Skylars+Story

Once there was a very poor artist. When he was younger he thought that his art would make him very rich but he was wrong. He did all types of art : drawing, painting, pottery, sculpting, and much more. His favorite thing to do was mosaics... Mosaics were sacred and cost a lot of money... Over and over again the artist whose name was Arnold tried to make a decent mosaic but failed every time. Because he was poor he didn't have much money to spend on art supplies. Arnold lived on the small island of Crete but on the third Saturday of every third month he would take a boat to Sparta and sell his art. Today was the day that Arnold was supposed to go to Sparta to sell his artwork. He had been working on four mosaics, five paintings, and two drawings which were now complete. As he unloaded the art work from the boat he accidentally dropped the bag that the painting had been in into the water. He quickly rushed down to the water only to find that his paintings had been ruined. All he had left were his pathetic mosaics and two drawings. With a heavy heart he made his way to the corner where he normally sold his artwork. Arnold began calling " Paintings and mosaics for sale", he yelled until his lungs had no breath left in them. Finally he gave up with the yelling and sat on the side of the road by his paintings cradling his head in his hands. Suddenly a high pitched voice asked " How much for this one?". Arnold lifted his head up, surprised that somebody was asking how much a mosaic was! " That one is $100. The mosaic that the old lady wanted was a variety of deep brown colors made of pottery... It had a bird on the front so there really wasn't anything special about it. There were a few cool designs surrounding the bird but nothing too special. Although it was somewhat plain Arnold had to admit that this was his best mosaic so far. The lady quickly paid him $100 and took the mosaic. Arnold successfully sold all of his art throughout the day and even made it home before 8:00. The next day early in the morning there was a knocking noise on Arnold's door...well it was kind of a door. More like a piece of large drift wood that Arnold put in front of his door. As Arnold moved the piece of wood which took quite a bit of effort the mosaic that he had sold to the old lady yesterday was thrown through the small opening in the door that Arnold had managed to move so far. By the time he had the hunk of wood removed the person was already gone. How weird he thought as he perched the bird mosaic against the wall and climbed back under his blanket. When Arnold awoke several hours later the mosaic was gone. At first he was startled but thought that maybe the old lady had changed her mind and come back to get the mosaic. Arnold set out on his daily errands. The first stop was to go but some food which normally consisted of stale bread and a small amount of cheese and occasionally some ale depending on how much artwork he sold that month. This month he had been able to sell everything that he could salvage. Today he was able to but fresh bread, a hunk of cheddar cheese, a small bottle of wine, and a small stock of broccoli. After paying for the food he started on his way to the art shop to see what he would have to be competing with. Nothing really caught his eye; he had nothing to worry about. Just then the old lady ran into the store screaming like a mad woman. "That mosaic is following me! It always finds me!". The lady seemed as if she might be mental. The person who owned the art store seemed to know her and tried to calm her. "Now what's the matter?", asked the shop keeper. "Yesterday that man sold me a beautiful mosaic. Strange things kept happening and i thought it was because of the mosaic so I returned it this morning. Ever since then somehow the mosaic keeps following me. Every time it is around me awful things happen. "See I broke my ankle", explained the lady as she showed her ankle. Arnold took the mosaic home with him and kept it for many years. The woman had gone mad running from the mosaic. Everyday bad things happened to Arnold. He now only ate half a loaf of stale bread and sometimes there were bugs in the bread. He never was able to afford wine or cheese because his art was going down hill. There were only occasions that he sold more than two pieces of work. Arnold always kept his eyes open and he was very aware because at any waking moment something could kill him because since he was unlucky as long as he was in possession of the mosaic something could kill him and he didn't want to take a chance. Arnold lived miserably for the rest of his life until when he was 56 got ran over by a horse which kicked him in the head and stepped through his abdomen causing him to die. Nobody ever found out what happened to the mosaic.