For a year the water had been calm,

until the horizon swelled and rose into a wall of water,

a living sky folding itself over the city.

It wrecked the dull and fragile city of Raythem.

When the townsfolk saw the aftermath, they were astonished.

The wave hadn’t ruined the city-

it had stripped all of the gray and white paint from every building,

revealing messy, vibrant, and beautiful colors splashed on every home and shop.

The tsunami hadn’t harmed the townsfolk, but instead seemed to breathe new life into them.

Their smiles grew wider, their tears fell freer, their words flowed with a newfound vividness.

They realized that there was nowhere else they would rather be.

What had caused the wave, no one ever knew.

Some believed it was a blessing from the gods;

Others thought it was nothing more than chance.

That night, the people of Raythem went to bed with hearts brimming with hope.

But when they awoke, their town had returned to its old state.

The buildings were once again muted and gray.

Yet the livened feeling had not faded entirely-

the wave had given them hope.

And just like that, their hope had been stolen from them.

To the townsfolk, nothing was worse than longing for something they could not have,

something they had once known and feared they might never see again.

And so, the people of Raythem went on with their lives.

Their smiles dimmed, but never fully vanished,

For deep within them-

So deep they scarcely noticed-

there was a light.

A light of hope.

Hope that someday the wave might return 

And would paint their town colors they had never even dreamed of.

Raythem’s name never reached the maps or the mouths of strangers.   

Its truth was hidden, scrambled into its very name,

known only to those who had stood in its streets

when the colors came.