The Painter and the Shark. Part 1

Once upon a time there was a painter. Everybody said he was the best painter in the village of Ham. Unfortunately he was the only painter in Ham, and the painter knew that he could paint anything he wanted and he would still be called the best painter in the village. To begin with, the painter was happy being the only painter in Ham, until one day he went to another village called Berg, and saw that there was a painter living there too. The painter from Ham thought that the painter from Berg was much better at painting than him, and became very confused.

He went back to Ham and thought for a long time about what being the best painter in Ham meant. He was very sad, and for a long time he only used black paint. He painted beautiful portraits and landscapes in black; all of the trees were black, the clouds were black, the sun was black and the sky was black too. He painted eyes black, noses black, teeth black and skin black. His paintings looked like black squares, but people still said he was the best painter in Ham.

One day the painter went for a walk to the beach. He borrowed a boat from his friend the sailor, and went out to sea with his pencils, pens and paper. He rowed out a long way, until he couldn't see Ham on the horizon anymore, and looking up he could only see the silvery grey of the sky above him and the deep, dark black of the sea beneath him.

Even though he was very tired, he took out his pens to draw the sea. He stared into the deep for a time, and drew exactly what he saw. He leant so far over the edge of his boat to peer into the water than he slipped on an orange peel in the boat and fell into the sea.

He began to sink into the cold water and was very scared. All of a suddent, out of the black all around him there emerged a face. It's grinning, wide mouth was full of sharp, jagged teeth; its nose was long and shaped like a triangle and it had tiny black eyes. The shark grinned and opened its cavernous mouth to bite the painter and swallow him whole. The painter screamed and tried to get away, but only bubbles came out of his mouth. The shark bit him and carried him down into the deep, dark abyss.