5. Who’s Got Skill?

We rushed to the entrance hall, where we found Mr. Fisalis chatting with Rohtas.

“Wewcome home, Daddy!”

“Hi there, Lettie. Were you a good girl while I was gone?”

“Yeah!”

As he usually did, Mr. Fisalis scooped his daughter off the ground as she flung herself at him, only to notice that she was holding something in her hand.

“What’s this piece of paper?”

“Daisy and I were drawing pictures.”

“Oh, how nice.”

Violet showed Mr. Fisalis the drawing she’d been working on earlier.

“But it’s not vewy good.”

“There, there. Drawing isn’t easy,” he said, giving his glum little girl a pat on the head.

“Hey, Daddy?”

“Yes, sweetie?”

“Draw something!” she declared, shoving the paper and pen towards him.

“What?!”

Mr. Fisalis stared at the supplies thrust upon him in dismay. That was odd—usually he’d be happy to jump into whatever game Violet wanted to play with him.

What, is he that bad an artist?

He looked back and forth between Violet’s beaming face and the paper, his brows drawn into a frown.

Should I throw him a lifeline?

“Daddy’s tired from work, Lettie,” I said. “You shouldn’t spring—”

“I wanna see Daddy’s drawing!”

“Wow, she’s being pretty stubborn about this.”

Our daughter shook her head back and forth, refusing to back down.

“Well, you heard the girl, Cercis.”

“...Fine. I’ll give it a try.”

I don’t think this situation merits a look of such grim determination!

Violet and I waited in the parlor while he went to his room to change out of his uniform.

“What’s he gonna draw?” she wondered aloud, bursting with excitement.

Mr. Fisalis showed up as soon as he was done getting dressed, and Violet bounded over to hand him the paper and pen.

“So? What would you like Daddy to draw for you, sweetie?” he asked.

“Umm... Me, and the manor, and flowers...”

“That’s an awful lot of requests! But I’ll do it.”

With that, my husband let his pen glide across the page, a look of deep concentration on his face. The lines seemed to flow so freely from his fingers that I had to wonder why he’d been so reluctant.

But I didn’t have to wonder for long.

“There. I’m done.”

“Hoo...ray?”

Violet ought to have been delighted to get her hands on the finished product, but her face fell almost instantly.

“What is it?”

“You’re badder than me.”

“I-I’m not that bad!”

What did you even draw, Mr. Fisalis?

“Let Mommy have a look, Lettie,” I said.

“Noooo!”

“Hm?”

Paying no attention to Mr. Fisalis’s desperate cries, I took a look at the drawing in my daughter’s hands.

What is this, abstract art?

“Hey, Cercis? What’s this jumble of lines supposed to be?”

“Flowers—what else? I based it on the ones in the vase over there.”

Oh, now that he mentions it...it looks absolutely NOTHING like those flowers!

He probably meant to capture its many layers of petals, but all I could see was a mess of scribbles. Why didn’t he try drawing something simpler, like your cliché five-petaled flower? Boy, did I ever pick the wrong flower to decorate this room! Sorry, everyone!

“And? Who’s that wearing the crown thingy?”

“Lettie.”

“Why did you put a tiara on her?”

“Because she’s my little princess.”

“I don’t look all scribbly.”

Mr. Fisalis had answered my question with no small amount of pride, but too bad for him—his “little princess” was pouting up a storm!

“I don’t think the princess is a fan of your work, Cercis.”

“Urgh...”

I could recognize the mansion, at least. It looked like some kind of building.

But man, I learned something new today... Mr. Fisalis is one catastrophically bad artist!

It was too much. The longer I stared at it, the funnier it got.

“Pfft... Wow, Cercis...snrk...drawing just isn’t your thing, huh?”

I knew I shouldn’t be laughing at something he’d worked so hard on. I tried my best to hold in the giggles, which only made my voice sound weird.

“There’s two things I’ve never been any good at: cooking and art.”

What does he do when he has to draw something for work? Wait, I know—that’s what he has all those talented subordinates for!

While I was considering how to pull my husband out of full-on sulk mode, Violet gave up on her father and declared, “If Daddy can’t, I’ll ashk somebody else!”

She picked up her pen and paper again, this time walking up to the butler waiting behind us.

“Rohtas! Draw a picture.”

“Me? Are you sure?”

“Yeah! Draw me and some flowers and the manor!”

“...Why, it would be my pleasure.”

Huh. Did I detect a subtle pause from our articulate butler?

Just like Mr. Fisalis, he took the pen without hesitation and swept it over the page, the perfect picture of a skilled artist.

But as for the eventual product?

“...This isn’t much better than Cercis’s.”

“Hrk...” His temples twitched.

“Wow, Rohtas! I see I’m not the only awful artist around!”

Mr. Fisalis was ecstatic to have found someone who was in the same boat. Rohtas didn’t deign to respond.

“No good,” said Violet.

“Ah... I couldn’t meet Miss Lettie’s standards, it seems.”

Rohtas had produced a piece of art so bad that it could give Mr. Fisalis’s “abstract painting” a run for its money.

Mr. Fisalis and I couldn’t help but grin, while Violet puffed out her cheeks in a pout.

“Color me surprised! I didn’t think there was anything you couldn’t do, Rohtas.”

The butler cracked a strained smile. “Ha ha ha... I’ve never been much of an artist, I’m afraid.”

“Wow! Who would’ve guessed?!”

We left the teasing at that, however. Pushing too hard would’ve spelled trouble for us later.

Mr. Fisalis and I had gotten quite a kick out of that unexpected turn of events, but Violet didn’t seem too happy about it.

“I’m ashking Bellis next! Daisy, take me to Bellis!”

“Okay!” her friend replied, leading the way out of the parlor.

Whoa, hold on! Bellis drawing pictures? Now this I gotta see.

“Count me in!”

“Huh? Vi?!”

“You can go ahead and start dinner without me, Cercis!”

“Hold it right there!”

“Madam, dinner is—”

“That can wait!”

Leaving a stunned Mr. Fisalis and Rohtas behind, I followed after the two girls.

* * *

“Bellis! Draw something!”

“Huh?”

When Violet and Daisy showed up at the greenhouse all of a sudden and thrust a piece of paper and pen his way, Bellis was uncharacteristically thrown for a loop.

“Draw...something?”

“Yeah! Draw me and Daisy and the manor and flowers!”

“Uh-huh...”

It sounded like she’d tacked on an extra request for Bellis! Daisy, too, was staring up at him with stars in her eyes.

“Okay... Hold on.”

Once he’d wiped the dirt from his hands, Bellis took the pen and began his sketch.

Mr. Fisalis had been a disaster of an artist—Rohtas, likewise. Now the question was: how was Bellis’s drawing going to end up? I awaited the finished product with as much excitement as the two children present.

“There. Done.”

“Show us! Show us!”

Oops. I think my voice was the loudest there.

Despite my clamoring, Bellis made a point of showing his picture to the girls first.

“Whoa! Cool!”

“That’s really pretty, daddy!”

His sketch had the girls jumping for joy, so I went ahead and took a peek myself. There on the sheet of paper, he’d drawn a whole row of super delicate flowers. I hadn’t seen that one coming.

“Wow, you’re good at this, Bellis.”

“I guess. Every now and then I have to draw a sketch of how I want a bouquet or a pruning job to look.”

So the same idea as Cartham, more or less.

“That explains why you’re only good at still lifes,” I said, to which Bellis responded with silence.

To expand on my comment: while the flowers and building were drawn in great and loving detail, the subjects of the picture—Violet and Daisy, that is—looked pretty slapdash.

“They move around a lot...so it’s hard to observe them.”

“Yeah, I get it. Those girls never stand still.”

For the ones who’d been asking people to draw them in the first place, they didn’t make for very good models.

Still! Thanks to them, I discovered a new side of Bellis today!

“I look ugly,” Violet complained.

“Me too,” said Daisy.

Bellis’s flowers looked great, but his people? Not so much. The little ones had yet to be fully appeased, it seemed.

“Let’s see Cartham next.”

Next thing I knew, they were running off to look for Cartham in the kitchen.

* * *

The mood in the kitchen was nothing like how we’d left it. The preparations for dinner were in full swing.

“Is the sauce for the vegetables ready yet? It better be chilled to perfection!”

“Yes! Here it is, sir!”

“We need more plates!”

“On it!”

Now that Mr. Fisalis was home, it was a race against the clock.

Violet, meanwhile, wasn’t much for reading the room. The picture of innocence, she walked right up to Cartham.

“Cartham! Draw me and Daisy and some flowers and dinner.”

“Pardon? Our little ladies, a bouquet of blossoms, and a feast? What a delightful combination!” He smiled down at the girls, switching from Scary Boss Mode to Doting Uncle Mode in the blink of an eye.

“Sorry, Cartham. I bet you’ve got your hands full getting dinner on the table, huh? You can worry about this later.”

“Fear not, Madame. This shouldn’t take any time at all,” he said with a grin. He then washed his hands and took the pen and paper from Violet.

Just like earlier, he ran his hand smoothly across the page. Judging by the little tune he was humming all the while, he must have had an even easier time with this sketch than the last one.

“All done!”

The artwork he’d churned out in almost no time at all looked shockingly good.

“Omigosh! These flowers look like flowers!”

“What else would they look like? You say the silliest things, Madame.”

“I look cute!” exclaimed Lettie.

“Me too!” said Daisy.

“But nowhere near as cute as the genuine article, of course,” said Cartham.

“The food looks yummy!”

“Ha ha ha! That’s tonight’s entrée, for the record.”

All the disasterpieces I’d seen that day had thrown off my eye for good art, but there was no mistaking the quality of Cartham’s work. It wasn’t super detailed or anything, but he’d managed to capture all the defining features of his subjects.

“Wowee! I knew you could draw food, but I didn’t know you were so good at drawing people too!”

“The key is to pin down the most important traits of whoever it is you’re drawing; once you’ve done that, it’s not hard to fool people’s eyes.”

“No way—you really are talented! I mean, compared to Cercis? Oh man... I’m gonna laugh just remembering it.”

“What did his look like?”

“In short? A disasterpiece.”

“Oh my... Well, we all have our strengths and weaknesses.”

“Whatever! What matters here is that you’re the unanimous winner of the Art Awards!”

“I had no idea there was a contest, but I’m honored nonetheless.”

Later on, Violet and Daisy begged Quince to draw for them. He turned out to be a decent enough artist of both people and animals.

Something tells me they should’ve just asked Quince to begin with.