Paint Me A Picture

• Naomi Yong, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2015

Splotches of white were surrounded by sky blue. It crowded three birds that gracefully flew by. Side by side their wings flapped hard. From a distance it looked like three butterflies, just fluttering their way.

Trees from below swayed together, as the cool breeze whooshed. Flowers waved from the chartreuse green grass. The pointed grass was the spikes of a porcupine.

Waves from below the cliff, coloured ocean blue. Its waves washed up to shore where the hot burning sand laid. The cliff didn’t bother. It pointed straight at the horizon, where it stared day and night.

The sun glowed bright. It was a ball of fire. Furious, like flames out at space.

This picture stood in my head, the colours of wonder. Paint me a picture where the sky is peace, the sun is pleasure, the grass is soft and the ocean is where I can explore.

If our world was like this, life would be almost perfect. The fact that we should share this picture with others, this would be the last piece to our jigsaw puzzle.

Paint this picture with love, the colours will surround you, with your thoughts and feelings. Capture this picture, an image stuck in your head. Grab a brush and paint the strokes on a canvas that will show how wonderful this world is.

The bristles from your first brush will have the paint with the ingredient peace inside, as you paint the sky. It will represent the amount of peace and calmness this world has.

The bristles of your second brush will include pleasure. The sun brings happiness to this world, where joy is to be heard.

Your third brush provides the softness in this world. The grass is soft along with its friends from nature.

Your fourth brush has the final bits from paint. Explore. This gives the picture imagination. This will tell the people that you can explore as far as you’d like, for you can imagine and explore forever.

With these four elements, after you’ve painted me this picture. Look at it and imagine it as a world that always existed.