Once upon a time there was a Magic Painting that was a doorway to another world. Anyone who looked at the Painting fell into a trance and entered the other world, just as Alice through the looking glass. Inside the world of the Painting, people had wonderful, mystical, exciting adventures. And when they returned, they felt happy and healthy and healed of all their wounds and all their troubles.Whatever the wound or illness or disease or anxiety or neurosis or addiction, every man, woman and child who entered the Painting returned some time later feeling much better in every way; and knowing it, and grateful for it, and loving it.
One day some Bad Men stole the Magic Painting. Sly as rats they sneaked and scuttled down a Crooked Street to a Dark and Secret Place. At the Dark and Secret Place there was a Hidden House. In that House was a Concealed Room. In that Room was an Iron Safe that weighed a thousand tonnes and was big enough for thirteen people to stand inside. In that Safe, the Bad Men put the Magic Painting. Then they locked the safe, left the House and went their separate ways.
The Bad Men waited until the news of the missing Painting had been heard by every man, woman and child all over the world. Then, the Bad Men started a rumour in the High and the Low places of the City. The rumour was that if you could pay one hundred million dollars you would be taken to a Hidden House at a Dark and Secret Place upon a Crooked Street. Inside the Hidden House, people said, was a Concealed Room with an Iron Safe in which was locked a Magic Painting that was a doorway to another world.
Soon, Rich People from all over the world with one hundred million dollars to spare were secretly getting in touch with the Bad Men. The Rich People wanted to go to the world of the Magic Painting and be healed of all their wounds and troubles. They begged to be taken to see the Painting that was rumoured to be in an Iron Safe in a Concealed Room in a Hidden House on a Crooked Street in a Dark and Secret Place somewhere in the High or the Low places of the City.
There were many Rich People wanting to see the Painting---too many to fit inside the Iron Safe. So the Bad Men wrote all the names down on a long list. Then one dark and gloomy night the Bad Men met the thirteen richest people at the top of the list, and off they all went to see the Magic Painting.
Unfortunately, they took a wrong turn on the Crooked Street. So they couldn’t find the Dark and Secret Place. So they couldn’t find the Hidden House with an Iron Safe in a Concealed Room. In fact they got so hopelessly lost that they never, ever found their way home.
And the Magic Painting was never seen or heard of again, at least not in that world.
Copyright © S R Schwarz 2007. All rights reserved.