Original artwork description:

Sisters is an acrylic painting on canvas size 30x23cm.

The following story was inspired by this painting:

The story is about two sisters that loved each other so much that they were inseparable. One day they were adventurous enough to wonder off into the falling night, carrying nothing but an umbrella on them. Now it was a summer night, warm and humid but the sister wanted to take their dark and pointy umbrella that their dad had left by the door two nights before because it was raining heavily on that day and heard him say never leave the house without one because you never know when the rain will catch you by surprise!

The walkout into the night wasn’t planned one but it was too hot and humid to sleep and the sisters felt that they could take a walk over to their best friend Emily’s house which was only two blocks away from where they lived. Emily was 9 years old same as Sarah, one of the sisters, was taller and had an older appearance. Now the sisters Sophia and Sarah have walked this path numerous times during the day with their mother most of the times and on few occasions when their mom felt brave she had let them walk over to Em’s house by themselves while she watched them from the street, always during day time. Tonight was different, for the first time the girls ventured out by themselves into the dark and gloomy night and didn’t even bother to ask permission if they could go.

The sisters soon realised that they were lost when the street seemed long and windy and the buildings looked tall and wider than the ones on their street. Sophia, just a year younger than Sarah stepped closer to Sarah as she felt the first drop of rain. The sisters both looked up at the same time as the rain started to come down quickly. Sarah opened up her black, pointy umbrella as the two sisters took shelter under from the rain and looked into the unknown territory in front of them.

The walk seemed long, the rain drops was cooling on a humid night yet the sisters cowered under the umbrella not wanting the droplets to touch them. Sophia curled her arm into Sarah’s as if by doing so she was somewhat safer. It was Sarah who was only a year older than Sophia always protected her. There were so many memories for Sophia when her sister came to the rescue. There was that time in the garden when a spider landed on Sophia’s shoulder, it was Sarah who swatted the insect away and squashed stumped on it. Later, Sarah had admitted to her mummy that she too was scared of spiders but she wanted to save Sophia. Then there was a time at school, a boy had pushed Sophia at lunch time so Sarah pushed him down and ended up in trouble with the Dinner lady.

Sarah felt Sophia’s arm curl around her arm and she pulled her closer in her naturally protective way. She was upset with herself for taking Sophia with her as it was her who couldn’t sleep because it was so hot. The sisters both shared a bunk bed and it was Sarah at the top bunk as she was older, only by a year but still her mummy said that she should be on the top bunk. Now Sarah didn’t mind this so much as she loved being on the top but Sophia often complained wanting to swap. It wasn’t so much that Sophia wanted the top bunk but she was hoping to sleep next to her sister by asking to be on top. So the deal was that they both shared the bunk, whether it was too or bottom as long as it wasn’t a school night. Today was not a school night so they were sharing the top bunk and when Sarah tossed and turned which woke up Sophia several times and then when she jumped down from her bed with a thud Sophia woke up.

Sophia demanded to know where Sarah was going and instead of lying to her sister she said she was restless and that she was going to see Emily, their best friend from the neighbourhood. Their parents and Emily’s parents were in a friendly neighbourhood watch and often went to each other’s house for dinner and baby sat each other’s children. Emily was always a lot of fun to be around and would play with both sisters unlike Sarah’s other friends who considered Sophia to be too young for them to include in any games. Emily always knew fun games to play. Since Sarah couldn’t sleep and it was hot, she thought she’d take a walk to her friends house as she had done the previous day and allowed her to walk over to Emily’s house with Sophia while their mother was watching them walk over from the street. Of course it was Day time and her mother had only gone back into their house after Emily’s mom opened the door and raised a thumb up in the air at their mother as if to say the girls are safe. Tonight though Sarah didn’t think of asking their mother if she could go and also decided to take Sophia with her when she asked if she could go with her . Sarah has been the sensible one up until this point and may be that’s why she thought she knew the way to get to Emily’s house.

The rain was relentless as it started to come down hard making it even more difficult for the girls to see where they were going, Sophia clunk onto to Sarah even more tightly by this point as they took each step carefully in the puddle of water. The rain drops hit their pointy umbrella then rolled down and splashed on their dark curly hair, the wet droplets made the sisters shudder under the coolness of the sprays. Ignoring the rain, both marched on into the darkness of a rainy night.

In a distance, through the rain a tall figure moved towards the girls. It was Sophia who saw the movement of a person coming towards them. It was hard to see whether it was a man or woman through all that rain but there was definitely someone there! Sarah stopped walking which made Sophia stop beside her. They both looked at each other, their eyes filled with fear. Sarah knew that she needed to be brave for Sophia’s sake so she tried to look brave and smiled at Sophia. “Don’t worry Soph, we’ll just turn around and head back the way we came” she said in almost a whisper. Sophia nod get head in agreement as she was unable to speak in fear. As both of them turned around they heard.

As both of them turned around they heard their name being called out in the directions of the tall dark figure approaching them, now at a speed. Both girls let out a yelp frozen on the spot where they stood, clunk together with their umbrella held up high, rain drops splashing in all direction, looking into the darkness through the rain as the figure of a man closed in on them.

Will they find their way back home? Will you rescue them?

Materials used:

Acrylic

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