Lavinia And The Magic Brush

• Clea Auciello, Grade 2
• Short Story
• 2015

Once upon a time there lived a little orphan girl named Lavinia. The orphanage treated Lavinia terribly. They had an art class but the teacher, Miss Hoonagav, was still as mean as the orphanage. She made Lavinia only paint with black and grey.

One day, Lavinia went to pick blackberries for the orphanage. She looked at the path. There was a black paintbrush.

“I wonder how that got there?” said Lavinia, and thinking it was the orphanage’s, picked it up.

Later, Lavinia found herself in art class board to death. She was painting a storm cloud with black paint, AGAIN! Miss Hoonagav was always bossing Lavinia around and even though the pictures were perfect, she told Lavinia that they were not right.

“No, no, no!” Miss Hoonagav shouted in anger. “That’s not right, more to the left. No, not like that! Get out of my sight you little devil!”

Lavinia ran to the next room. She saw a huge canvas and lots of paint in many, many different colours. She grabbed some paint and painted a wardrobe with the paintbrush she had found on the path. Lavinia felt her picture to see if there was any texture. She felt wood on the doorframe and metal on the doorknobs. Lavinia was curious so she turned the knob and opened the door.

Lavinia looked in the cupboard. She saw lots of white everywhere she looked. White, white, white and more white. She slowly stepped into the white world. Lavinia had taken all the paint she could carry, along with her paintbrush, before she left. Lavinia dipped her brush inside of the paint and painted a bed. Lavinia felt the covers. They felt softer than silk. She felt extremely confused and then it dawned on her! It was a magic paintbrush! In excitement, she jumped on the bed and laughed till her sides ached.

She spent some time painting a room with a desk, toys, books and more wonderful things that a girl could ever want. Lavinia felt she could do more. So she painted more rooms with more items that she had always wanted. Lavinia realised she could paint the family that she used to have to share the wonderful house with. Lavinia made a mum, a dad and two brothers (she was going to make them sisters, but it was too late as they sprang to life and started running all over the place). Lavinia knew she could do even more than that, so she painted more people, houses, buildings, towns and countries. She stopped and realised she had painted a whole world. She played for a while in her new world, and then she knew she had to go, go back to the orphanage.

With a heavy heart, she opened the cupboard door and expected to see the art room, but all she saw was clothes. She felt her arm through the soft clothes, but all she felt was wood. She realised she was held in her own world! Lavinia, strangely enough, felt happy. She didn’t want to leave her magical world anyway. So, from then on, Lavinia lived in peace and happiness.

As for Miss Hoonagav, the orphanage blamed her for Lavinia’s disappearance. They told her to find Lavinia or loose her job! Miss Hoonagav, desperate to not loose her job, went to find Lavinia and as far as I know, she is still looking for her today.