The Mystery of the Hand Painting the Hand by Sr. Margaret Kerry, fsp

The Mystery of the Hand Painting the Hand

Hand Signals This is the story…no wait a minute. I will let Renée tell the story. She was there and she tells it the best. “This is Renée. Ok, this is how it happened….” Renée goes over to the chair in a corner of the room and prepares to tell the story. While we are waiting for Renée to tell her story – or rather how she solved the mystery – she is finding a good seat in the house to sit on. It isn’t a long story but Renée wants to be comfortable. You understand, don’t you? Pillows all around her she pushes them down to fluff them up. You may suspect that she is ready for a pillow fight. But not until she has finished the story. Shhhh….I think she is ready – follow me to the couch. “Ok, I’m ready.” Coughs to clear throat. “This is a mystery. Well it was a mystery until I solved it. See it went like

this….Please turn that light on near the couch ‘cause this could be scary…. Thank you.” “One day a long time ago…. ha ha, just kidding! This isn’t a fairy tell – it is a mystery. Ok, I will start over.” Beginning of Story (ahem) mystery (told in the third person). There was a great artist in Pensacola, Florida. She was known as “Le artiste!” but her real name was – have you guessed it? Mary Renée or just Renée. Renee had an artist studio on the front porch of her grandmother’s house. She did her best work on this porch because it was warm but it wasn’t too sunny, it was breezy but not too windy and when it rained she could keep on painting. Some say she even dipped her brushes in the rain to catch the colors of the rainbow. I do wish you could see her paintings. They are exquisite! One day you will have to visit her studio.

It was a sunny day when the mystery began. It was a day when shadows play along the side of houses and dogs bark because they are happy while bugs are flying around for them to catch. Renée was humming along at the stroke of her paint brush – hmm huumm hmmmm…like that. She often sang or hummed when painting. Suddenly she saw it! The shadow of a hand moving across her palate – across her canvas! Shocking! Who would disturb such a great artist on such a beautiful day! Renée stopped humming. She stopped painting. In fact she froze in place to see if the shadow would reappear. At first it was gone and then…then it came back! Slowly the shadow moved over the palette and onto the canvas. It was a hand alright. Just one hand.

Renée looked around. She stepped off of the porch. She looked around the corner of the porch. Here is Renée’s first hand report (excuse the reference to hand…). “I thought it had to be Uncle Mike or possibly cousin Matthew or cousin Joe. Then I watched the shadow appear again and knew that it could be a boy or a girl’s hand. I suspected my sister Anna and cousin Jaclyn. I still didn’t have a clue though.” Clues are what you need to solve mysteries, dear listener. What do we know so far? It is a sunny day. There is a slight breeze. The dogs are barking. Oh, that is a good clue! Usually when the dogs bark someone is around causing trouble. What else do we know? It is spring, we are on the porch of grandma’s house, it isn’t raining – this is just as important - to figure out what is missing. In this case rain is missing.

Getting a Hand(le) on the Mystery “I know what I will do,” Renée said. “When the hand-shadow comes back onto the canvas I will start to outline it in pencil. When it comes again I will shade it in with paint. Then I will measure everyone’s hand and solve the mystery.” This is exactly what she did. Only great artists can trace a hand that fast. This hand was dancing across the canvas. Who ever was making the shadows was close by and yet they were well hidden. Renée traced furiously. Then she started painting. Little by little she continued this job. Voila! The hand was complete! Renée took the canvas off of the stand. She kissed it. “Now I have you little or big hand – whose ever you are! I am going to solve the mystery!”

She tucked the canvas under her arm and went into the shop where Uncle Mike was printing. “Uncle Mike,” she invited, “Please place your hand onto of the hand I just drew – your right hand please.” Renée didn’t tell him why she wanted him to do this. She had a plan. She would ask everyone to measure their hand and find out who was making the shadow over her palette and canvas. Uncle Mike complied. The paint wasn’t quite dry though so he thought it was a trick. “That was tricky, Renée.” he said wiping his hand on his printer’s apron. “By the way – that is a great hand! I don’t know how you did it but someone would love to hang that in their living room. I gotta hand it to you!” Renée sighed. Uncle Mike’s hand was larger than the shadow. She went off to find her sister Anna and cousin Renée. They were sitting on the picnic bench giggling about something. “Ah ha!” thought Renée. “They

are acting guilty. They won’t even let me measure their hands I bet.” When she approached them Anna saw her with the painting. “Let me give you a hand, oh it is a hand!” she giggled some more. “Very funny,” said Renee. “I am doing a hand test. Can you both lay your right hand on this painted hand – one at a time?” They were trying to put their hands on at the same time. “Hey this is nice hand, Renee” complimented Jaclyn. “Thanks,” said Renee. Once again she realized that neither of them were the shadow creators. Their hands were too small. Joseph and Matthew weren’t around so Renee decided to sit down for a while and rethink her clues. Now she had three more clues – three people to eliminate. And her brothers didn’t seem to be around. She put the hand painting down and placed her head in her hands to think.

Giving a Hand Just then grandma came out onto the porch. “How is it going, Renée. What have you there?” She asked pointing to the painting. “You really do a great job on those paintings. No wonder you are called Le Artiste!” “Right now I would rather be called Sherlock Holmes,” she sighed. “Why?” asked grandma. Renée explained what happened when she began painting a beautiful rose bush. She told grandma how the hand was definitely caused by someone moving their hand across her palette and canvas. “I see what you mean,” said grandma. “Maybe if you help me in the garden for a while whoever is doing this will give up. Renée agreed after a big glass of lemonade. The lemonade refreshed her. She was ready to paint again but decided that helping in the

garden was a wonderful way to wait for the perpetrator to give him or her self up. Grandma laid down a piece of material for them to kneel on so they could get close to the ground for digging. She had two hand shovels to till the soil. Next to these where four pots of pansies – one of her favorite flowers. “Don’t you love spring!” she looked over at Renée. “There is so much for you to see and paint!” “Yes,” Renée responded. “At soon as the peace of my little studio has returned I will paint these pansies.” They both knelt on the ground. Grandma put on one of the gardening gloves and Renée put one on at the same time. Then Renée put on the second glove. Grandma, meanwhile, was looking around where she was seated. “Have you seen the other glove?” she asked Renée. “No.” answered Renée. “I have two on. Would you like one of mine? I can use one hand.”

When she said “one hand” Renée thought of the hand shadow. “Grandma!” she exclaimed. “I will be right back!” Renée jumped up and went over to her hand painting. She measured the glove she had on. It was almost the right size! “Grandma!” she yelled. “What hand do you have the glove on!” “The left hand,” she answered. “I think we solved the mystery!” Renée didn’t want to take all of the credit – after all it was grandma who suggested gardening. “Great!” said grandma. “How did we do that?” “The right glove is missing and I think it will be the perfect fit for this hand shadow!”

“How do we find it?” asked grandma. Just then a breeze blew through the trees. Renée said aloud: “It is another clue! There is a breeze on the porch and since I have been out here under the tree there hasn’t been a breeze. When I went to talk to Jaclyn and Anna there wasn’t a breeze. Why is there a breeze on the porch?” At this grandma stood up and brushed off her jeans. She walked over to the porch with Renée. They both looked up. Sure enough! The ceiling fan was on low. They watch as it spun slowing around. They laughed as the missing right glove went around with it. The glove had been placed over one of the fan blades. As it went around and caught the sun the shadow of a hand moved across the porch. “Finally, the mystery is solved!” clapped Renée. She looked at her hand painting. “I

would have never thought to draw such a mysterious hand,” she said. “I guess that is like life – when you need a hand sometimes you have to paint it!” Grandma laughed with her.

Handing on the Gift Uncle Mike came out of the print shop. “Hey, Renée!” “Yes,” she answered. “Do you still have that hand painted hand painting?” “Of course,” she said. “And it is now famous because it helped us solve a mystery like Sherlock Holmes!” “Well I’m Watson at the moment Sherlock and there is someone here to see you. Oh, and bring your painting!” Renée looked at grandma. They both walked into the shop. A gentleman and his daughter where behind the front counter. Mike introduced Renée. Renée said hello and asked what she could do for the visitors. “My daughter has a request. I was just telling Mike and he said he had the perfect answer.” “Go on,” said Renée curiously. “I will let me daughter ask.” She smiled shyly and looked at Renée.

“Yesterday my teacher asked me to bring something to show and tell for the class. I had the perfect thing to bring – but then I lost it. Maybe you can help. I hope so.” “What was it you lost?” asked Renée. “Actually I shouldn’t say I lost it, I gave it away. It gave a helping hand to a person who didn’t have enough to eat. The item I was going to show was a ring that was given to me by an Indian princess. It was made of turquoise and lapis lazuli, a deep blue semiprecious stone.” “I have exactly what you need then!” Renée produced the painting of the hand. Plus I will add a picture of the ring to the painting. What you can show in class is your helping hand!” “Wonderful,” she cried. “Whatever made you paint a hand like this? It is perfect!”

“To be honest,” said Renée, “It was a gift from above. Now I know that inspiration comes from the heart. “I want to join your fan club!” said the girl. “Thank you,” said Renée giving her the web address, “I can tell you truthfully that though this painting was inspired by an actual fan club member, your act of kindness is going to give me inspiration for many paintings to come.”

Proverbs 3:27

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