The Weird Painting

It was the beggining of summer and i had to go spend a couple days at my cousin's house. Mainly with my parents being busy with work all the time, but usually at the house it is just me and my brother. My brother just spends most of his time at the mall now that he can drive, so i will have the whole house to myself when i get home. This cousin im about to stay with, I have never really met before. I have seen him a few times when I was little, but never really got to know him or his family. There i was at there door step. I had noticed that they had a pretty nice sized house. It was about three floors tall. I rang the door bell, but noboby answered. Rang it twice, waited a thirty seconds and nobody answered. I twisted the door nob, checking to see if it was locked or not. The door was unlocked. The first thing I notice when i walk in is a weird painting in their living room. It was a painting of a pig with a man's body and mouth holding his hand up and putting his finger over his mouth. It was doing something weird with its mouth. I couldn't tell if it was a smile or what. It looked like it was shhhing me, like a librarian would if you were talking to loud.

I started looking around the house for a way to entertain myself. No sign of any tv, games, computer. I even looked for a snack around the house for me to eat. I went to the kitchen and found a pantry. Nothing but raw meat. When i couldn't even snack i just decided to lay on the couch in the living room. I kinda felt this odd uncomfortable feeling. It was a little scary. That pig thing was looking at me. I really wished there was someone else there to keep me company. " Where is everybody? " I blurted out. It's nearly five o'clock and there is no school. I decided to look around the house. Better than being shhhed at by a pig man thing. All of their doors had been closed. Since there was no body home and this was a big house, I thought that someone would jump out at me and scare me. The fifth door i went by, I heard very faint music. I opened the door. There my cousin was sleeping with his headphones in his ears. I noticed that his room had a huge tv and many band posters and an original frankenstein poster. That could've been worth a lot of money. That kid must've been loaded.

I yanked the headphones out of his ears to wake him up. Turns out he was never asleep. He said, "Oh, im sorry! I forgot that you were staying here. Please don't tell me parents!". I could tell he was a nervous wreck. Mainly from his stuttering and the fact that he was scared about forgetting that i was coming today. "Sorry I thought you were my dad drunk when i heard the door, so I pretended to be asleep. Then he wouldn't have a reason to yell at me." I said, " It's cool. Where's the rest of your family?". He said, " They don't come back home until seven." It was 6:47. He said "Let me show you around the house." He took me to the kitchen, showed me where everything was at. I really don't know why, but he showed me everyone's bedroom. Each had it's own really creepy painting like the one in the living room. His mom had one that looke like a family picture, but it was painted a long time ago. It showed a mom looking very angry at something and two boys, both smiling very weirdly. One was crying and smiling. No dad though. The dad had his own room which is kind of weird. My cousin said, " He always seeks privacy". There wasn't much in there though just a few picture books and a bible. There wasn't much to tell about the painting though. Just four shapes that looked like gravestones. No backround. No writing. The painting in my little cousin's room was horrible, yet so simple. Just a normal little boy. Young, nicely dressed. Missing one thing though. His mouth. That image is unforgettable.

My cousin's room was just a picture of a house burnt down. " Why do you have these paintings?". " Its my dad, he can't stand not to have them. He says they're special. That they help him". When the rest of his family got home, we went to eat. The family talked to each other as if I wasn't even there. They didn't talk to me at all. The little brother I thought was being left out so I asked, " What's your name?". His mom answered him," He can't talk". I don't know why, but I rudely asked, "Why?". She said in an angrily voice, "He doesn't talk." I couldn't believe her. She probably put that painting in his room to taunt him because he doesn't talk. Not only that but she put up the painting of the man, pig thing going, shhhhh, in the living room. Well, that's what i thought at first, but then they all died. There house burnt down, just like the painting in my cousin's room. The father died in the fire, leaving the boys happy that the drunk is finally dead and the mom crazy. That was her painting. Her being crazy killed her two boys and eventually herself. The four gravestones.

Later in the summer, my mom came to me told me that the father left something for me in his will. It was a very clear painting that he made. It looked like a class photo. I didn't understand it at first, but when summer ended and I had new classmates I understood. It had all my new classmates in the picture. Everybody but me.