It Runs in the Family...

Today, my 13-year-old Steven took a "test" where he was shown some photo and asked to make a story about them. I have no idea what the evaluator will say about his answers, but as a writer and his mother, I was quietly rolling in the waiting room. (In fact, once I had to leave the building to laugh.) With his permission, I present you some of the snippets from Steve's storytelling. (And I'm sure anyone who knows me will know where he got it):

Picture (as described by Steven): A man and woman sort-of embracing. He has dark circles around his eyes. She has her hands on his sides. (I don't think he was hugging her back.)

Story: The man has been protecting something precious. A sacred artifact like the spear that pierced Jesus. Even though the girl is attractive, she wants to steal the spear. She's not hugging him. She's searching him.

Picture: Short man at an operation. There's a man on the operating table and surgeons around him. There's a gun in the picture.

Story snippet: The midget is an assassin for a rival gang. He shot the guy dead, but they had to remove the bullet because the bullet has a spacial marking because the gang leader gave them to him. The operation was a success (Mom: I'm thinking, "even though the patient was dead..") but little did they know there was a secret eyewitness. The eyewitness told the police and they all went to jail.

Picture: Boy sitting in a cottage doorway in a thinking pose.

Steven: This boy has been grounded for eating all the cookies and he's thinking of a way to get out of it so he can go to his friends' bachelor party--no, slumber party...

One character was described as "works in a factory making Sunshade retractable awnings." The evaluator had to make him repeat that a couple of times slowly.

Another character was described as "a guttersnipe most of his life. He spent his time dodging the gangs who wanted to force him to do crimes, waiting in line at the temple for his daily bowl of soup, doing odd jobs, lemonade stands and such..."

One story ended with "Knott accidentally kills the wizard by taking it a little too far with the rage thing, so they get the reward for his head--literally. They bring back the wizard's head on a stick..."