"You know, the doctor and the artist have much in common. The doctor tends to the weaknesses of the flesh, the infirmities of the mind. And artists, too, are healers. Their art is nourishment for the human soul. Without it, we wither and die."

Yuri sat in the packed hospital auditorium, listening intently to the lecture being delivered by Dr. Samuel Alexander on the interwoven nature of the arts and sciences.

"Yet the question remains, who's to heal the healers?" Dr. Alexander asked the crowd before him. "I suppose we have to look after each other."

As Dr. Alexander finished his lecture, the multitude of doctors, medical students, and art aficionados came to their feet and gave him a resounding round of applause. Yuri was startled by how quickly everyone around her stood to clap, but she hastily hopped to her feet to join in the praise being offered to the good doctor.

While Dr. Alexander bowed politely to the cheering of the masses, the director of the hospital walked on stage and shook his hand while addressing the auditorium. "I would like to thank Dr. Alexander once again for coming all the way from the United States to honor us with this wonderful lecture."

Dr. Alexander waved his hand dismissively at the praise. "Oh, no need for all that. I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I may as well stop by my old stomping grounds." Looking out over the crowd, the retired physician ran a hand through his white hair. "How about I take some questions before I head out?"

"Excellent!" The hospital director said as he happily clasped his hands together.

As the vast majority of the lecture attendees filtered out of the room, Yuri began to walk towards the auditorium stage. Rehearsing what she wanted to ask him in her head, Yuri looked back up to Dr. Alexander, who had already been surrounded by about a dozen or so people that were all fielding their questions to him.

"Dr. Alexander!" One young doctor shouted to get his attention. "Why did you shift your studies to art?"

"My personal interest was somewhat negligible in the beginning, I took up painting after I retired from surgery as a hobby, idle hands and all that." Dr. Alexander answered, looking at the back of his left hand. "But as I learned more about the mediums of art, I grew to appreciate the multitude of artistic expression amongst varying cultures, and how it reflects philosophical evolution. Art allows one to see the growth, perspective, observation, and interpretation of a people throughout time."

Another question came from the crowd as soon as the first was answered. "But Doctor, how exactly does art allow someone to see the growth of a culture?"

Dr. Alexander replied while turning to the provider of the next question. "Because of the socio-technological balance, my dear lad. All scientific advancement is due to intelligence overcoming and compensating for human limitations. Think of it this way..." He began as he started to pace back and forth slowly. "If you're unable to carry a load, you invent the wheel. If you can't catch food, you invent the spear. Without the limitations of the human body there would, in turn, be no advancement. Think of the difference in life between the Medieval age and that of the Renaissance, not just in the aspect of artwork, but that of everyday life as well. Thereby without advancement, culture would stagnate."

As people continued to go over to Dr. Alexander to ask questions, Yuri began to feel a bit apprehensive. She had wanted to speak to Dr. Alexander ever since she read his novel, but she couldn't bring herself to just walk up to him with all those people around to try and shout out a question above everyone else.

"What if I ask a stupid question...?" Yuri thought to herself. "What if everyone laughs at me...?"

Shifting in place slightly as she let people pass by her, Yuri checked the time on her phone, it was already a quarter to seven, and her curfew was at ten o'clock. Looking back up from her phone to Dr. Alexander, Yuri decided it would be best to just wait until everyone else had asked their questions. So Yuri put her phone back into her school bag, sat down, and waited.

...

"U-Um... Excuse m-me..." Yuri meekly called out as she neared the auditorium stage, getting Dr. Alexander's attention as he was preparing to leave the room.

Looking around briefly before spotting her and smiling, Dr. Alexander responded in a friendly voice. "Yes, young lady?" As he walked over to address the girl at the front of the stage, Dr. Alexander uttered out an apology. "I'm terribly sorry, I thought that everyone had left."

Finally close enough to get a good look at the girl without his glasses on, he noticed her uniform as he stopped at the stairs. "That uniform... You're not a resident of this hospital, are you?"

"N-No!" Yuri responded, more loudly than she intended. Embarrassed, she began to rub a few strands of her long, purple hair between her fingers. "No, I'm not... s-sorry..."

"Oh, fiddlesticks!" Dr. Alexander called out in an equally loud manner as he walked down the stairs of the stage. "There's nothing to apologize for. I'm just surprised a high schooler would spend her time after school listening to an old fuddy duddy like me."

"You're not a fuddy duddy!" Yuri said, again, far more loudly than she had wanted to. She was so nervous speaking to someone she admired that she was having difficulty controlling the volume of her voice. Self-conscious, Yuri turned her face to the side, as her cheeks began to go red.

Chuckling at her insistence that he was no fuddy duddy, Dr. Alexander attempted to calm her nerves. "There's no need to be nervous. What's your name?"

"...Yuri." She answered, looking at the good doctor out of the corner of her bangs, still feeling too embarrassed to face him.

"Very well then, Yuri." Dr. Alexander said. "Was there something you wanted to ask me?"

Yuri nodded her head as she reached into her school bag to slowly pull out a book. "I... um... I was hoping... that you could..." Yuri looked down to the cover of the book and breathed out in an effort to try and calm her nerves. "I was hoping that you could sign this!" Yuri blurted out quickly as she held the book out to Dr. Alexander, before pulling back slightly. "I-If you don't mind... that is..."

"Certainly!" Dr. Alexander responded as he gingerly accepted the book from Yuri's hands. He was curious what book of his a young girl would want him to sign, could it have been one of his medical dissertations, or perhaps his recent publication on the sociotechnologcial balance?

As Dr. Alexander looked down at the book in his hands, he was slightly taken aback. "Portrait of Markov." He quietly read aloud as he ran his hand over the cover of his first, and only, exploration into writing a piece in the realm of fiction.

Dr. Alexander smiled widely as he looked up from the book. "It would be my pleasure, Yuri."

Reaching into his jacket pocket to retrieve a pen, he noticed the time on his watch. "Oh my! It's nine o'clock already..." Furrowing his brow in thought for a moment as he uncapped the pen, Dr. Alexander asked a question of his own. "Did you wait this long just for an autograph? You could have come up and asked for it at any time."

"Oh!" Yuri blurted out. "W-Well I... I didn't want to interrupt..." She wrung her hands together nervously. "You just seemed like you had a r-rhythm going, and I didn't want to... throw you off course..."

"Ah, I see. Well, no matter." Dr. Alexander said as he turned his attention back towards the book in his hands. "But you know, I wouldn't have expected that a young lady such as yourself would enjoy my novel so much. It can be a bit gruesome at times."

"Well... the novel's setting is so unique and interesting. I just kind of... got engrossed in it." Yuri replied. "And I... well..." She trailed off before continuing. "Kind of... r-relate to the protagonist."

Nodding his head, Dr. Alexander could see the similarities between the girl in front of him and the girl that inhabited the world of the book in his hands.

As Dr. Alexander was about to begin writing in Yuri's copy of Portrait of Markov, he paused as he heard her start talking. "I've... always enjoyed writing... p-poems especially. B-But I wanted to try and write a story of my own." She paused, trying to work up the courage to ask the question that she had been rehearsing in her mind since his lecture concluded. "How... how do you write a good story?"

Dr. Alexander thought for a moment before letting out a hearty laugh, and Yuri felt anxiety rush over her. "Oh no... Oh no... Oh no, oh no, oh no..." She thought to herself. "I... I asked a stupid question... and now he... he probably thinks I'm... I'm..." Yuri gripped her forearm tightly as she felt shame wash over her.

"That's the best question I've heard all night!" Dr. Alexander shouted happily, snapping Yuri out of her feelings of worthlessness.

"H-Huh!? R-Really?!" Yuri asked excitedly.

"Yup!" Dr. Alexander replied simply. "You see Yuri, most people tend to focus on the what or why of something, especially in art. Such as why an artist created something, or what the intended message of a piece may be. When in reality there was no deeper message intended at all." Dr. Alexander held his finger out to the side in an instructive manner. "Art is all about the how, or better yet, the process." Bringing his hand back in front of him as he listed off factors of art, he continued. "Reasoning, the exploration of viewpoints, discovering complexity, comparing, connecting, observing, describing, questioning, and investigating. Those are the parts of art that are the most important, and make it such an integral aspect of human society. Asking someone why they created something or what their message is removes a bit of the luster, wouldn't you say?"

Yuri was so impressed by everything that Dr. Alexander had just said that she was taken aback, and she began to feel the confidence in her own writing abilities slip a little. "A-After hearing all of that... I don't know if... I could approach writing as well as you can..."

Bringing his hand to his chin and lowering Yuri's book to his side, Dr. Alexander thought for a moment before speaking. "Have you ever heard of an artist named Max Liebermann, Yuri?"

She only shook her head in response.

"Well he was a painter, and a talented one at that, he was actually the leading proponent of Impressionism in Germany." Dr. Alexander began before waving his hand dismissively. "That part doesn't matter at the moment, what's important is something that he said." He cleared his throat before stating the quote. "Whenever I see a Frans Hal I feel like painting, but when I see a Rembrandt I feel like giving up."

Yuri thought about the meaning of that quote to herself before offering her interpretation of it to Dr. Alexander. "So what you're saying is... take inspiration from the greats... but no matter how much of a difference in ability there seems to be... don't ever feel discouraged." She tilted her head to the side slightly, hoping she was close to the mark. "R-Right?"

"I couldn't have said it better myself." Dr. Alexander praised as he finally opened up Yuri's book again and finished writing his autograph.

Handing it back to her as he smiled. "Be sure to get home safe, Yuri."

"Y-Yes, doctor. You too." Yuri replied, she had to be quick if she was going to make it home before ten.

...

As Yuri walked out of the hospital entrance, she felt happier than she could ever recall. Pulling her copy of Portrait of Markov out from her school bag, she held it up in delight as she smiled to herself. "I did it!" She thought victoriously to herself. "I was actually able to do it!"

She excitedly opened up her copy of Dr. Alexander's novel and quietly read out his autograph. "Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor. Take these words to heart, Yuri, and may you find your muse. Sincerely, Samuel Alexander."

Smiling to herself as she closed the book and held it tightly to her chest, as she did so she could feel something nudge into her breasts. Moving the book away from her body, she noticed two pieces of paper poking out of the book's first few pages. Not wanting to simply pull them out and risk damaging her prized possession, Yuri opened to the page the paper was sitting in and her eyes lit up.

Resting on the first page of the second chapter were two tickets to Dr. Alexander's symposium on the transformative nature of art at the artist's guild that was closer to her home than the hospital was.

Delicately extracting the tickets, as if they were made of fine glass, Yuri was so happy that she could feel tears begin to well up in the sides of her lavender eyes. As she held the tickets in her hands, her cheerfulness was soon overtaken by feelings of shyness and anxiety.

Dr. Alexander had given her two tickets, two. She didn't know anyone that would be interested in going to an art gallery, let alone someone that would be willing to spend time with her there. But she didn't want to be rude to Dr. Alexander, this was a gift, and to just show up alone would mean wasting a ticket that he was kind enough to give to her.

As her tears of joy turned to those of sadness, she held the tickets in her quivering hands as she dejectedly asked herself a question. "Who'd ever want to go somewhere with me...?"