{"id":2390,"date":"2017-01-03T16:20:49","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T00:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/?p=2390"},"modified":"2017-01-04T15:12:46","modified_gmt":"2017-01-04T23:12:46","slug":"the-portrait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/?p=2390","title":{"rendered":"The Portrait"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Portrait<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">The portrait hung in my house for years.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">I never had cause to give it any fear.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">It was of a beautiful woman with red hair.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">I don\u2019t know who she was or how it got there.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">It was hanging there when I bought the house.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">I left it there because I liked her blouse.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">All was fine till my girlfriend moved in.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">Strange things have happened since then.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">The portrait started to change, it seemed.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">She looked angry instead of serene.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">My girlfriend tripped on the stairs.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">Someone pushed her, she swears.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">She has heard a whisper there.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">It would tell her to beware.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">She would get a cold chill up her spine.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">When she looked at the portrait , every time.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">Other bizarre incidents occurred.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">Always with the single word. \u201cBeware!!\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">She was convinced the portrait did it.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">She thinks it is of a witch.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">I tried to trace the history of the picture.<br \/>\nI kept running into one hitch here.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">The previous owner had burned the painting.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">I heard this and felt like fainting.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">He said it was there when he bought the house.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">Incidents happened, so he took it out.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">He burned it and things quieted down.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">The house felt creepy, so he moved out of town.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">Built in the 1600\u2019s, the house is old.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">Rumors say a witch lived there, I was told.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">They say her portrait hung in the den.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">This was a bad fix I was in.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">I could burn it, but, I might have to move.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">Was it jealous of my girlfriend? How crude.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">I threatened to drown it in holy water.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">All the weirdness stopped without a bother.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">We are still there, but always weary.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">Twice we saw the portrait teary.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8211;R. W. Johnson&#8212;&#8211;(2017)<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Portrait The portrait hung in my house for years. I never had cause to give it any fear. It was of a beautiful woman with red hair. I don\u2019t know who she was or how it got there. It was hanging there when I bought the house. I left it there because I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/?p=2390\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Portrait<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,16,15,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-free-bird-poetry","category-horror","category-recovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2390"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2394,"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390\/revisions\/2394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}