Sunflower Walls: Dialogue and Description in a Story

Sunflower Walls

1Nadia Haddad had waited all summer for this Saturday. Her bedroom walls were a pale, tired gray, the color of an old sidewalk. Now two cans of sunflower yellow paint sat on the floor beside a roll of blue tape and a stack of brushes.

2"Are you sure about yellow?" asked her older brother, Omar. He pried open the first can and squinted at it. "It looks like the inside of a lemon."

3"That's the whole idea," Nadia said. She tied an old T-shirt over her braids and grabbed a roller. "When I wake up, I want my room to feel like morning."

4Dad spread an old sheet across the carpet. "Rule number one," he said, tapping the sheet with his foot. "Paint stays on the walls, not on the floor."

5For an hour, the three of them worked side by side. Omar painted neat edges around the window. Nadia rolled long stripes up and down the biggest wall, humming as the gray disappeared. Then she stepped back to admire her work, and her heel landed in the paint tray. A bright yellow footprint appeared on the carpet, just past the edge of the sheet.

6Nadia froze. Her cheeks turned hot, and the roller drooped in her hand. "Dad," she whispered, "I broke rule number one."

7Dad looked at the footprint for a long moment. Then he grabbed a damp rag. "Wet paint wipes right up," he said calmly, and he scrubbed until only a faint smudge was left. Omar grinned at his sister. "Now the carpet matches the walls."

8Nadia laughed so hard that she had to sit down on the sheet. By sunset, the last wall was finished. She switched on her lamp, and the whole room glowed like a sunrise.