Title: A Small Masterpiece
Genre: Despicable Me
Rating: G
Word count: 688
Prompt: A small Masterpiece by Halfmoon Mollie
I hope you liked what I did with your poem. I have such fun with these guys! My thanks to you and to Sparky for her Beta.
“Da Vinci painted her
Napoleon stole her
She ended up in
a museum in France,”
Margo paused. It was storming outside and she’d been put in charge of entertaining her siblings and the occasional minion that wandered by. She looked at the small group and asked, “What am I?”
Bob’s hand shot up into the air. “Me! Me!”
“Yes, Bob?” Margo grinned at the small yellow minion. “What am I?”
"Poopay!”
“A puppy?” Agnes made a face.
“No, poopay! Pooooo-pay.” Seeing that he was getting nowhere, Bob scooted off the chair, his feet dangling precariously until he touched the step stool. He climbed down and ran off.
“Do you…?” Margo asked her sisters.
“No idea… and I thought I had Minionese down…” Edith shrugged her shoulders and returned her attention to chewing on her juice straw. Agnes smiled and shook her head. She had just gotten a new unicorn and was busy making it show worthy. She sat on her bedroom rug, Kyle’s head on her lap.
Bob ran back into the room and held up a can of Campbell soup. “Poopay!” At the still blank looks, he grabbed a frame and held the can in the middle. “Poopay!”
“You mean, pop art?”
“Si!”
Margo laughed at that. “No, Bob, although it’s a really good guess. This one was stolen from its museum.”
“Boss?!” That image galvanized Kevin into excitement. He jumped off his chair and grabbed Bob’s hand.
“No, not Gru.” But it was too late, they were off and away. “Guys, it’s not Gru.”
They froze. “Aaawww,” the minions said together and trudged back to their seats.
“Sorry. This happened a long time ago.”
“It’s that Lisa girl,” Agnes said suddenly. She was brushing her unicorn’s rainbow mane.
“Who?” Edith gave up on her straw.
“Lisa… but that’s not her first name. I heard a song about her and her smile.”
“You’re right, Agnes!” Margo hugged her. “Mona Lisa.” She paged open a book and held it out for
“But why did Napoleon steal her?”
“Napoleon Bonaparte, not Solo.”
“Anyhow, the wild part is that in 1911, Vinzenzo Peruggia stole her. He was a janitor and thought it would be better to have her hanging in an Italian museum. That’s how he got caught. He was trying to give a painting to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence for a reward and got caught.”
“Did he burn?” Edith’s eyes grew wide with delight.
“Ew, no, of course not. He was only sentenced to six months and most Italians hailed him as a true patriot.”
“Well, that’s jacked.” Edith jumped down from her chair. “I’m bored. Come on, let’s go. First one to the acid pit is it.” She raced off followed closely by the minions. The ‘cousins’ could always be trusted to come up with something challenging. All, except Bob. He was staring at Agnes as a tear trickled down her cheek. He wiggled off his chair and sat down beside her.
“Whaa tis seg?” He stroked her arm.
“Was she an orphan, too? Is that why she’s so sad?”
Margo shut the book and knelt down. “What do you mean, sweetheart?”
“Her smile is brave, like when we were at Miss Hatty’s and people would come and look at us… No one wanted us either.”
“Gru did and now we have a wonderful mother and father.”
“Yee uncle--” Bob interrupted.
“And uncle, yes.”
“Not at first... he gave us back.”
“No, we were taken back. There’s a difference, although I didn’t see it then, either. They love us, Agnes.”
“So this is our forever home?”
“Yes.” Margo hugged the little girl, unaware that Gru was watching from the doorway.
Lucy came up behind him. “What’s going on?”
“Oh, I’m just watching our little masterpieces.” Gru smiled tenderly at the girls. It was frightening to him how much he loved them.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that…”
“Yes?”
Lucy rested a hand on her still very flat tummy. “What are your views of adding more art to the house?”
Poopay - pop art (sort of).
Whaaat? tis seg? - what is it?
Yee uncle - And uncle.