27. Create a story about the painting of the Dawn Treader—who painted it, how did they see the ship, does it have any other magic in it, how did Aunt Alberta get her hands on it, what happened to it after? Pick something about the painting.
Poor little Alberta was an unhappy lass. I knew that from the time she was three, and couldn't come up with a better title for me than "uncle," and she threw a tantrum about it. She had lots of curiosity, but no imagination. It's necessary to have an imagination to be a good scientist, and she hadn't any to go with that insatiable mind.
She seemed happy enough when she married, but she hadn't even the sense to marry someone who could make up what she lacked. She married someone as dull and uninteresting as herself. And had the nerve to invite me to the ceremony! It was, of course, not a traditional wedding; she made up for her lack of imagination by copying the newest trends. But, well…if she and her husband both had no imagination, I had to do something to stir it.
I had a painting in my house—one I got as a lad myself, actually, and it stirred my own imagination to go to sea as a lad, and there I made my fortune. It was of a ship—a small, colourful thing, not made for wealth, but to ride the sea itself. I don't know who painted it. I've never been able to find another like it. But I loved it as a lad, and, when I thought of the poor children Alberta and her Harold would have, and what they would need the most, I decided to give them that painting.
I heard she hid it in her guest room. All the better. Someone with imagination will probably see it, and that will be a gift to them. Might even send them towards some adventures of their own.