Weekend at the Museum

Wednesday April 10th                     

By Alexis Gallagher

                                     Weekend at the Museum

      Writing Prompt:  Write about a gallery whose paintings come alive at night.

   Sandy the school librarian and girl scout troop leader was busy getting the girls on the bus on a late friday morning for their sleep over at the art museum. She had a questionnaire sheet for both the Monet and the Davinci  tours and would hand that out tomorrow at brunch before heading back to the school. 

    Meanwhile, Rachel the art curator was setting up where everyone would sleep, making sure the meals would be ready. She also decided to quickly  check the Monet and Davinci rooms to make sure that everything looked good for the tour.

   Heather, Sara, Laura and Jane were all waiting by the van for a sleepover at the Seattle Art Museum. The SAM currently has a Leonardo Davinci showing so for girl scouts they were spending the night there to learn about Leonardo Davinci and Claude Monet.

     “Are you excited to spend the night in the art gallery?” asked Sara.

      “I totally am! I hope that something crazy fun happens while we are there.” said Heather.

  Meanwhile, at the Museum the curator Rachel was busy preparing for the Monet and Davinci tours.

       As they got off the bus at the museum Heather was very excited! “Where do you think we will sleep?”

   “ Sorry to interrupt your excitement, Heather, I will let you all know the weekend itinerary as soon as our troop is all together by the gift shop.” said Sandy, the troop leader and school librarian.  

   As soon as the girls arrived at the gift shop Sandy introduced Rachel to them.

“ This is Rachel, she is the art curator and will be letting you know the itinerary for the weekend.”

    “Welcome to Seattle Art Museum. Your troop will be sleeping in the gift shop. There will be dinner and breakfast served in the cafe next to the gift shop.  Washrooms are located in the Cafe. This evening you will be getting a tour on Monet followed by a tour of Da vinci. Tomorrow before you head home you will have burgers and hotdogs for lunch in a park.”

  “Thank you Rachel!” Said said Sandy 

 “ Now girls, why don't you introduce yourselves.”

  Heather stood up first. “I'm Heather, I ride horses and enjoy reading mystery books. I am most interested in learning about Monet.”

  Laura went next. “I'm Laura, I play softball and am looking forward to learning about Da vinci.”

 “I am Sara, I ride horses as well, I am excited to learn about Monet.”

  Finally Jane stood up. “ I'm Jane, I enjoy going for bike rides. I am looking forward to learning about Da vinci.”

  “Thank you girls!” Said Sandy

  “Now while Rachel gets other groups introduced to her we will set up here in the gift shop. We will then have soup and a sandwich before the Monet tour. There is also a fun Monet book I got for everyone that I will be handing out at lunch tomorrow.”

  Heather and Sara set up their sleeping bags next to each other. Jane and Laura set up next to each other across from Heather and Sara.

  Over soup and a sandwich the girls discussed what they were looking forward to the most over the weekend. They each agreed that they were all looking forward to the overall experience of this weekend.

  That evening the girls got their tour of Monet.

 “Welcome to the Monet room.  Claude Monet was a French impressionist painter in the late 1800s. Impressionism is characterized by relatively thin visible brush strokes. Open emphasis on accurate deception of light in its changing qualities.”

  “This first painting is called Garden at Sainte - Adresse”

  It was a painting with a couple standing on a garden patio overlooking a bay of water with lots of sailboats and another couple sitting in the back of the patio.

  Heather thought that she could see the man standing by the water move closer to the woman and put his arm around her and whisper something.

 “Did you see that?” asked Heather

“See what?” asked Linda

“Nevermind.” said Heather what just happened? Did I really see that man move closer and put his arm around the woman?

   “The next painting is called The Four Trees”. 

  It was a painting of four birch-like trees. Heather could feel a light wind and hear the rustle of leaves. As she timidly looked, the trees seemed to be pointing towards the next painting.

  Are the trees giving me some sort of sign?

Rachel noticed that something was up with Heather and hoped that nothing was wrong.

  “The last painting is one of Monet's more famous ones called Bridge over a Pond of Lillies.

   Heather could hear a frog and could see one hopping around on the lilly pads.  Suddenly she watched the frog jump out of the painting!

 “Okay you had to see that frog jump out of the painting?” Said Heather

“ What frog?” asked Jane

“Are you feeling alright?” asked Sara

I must be feeling ill.

Heather watched as the frog started to hop around the corner into the next room. She had to follow it to find out where it was going.

 Rachel saw the frog jump out of the painting and around the corner  and knew that she had to hurry the tour on to the Davinci room.

  “Okay girls let's head into the next room which is the Davinci room.” 

 “Leonardo Davinci was an Italian painter in the late 1400s” Said Rachel

 “This first painting is a very popular one called the Mona Lisa”

  The painting was an upper body painting of a woman.

Heather saw her smile and then she spoke to her.

“You must help, you will know what to do!” said the Mona lisa

Heather stood there shocked! 

Did the Mona Lisa really just speak to me and where did the frog go?

Rachel noticed Heather looking shocked and went to help escort her over to the next painting

“This painting is called Lady with an Ermine”

It was a painting with a woman holding an Ermine.

Heather watched as the Ermine came out of the painting and into the next one.

  “This next piece is another famous painting called The Last Supper.”

  Heather could hear people chatting and eating and smell roasted chicken which actually smelled quite good. It looked like the Ermine was enjoying the feast as well.

 “ Do you see that? The Ermine is eating all the food!” asked Heather

 Linda, Sara and Jane were not sure what was happening. Luckily it seemed like Rachel somehow knew what to do about it.

“The answers are in the gift shop. You will know what to do.” Rachel told Heather

  Later that night while everyone was sleeping Heather knew there was a problem. Ermine had eaten all the food in The Last Supper Painting. How was she going to get the food back into the painting, return the Ermine to the Lady and get the frog back to its pond. Rachel had told her that the answers were in the gift shop. 

  That night while everyone was asleep Heather was wandering around the giftshop looking for clues as to what she could find.  While looking she found a postcard with the Last Supper picture on it,  a book with some of Monet's more famous works including the Bridge over the pond of water with lily pads and of course there were snacks for humans.  As she moved around more in the gift shop she found bookmarks, magnets, notebooks, shirts and hoodies and some postcards of some of the Monet and Da Vinci pictures she saw. Heather was so nervous she could feel sweat dripping down her back. What was going to help get the food back on the table for the last super? The ermine from eating the frog as well as the ermine back in the painting with the lady and the frog back into the pond with the lilies?  Where is the frog and the ermine and which one  goes back first?  Heather thought to herself.

   Heather decided to go back to the Monet and Da vinci rooms and to figure out which should go back first the frog? The ermine or the food? As she entered the Davinci room she noticed the frog was sitting in front of the Mona Lisa painting. As  she got closer she realized that the Mona Lisa was speaking to the frog. 

“You know that the Ermine must go back as soon as possible before any more food is eaten and before you get eaten.  Help guide the girl in the right direction but watch out for the ermine!”

   The fog hopped around and saw Heather standing in the room and hopped away into the gift shop looking for something that the ermine could eat on its way back to the painting with the lady.  She followed the frog  to the gift shop. Quietly so as to not wake Anyone in her group  up she looked for something in the gift shop.  She realized  that the answers weren't actually in the gift shop. Her answers were in the cafe where the food was. She wandered Into the cafe where there was a selection of food  for an Ermine and a dinner super. First she looked for something an Ermine might be interested in eating and found canned tuna. She grabbed some canned tuna and started making a path with it towards the painting with the lady who was now ermine less. Now all she had to do  was wait and watch for the ermine and hoped that this worked. 

  Suddenly she heard a noise her heart picked up a few extra beats faster as she looked to see what the noise was she found the couple from the garden patio painting from the Monet room walking around. Oh no! What are they doing out? Thought Heather. 

  As she looked back towards the canned tuna trail she noticed that the ermine had found the food trail and was following towards the painting and with a sigh of relief  watched the lady step out of the painting to pick up her ermine and step back in with a smile. 

  Just as she was about to head back to the cafe for the super food she saw Laura coming out of the washroom.

  “What are you doing awake?” asked Laura

  “I couldn’t sleep so checking out the food for our breakfast options later.” Said Heather

 “Oh! Alright then, I am going back to sleep, hope you manage to get back to sleep alright.”  Said Laura

  “ Okay, thanks!” Said Heather

  Heather watched as Laura walked back  to the gift shop. Once she was out of sight she walked to the cafe for the last super food where she found a roasted chicken, some veggies, fruit and a bunch of juices. She put all the food and drinks on a tray and walked it over to the last super painting where she watched everyone grab the food and drinks and put it all on the table.

 Now that those paintings were back to normal she only had to get the frog and couple back to their paintings. She decided to find out what brought the couple out. As she walked around the museum she found the couple by the entrance looking out the windows by the door.

  “Excuse me but would you like help with anything?” asked Heather

   “Oh! Well we would love someone other than ourselves to chat with as to we never get to chat with anyone and you are the first one in a long time we can actually chat with” said the Woman

 “Agreed!” said the Man

  The three of them chatted for a bit before they went back into their painting.

 “Well what would you like to chat about?” asked Heather

  “How about what you do.”Said the couple

  “Let’s see I am here visiting the museum with my girl scout troop, I ride horses outside of school, I also enjoy bike riding with my friends. At school I enjoy playing the violin, English class and gym class.” said Heather.

   “That sounds like a very fun life. We were painted by Monet in the summer of 1867 in france.” Said the couple

   “That is fascinating information, thank you for sharing that with me.” said Heather

   “We should get back to our painting, thank you for the lovely conversation.”  said the couple

  Just then the frog appeared as Heather and the couple walked back to the Monet room the frog hopped along beside them.

  “It was lovely meeting you Heather, farewell and have a good sleep.” said the couple

  “Thank You!” said Heather as she watched the couple walk back into their painting she then noticed the frog gave her one last look before hopping back into its painting.

  What a night thought Heather as she returned to her sleeping bag in the gift shop where her troop was and fell asleep.

    The next day when all Heather could ask herself was if last night was real?

   “Good Morning girls, on today’s agenda we will be packing up here, after all of our bags are on the bus we will have lunch in the park outside the Museum before heading home.  There will also be questionnaire on Monet and Davinci that I will hand out now.” said Sandy the troop leader

     It was a cloudy chilly afternoon perfect for burgers and hot chocolate. While burgers, fries and hot chocolate were served everyone got a copy of the book Linea along with a Linea doll about a young girl visiting Monet the artist on a vacation.

   “How did everyone enjoy yesterday?” asked Sandy

    “ I really enjoyed see the difference in how Monet and Davinci painted.” said Sara

     “ Yesterday felt like I was in a dream.” said Heather

     “That is an interesting  perspective.” said Sandy

    “ I found Monet to be very interesting, his paintings seem brighter than Davinci’s.” said Laura

    “Well, I agree. I felt like Monet's paintings looked a lot brighter than Davinci’s.” said Jane

     “Thank you girls for all your input on Monet and Davinci. Now that lunch is over we will be taking the bus back to school where your parents will pick you up.”

         When Heather arrived home from the girl scout sleepover at the museum she found herself staring at pictures of her grandparents and great grandparents. What if their pictures came alive?  What would she ask them? What was it like living in their era? What were their favorite activities? Favorite books? What did they do for work? 

  Heather fell asleep wishing she could speak with her Grandparents one last time.