The Peculiar Painting

• Lizana Sthapit, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2022

With the sun shining brightly in the cloudless, blue sky, it seemed like a normal day to most people. Of course this is not the case in this story. For this is a story full of unfortunate events which you will discover later. So, let’s pull the curtain revealing this once in a lifetime day in September.

It all started with this girl, Edna. She started as your normal girl in 1926. With blonde hair, a chequered dress and navy blue shoes, she would make friends easily. By the second grade, she had made friends with almost the whole school.

Like any day, she would walk home on the dusty footpath all the way home to a small cottage on the hill surrounded by trees. A humble home. A home full of pastel colours and antique pieces. She had a loving family made up of her mother, father and herself.

Her mother was a garden guru. She loved plants. She had indoor plants, outdoor plants, cactuses, floral emblems, and much more. She had made their backyard, home and front yard into a forest with barely any space to walk.

On the other hand, her father was a work addict. He worked in the coal mines. To be honest, it wasn’t the best job for his health and it wasn’t a well paying job either. It only paid $10 each hour and he worked eight hours a day. His lungs were turning black and he was starting to cough a lot. This worried Edna for she loved her father with all her heart. If her father couldn’t work or get paid, how would her mother manage the family and the house?

Aside from all her family life, there were some special things about her house. First of all, the chimney had a secret compartment that no one else knew about apart from her. She would stash her candy in there for a midnight snack when she needed it.

From all the objects in her house, there was one that bothered her the most. It was the peculiar painting. It had a blue eyed girl standing in the centre of the painting and a greenery in the background. It sent shivers down her spine when she looked at it. The girl in the painting seemed to move every day. Once, she was feeding the ducks in the painting. Another day, she was in one of the trees staring blankly into oblivion. Today, she was staring right at Edna as if she was watching, waiting for her to make a move.

Of course, this has obviously been reported to the parents but, like most adults, they didn’t believe her.

“Don’t be silly, Edna! The painting is just a painting. That girl isn’t alive!”
“Your father is right, darling. She isn’t alive, she’s in a painting!”

But one day, everything changed. She leaned on the painting and then, she felt a cod hand seize her by the shoulder and suck her into a world of colour.