“Not that one! That’s mint green, I need pale green. Now!”

Mr. Achello needed a Xanax. Or chloroform. Or a good old fashion smack upside the head.

Lisa goes back to the shelf and starts looking for pale green, which is soo different from mint green, and found it between emerald and juniper. Correct paint in her hands, she goes back to Mr. Achello.

“Here you go Mr. Achello.” He takes the paint, looks down and frowns.

“Actually, I like the mint green better now. Go get it!” He screams.

This is not worth ten dollars per hour.

“And get me chartreuse, navy, and tangerine. On the double!”

Lisa hides her frustrated expression, turns around, and goes back in the storeroom to get the colors he wants. Returning, he only glanced at the paint.

“That navy is a watercolor paint, I need oil paint!”

What a difference.

“Yes Mr. Achello,” Lisa says, going back once again. This time, she stays in the storeroom longer, unwilling to move from her hiding spot. Mr. Achello is an impossible man to work for. Constantly changing his mind, asking for ‘Sky blue, Pearl white, Apricot, and everything has to be oil paint!.’ But a job is a job, no matter how much the boss sound like a toddler throwing a tantrum. Grabbing the navy, which isn’t watercolor, and returned back to him.

“The navy oil paint,” she says walking up to his back. But suddenly he turns around and the navy paint goes all over his apron in a big splash. Lisa freezes. I’m definitely going to get fired, she thinks.

But surprisingly, Mr. Achello gives a smile, the first and only smile Lisa has ever seen him have. It’s big, and makes his face looks more relaxed than his more common grumpy face.

“That’s it!”

Without any answers, he grabs the paint and starts flinging the navy at his painting, making little splatters of blue across the canvas. Quickly grabbing the other paints, he repeats until it looked like a rainbow threw up. Taking his long brush, he does a few quick strokes and steps back. Nodding to himself, he turns to Lisa, who by this point is long confused.

“What do you think?”

Amazed that he is asking for her opinion, she mutely goes up to the painting. It still looked like rainbow remains, messy and colorful. He had somehow mixed colors in the middle and spread them out to the ends. Finally, with a second look to make sure she wasn’t seeing things, Lisa turned to Mr. Achello. “Is that…me?” She asks. In the middle, the silhouette of a girl was in the middle, somehow looking both part of the colors and different from it.

He gives her a small and happy nod. “Yes,” he replies. “Most employees of mine normally leave by, let’s see,” he looks at the clock on the wall, “one hour ago. But not you.”

Lisa didn’t know how to respond to that. “Well, thanks I think…I mean, I caused a big mess on your apron.”

He gives her his second smile, this time less big and warmer. “A little chaos is exactly what’s needed to create something extra special. It’s why the best artists and often the most insane ones. And the messiest people you’ll ever meet.” And Lisa was shocked speechless. “Come on, lets put it in the exhibit,” he says.

Lisa grabs the painting and goes to follow Mr. Achello.

Mr. Achello is now her favorite person in the world.