She put down the book in awe of its ending. The words from the end of the story permanently trapped in her head. Closing her eyes, she imagined herself in the story. “There is no hope. No hope of us making it out alive, or seeing our family again. There is no hope and we have stopped fighting. Burning, our ship was going down. We would never be seen and never be found. Burning, the ships mast collapsed, crushing my people when it went down. Gone, we are gone and our people will never be again.” Chilled by those last words, Martha shook her head and opened her eyes, trying to erase the horrific picture that she had sketched in her mind.
“What a terrible book!” Martha said to herself. “I don’t think I will ever be able to get those words out of my head! How am I suppose to do an art piece based on this picture? Now I am never going to pass this Art class. Why does the teacher make us read these horrible stories as an inspiration for our art?” She complained with flailing arms.
Pulling out a blank creamy white canvas, she sighed. She stared at it hoping that an image worthy of a dreadful story would appear.
“This is crazy! Maybe a hot cup of tea and a piece of toast will help.” She said turning toward her little kitchenette.
She placed the bread in the toaster and turned around to make she tea. While pouring water into her kettle so it could be heated up, she happened to notice the pattern on her teacup was of a small sailboat floating through the ocean. Smiling, she ran to her easel and began create a silhouette of a small boat.
“Finally, I have an idea!” She smiled, and then frowned.
“What is the terrible smell?” Turning around she saw smoke coming from her kitchen. “Oh no! I burnt the toast!” Running into the kitchen, the fire alarm started beeping. Unplugging the toaster, she grabbed a towel and started to wave the charcoal grey smoke away from the alarm. The beeping slowly stopped and Martha put down the towel.
“Well, that was the most interesting thing that has happened to me all day!” Martha exclaimed and she picked up the black piece of toast and tossed it in the garbage can.
Walking back towards her painting, Martha thoughts completely changed. She was absorbed in how that smoked looked and smelled. It was a thick, dark, and almost creamy charcoal grey. She began to imagine a small boat rocking back and forth in pitch-black water. Clouds of smoke arose from the boat, turning the sky charcoal grey. Fire licked the boats sides, crawling towards the ships mask. Windows shattered from the heat and the boat began to sink.
Sitting down, Martha began to paint the image she had just created. It was an image that had a burning inspiration.