I was looking at a certain artwork which I thought was the work of my six-year old niece.
It was a landscape of a farm, which is what she most often draw ever since she started drawing.
The artwork was drawn on a piece of scratch paper.
What was new in the artwork was the presence of a rainbow.
I smiled.
I looked at the rainbow colors and they were in the correct order except that it has no green.
A few hours later, while killing myself bored to death watching television, my niece approached me with a clean set of paper and her favorite set of coloring pens.
"Draw me a rainbow, please," she asked me.
I was surprised.
"I thought you know how to draw it already? I saw it in one of your works," I told her.
"The rainbow wasn't mine," she said.
"It was Ate Yvonne's," she added, referring to an older friend.
Feeling a bit lazy that day and not wanting to do any manual work, I proposed, "okay, I will tell you the colors, then you'll be the one to draw it.
" She smiled in excitement.
Good thing I can still recall my rainbow mnemonics: ROY G.
BIV "Red," I commenced.
She eagerly picked up a Red coloring pen and drew an arc on the paper.
She then looked up at me.
"Owenj," I continued, saying it in a baby-talk way.
She found an orange pen and drew another arc under the red arc.
She looked up at me again.
"Yellow," I proceeded.
She stumbled upon the coloring pens and found the yellow one.
She then drew a yellow arc under the orange one.
"Gweeeeeeen!" I said childishly.
She gave me a grin and picked a green pen.
"Blue," I continued, remembering that it was once my favorite color until I decided to have green.
She proceeded with her rainbow using a blue pen.
I almost choke when I realized that the next letter was "I.
" She was looking up at me, her face reflects the eagerness to learn and to pick the next color.
I squirmed, my eyeballs were looking at the upper portion of my eye sockets while trying to recall what the letter "I" means in the rainbow mnemonics.
I looked back with a wrinkled face at her.
I hate it, her face is still eager and I don't want to disappoint her.
Then i remembered it...
but it was on the tip of my tongue! Then I realized it was...
INDIGO.
I choked again.
How can I tell my six-year old niece about indigo? What's the layman's term for indigo? How can you describe an indigo? I didn't know what exactly indigo was.
I squirmed again.
Looking at her at that moment felt like I was in a live game show on television with a timer to beat.
My niece is still looking up at me with a happy and eager face.
Giving up all hopes, I blurted, "indigo.
" She squirmed, still looking up at me.
Probably analyzing what indigo was.
I was afraid that she'll be asking what indigo is.
A few seconds later, her face lightened.
"Ah! Blue-violet!" She exclaimed.
My jaw dropped.
How could she know about indigo being blue-violet? I just gave her a nod since I don't know about indigo was, and since blue-violet is close to blue anyway.
I later researched about "indigo" and found that it was a mix of blue, violet, gray and black.
When I took a closer look at the ROY G BIV mnemonics, Indigo is between BLUE and VIOLET! Shame on me for just realizing it now.
Her favorite set of coloring pens have blue-violet in it.
"Violet," I finally said.
She ended her activity with a violet pen...
and she got a rainbow! I treasure my niece.
She always reminds me of the beauty of simple life, the joy of layman's terms, the fun in simple processes, and the freedom of free-flowing thoughts.