The Dye Garden – Part 2: Two Colours

June wove the scarf in the last week of her stay.

She had dyed the wool herself: half in Valentina's deep indigo, half in her own wild marigold, over-dipped in a bath of pomegranate so the two colours bled together in the middle. The result was a warm shifting gradient from midnight blue through a vivid green to bright gold, like the sky going down. She set it up on the old wooden loom in the studio and wove it row by row, with Valentina sitting beside her, passing the shuttle.

The scarf took five days. On the last evening, June cut it from the loom and held it up. It rippled in the golden light, soft and shimmering.

"It's beautiful," said Valentina, hoarsely.

"It's the colour of us," said June, and then went scarlet. "I mean. Of the dye garden. Of both of us. The blue and the yellow."

"I understood."

The courtyard was hushed. The sun was low and orange, lighting the lines of hanging wool like dyed flags. Swifts screamed overhead. The pomegranate tree rustled.

"I fly home on Friday," said June.

"I know."

"I'd like to come back."

"I would like that very much." Valentina took the scarf, and gently looped it round June's shoulders. Her hands lingered at the ends. Her face was serious, shy, fond. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yes."

"May I kiss you, June? You have been so many colours."

June laughed, tears in her eyes. "Yes. And if I say stop, you must teach me to make green without cheating."

"It takes years."

"I have years."

Valentina kissed her, soft and dyed-fingered, a hand rising to the bandana. June kissed her back with a bright, trembling joy, tasting of lemon and sun. The scarf glowed between them. The dye pots simmered quietly in the corner.

When they parted, both of them were smiling.

"Green?" asked Valentina.

"Green," said June. "Very green."

She came back in January. The scarf hangs in the studio window. The label in the corner says: Indigo, marigold, pomegranate. J. and V.

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