Painting was everything to Walid, and all day long he thought about colors. He envisioned a whole palette of colors in his mind, named after familiar people and things. There was Sara beige, the color of his friend Sara’s eyes; there was waterfall blue, the color of the waterfall near his house. And there was sock green, the color of his sister’s favorite socks.
But after a while, it seemed as though he had seen everything the color spectrum had to offer. His life became miserable because every color he mixed on his palette looked humdrum and uninspiring.
That was why he signed up for the trip to Mars. There was a rumor that Mars had even more colors than Earth and that there were some colors on Mars never seen by people. The trip on the spaceship would be long, but Walid prepared his mind for something new and spectacular.
When he stepped off the spaceship and walked onto Mars, he blinked. All he could see was red. Walid’s heart sank as he looked out at the red sky and the red land and the red water.
He trudged to the living quarters before deciding to take a walk. Walking through a world of red saddened him, but as he peered ahead, he saw some strange large standing rocks in the distance. Walid jogged to them, and as he got closer to them they began to change colors. The light reflected off the surface of the rocks in dazzling patterns. They were orange, yellow, and—what was that? It was a color he’d never seen before. It wasn’t green and it wasn’t blue—what was it? Walid sat down on a rock and stared ahead. There was a whole world of color in front of him. Walid breathed deep. He was home.
How does the author use this setting?
On Mars, Walid’s paintings are worth far more money because people miss seeing colors other than red.
On Mars, Walid finds that there are no new colors and gives up on his dream.
On Mars, Walid learns to become an artist by learning from Martians.
On Mars, Walid is able to find a new color, and his wish has come true.