Melanie Spiller and Coloratura Consulting
Copyright 2020 Melanie Spiller. All rights reserved.
Shaggy Dog Stories: The Painter
Melanie Spiller and Coloratura Consulting
Once upon a time, there was a little village just north of the next mountain ridge. It was a quaint village, its
people friendly, the town tidy. But it was noticed that the church was fading, paint chipping away where the
sun had scorched it. So the town decided to have it painted.
They put out a request for contractors to make bids, their funds being small, and soon, there was a stack of
bids for the mayor to read. He took the five lowest bids to the aldermen and the church leaders, and at last,
they settled on one: Mortimer James Teepoke.
Well, Mortimer had been in the business a while, and he knew that the only way he could make a profit on
such a low bid was to thin his paint. He climbed up the side of the church with a bucket of half-paint half-
water and began to work. He’d gotten three walls painted and was beginning at the top of the steeple when
the weather changed drastically. He could see the clouds roiling in the distance and he could hear the dark
rumble of thunder.
He was motivated to finish the church that day so he could get on with better paying jobs, and he stayed up
the steeple.
At first, the wind began to blow, and Mortimer found himself covered in half of the thin paint with nearly
every brush full. Then the rain began, a spatter here, a spatter there, He knew there wouldn’t be much point
in continuing with his thinned paint if the rain thinned it further, so he added a little more paint to his
concoction. He worked frantically, trying to beat the storm.
He painted and painted as the weather swished and swarmed around him, high on the steeple. His knees
began to quake as he saw distant lightening, and he knew he needed to finish with this high part of the
church. He redoubled his speed, barely covering the wall with his thin paint.
Suddenly, the skies opened with a huge and horrible flash. Mortimer was struck!
He was flung to the ground off of his high ladder and knocked unconscious.
Mortimer lay there, struggling to regain his senses, staring up at the sky, trying to focus his eyes.
The clouds parted, and, to his wondering eyes, it looked like the clouds were forming words. He blinked
into what must surely be a concussion.
As he lay on the ground, watching the miracle of the words appear, a small fear began to quake in his belly.
At last the words were entirely revealed: “Repaint! Repaint! Go and thin no more!”