Everyone at school called him Billy Bathwater, but that wasn’t his real name. It was a mean nickname one of the older kids saddled him with when he learned that Billy Sim’s father owned Sim’s Bath Works on Main Street. They installed showers, bathtubs, Jacuzzis, and the like.
Billy was also a bit of a klutz, tripping on loose shoelaces or bumping into walls because his nose was always in a book.
His most famous bungle happened during art class in fourth grade, when he accidentally tipped over a container of red paint, spilling it all over his desk and drawing a huge laugh from his classmates. They never let him forget it.
Billy kept to himself at school, which gave most of his peers the impression that he wasn’t very bright, but that wasn’t true. He liked to write stories, draw, and had a very creative mind.
His school had a partnership with the art gallery in town, and at the end of each school year, they had a contest that challenged students to create a piece of original art. People from the gallery were the judges, and would select one winner whose work would be displayed prominently in the gallery all summer long. Winning this contest was a big deal.
The competition was open to any student, K–8, but the truth is, it was usually the older kids who got the top prize.
Billy was in 6th grade, and no one expected much from the quiet kid who trips over his own feet.
The children could ask the art teacher for supplies—things like paint, brushes, and paper. Billy surprised his teacher when he told her he needed one ounce of red paint, a big blank canvas, an easel, and an empty paint bucket with the word RED written in big bold letters on the side of the can. He also told her he’d need an iPhone to take a picture, but that he could borrow his mom’s.
As the weeks went by leading up to the contest, the children at school worked hard on their creations. Billy, on the other hand, sat at his desk, doodling without a care in the world. Everyone assumed he had given up and wasn’t going to enter the contest.
When the day of the contest finally came, the people from the art gallery arrived to judge the entries. The art teacher had the kids pin their paintings up on the wall in the school gymnasium for careful inspection.
Some of the artwork was actually pretty good. Paintings of landscapes and houses; even one of a busy little town.
As the judging was about to conclude, the boy they called Billy Bathwater came clanging into the gymnasium, dragging an easel, a blank white canvas, and a picture frame.
Billy put the canvas onto the easel but tipped it slightly to the right so it wasn’t straight. Then he placed a framed photograph that recreated the day he had knocked the paint over on the canvas. The photo was of Billy with his mouth open, eyes wide, and hands stretched out, trying to stop the can marked ‘RED’ from spilling. Then he took a thimble full of red paint and carefully dripped it, so the paint was spilling from the tipped can in the photo, outside the frame onto the pristine white canvas.
His art came to life. It was brilliant.
Bill had taken the most embarrassing moment of his young life and traded it for first prize.
When they hung his creation in the art gallery, something strange happened. No one called him Billy Bathwater ever again.
