand by the sala.  I hoped that the morning after, it would still be the same, but it was not.  The painting had turned to black and white. The lush green of the grass and trees were turned gray.  The happy couple erased out of the painting.  

When was the last time my paintings remained the same as they were before?  I can no longer remember. I looked at my very first painting when I was still ten, a brown puppy curled on a pillow, its eyes looking straight at me as if it has come to life from the painting.  The painting was hanging right above the shelf of awards I previously received from painting competitions. Exactly below it were portraits of my parents and group photos with my friends. When was the last time I saw them? I can’t remember.

Stashed beside the shelf are the black and white paintings.  Ghosts. Are they real? Are they able to turn paintings colorless? I don’t think so.  Burglars? Burglars changing my paintings? Definitely not. The mysterious paintings were still unresolved.  

My birthday, that was the day it first happened.  I had been so busy painting for almost a year that was the time I decided to call them up.  Needless to say, my family and friends were all unavailable; which prompted me to grab my canvas and oil paints to somewhere else.  

My legs led me to a family reunion, I saw how happy the children were I started to paint.  Look how they laughed as they played tag. Look at the teenagers, mobile phones on hand, and I saw one quietly sitting by a bench flipping through a book.

It was all on the painting.  An art depicting families on social gatherings.  By morning, the children, the teens, and other attendees were simply… gone.