Mona Lisa Smile

The monk hears the scream. He was whistling while aiming his urine at the water in the toilet bowl, trying to draw a heart-like shape. First, he gets confused, and stops urinating. He thinks very hard to figure out what is going on. As he thinks about the possibilities, gradually becomes more and more worried. He wants to rush to the church when he realizes that his dick is hanging out. He gets mad with himself, puts the dick back in, and runs to the church.

He is at the door and about to open it. Suddenly he stops. He wants to open the door, but is afraid of what he might find out if he does. He is hesitant. His hand is on the door, his head is down, and he is thinking. Finally, he makes up his mind, and pushes the door open.

The church seems to be empty. He looks left and right, but sees nobody. He is terrified, and breathes rapidly. “Kiiiiid,” the monk screams. He sees something crawling at the front of the church. He runs towards it. It seems to be Leonardo; he is lying on something; he looks like he has just been resurrected from the dead, coming back up to earth directly from hell.

“Nooooooo!” Leonardo screams.

“Are you okay, kid? What happened?”

Leonardo’s face is all sweat. Shame is pouring down from his eyes. He cannot look directly at the monk. To break the eye contact, he turns his look on the ground. He sees the painting still lying on the ground. He is confused, turns his look to the wall; it is as empty as it always was! He is shocked. He cannot breathe. Turns his look back to the painting, which is in the same position it was before the monk leaves them alone. He looks left, right, behind; there is no Maria—well, the one in the painting aside. He lets out a relaxed long breath. A brief smile appears on his face. The shame has not left his eyes though.

“Kid, talk to me, what is with you?” the monk worryingly asks.

“Nothing, well… everything. I gotta go. I want to… I… I think I need to paint now.”

The monk is puzzled. He found Leonardo deeply disturbed a few seconds ago, and now he is quickly transforming into this relaxed, what is the word, ah yes, content man as if there has never been any burden on his heart. It is as if he is a newborn; he is Leonardo, and yet he isn’t. The monk doesn’t know what is going on; he is concerned that perhaps the kid might have finally lost it, gone mad. He tries to cheer him up.

“Awesome! More art, that is great. Do you want me to cook up a super prayer for you? 100 percent guaranteed,” the monk said excitedly.

Leonardo chuckled. “No, no. That’s fine. That one time was enough. Here, you keep this one.” Leonardo was handing over the Santa Maria painting to the monk. “Actually, let me hang the smiley-face for you, That was our deal, or… covenant as you called it,” Leonardo said while taking the painting to the wall. He was grounded, as if he had made his peace with the earth, yet he was nimble as if gravity was taking it easy on him. While adjusting it, he said: “If nothing, the smiley-face will remind you of your aunty, what was her name again, Lisa?”

“Mona Lisa.”

“Yeah, Mona Lisa Smile.” Leonardo smiled.

“True Story.”

“Then what happened?”

“What do you think happened? He went home. And never came back.”

“So, did he ever get a shot with Silvia?”

“Who the fu**, oh yeah Silvia, how would I know? I don’t have psychic powers. I am just a super monk around here. I shoot up super prayers, and that’s that.”

The reader looks at the naked wall, and says: “If that’s true, then where is the painting?”

“What painting?” the monk says while looking at the wall; “Oh, yeah Mona Lisa Smile. The French stole it. A**holes. Did I say A**hole? Sorry. I retract.”

“The one in the Louvre museum?! Are you crazy? That is from like centuries ago. That makes no sense, no sense at all.”

“Not a fan of fiction, huh? Alright then, I have the prefect story for you.”

“No, no no. No more stories from you, please! Can I just be alone?”

“Alone, like the great Zhong Fu?”

“Who is Kung Fu?”

“Zhong Fu, only the wisest monk in the whole of China.”

“Oh no,” the reader sighs.

“Listen up. It’s a true story. Krishna, a young Maharaja Kumar in India fell in love with Anushka, a beautiful Daandia dancer he met during…”

The End

Hope you have enjoyed the story. A kind reminder to rate/review the book.