Now the weather was clear enough, AJ remembered her promise to Maranya Valkonan to lend some of her time to the mural painting that was going on at Riverview to entertain the children. With permission from the master of her studio, she packed up a huge bag of paints and brushes, together with stencils that the children might like to use, all part of a donation to the Clinic from her master and his small army of apprentices and journeymen. And promptly plunged into one of the most entertaining weeks of her life.

At first the children had been wary of her, understandably so; after all, she was a stranger to them, and only vaguely known by the staff. Her only real connection with the clinic was through Doctor Ryan who, as an OB/GYN, was not likely to have passed this way regularly enough for the children to know him. But of course, she had come bearing gifts, and the cheery smile that seemed to make her friends easily enough.

Within an hour, she was firmly ensconced with them, explaining how to mix paint so it wasn't too thin, keeping an eye on the enthusiastic coating of the wall in the base paint that she was certain she would end up wearing by the end of the day. She wasn't wrong.

As the days progressed, she found herself working alongside the artistic, the enthusiastic, and the downright worryingly hyperactive of the children, intensely grateful that she was not the only one working with them as they decorated their clinic's walls with bits of their own imagination.

As each layer was built up, time was needed to let the paint dry, and AJ found herself teaching those that were willing about her own occupation, the basics of being an artist. She showed them how to make paint from the raw materials, how to makes stencils of their own, to create an image on paper from their own imagination. And not once, in the entire week, did she stop smiling.

Oh yes, this had definitely been a visit to remember.