holmes_minor | Fic: Twinkle, Twinkle: G

Title: Twinkle, Twinkle
Form/Word Count: 361
Characters/Pairing: Dr Watson, Sherlock Holmes, Inspector Stanley Hopkins
Rating: G
Warning/Content: Holmes has accepted an invitation to an art exhibition

Holmes and I had been invited to the opening of a show at the art gallery in a nearby town. I had expected Holmes to decline the invitation, but instead he was enthusiastic, so, despite my lack of interest in fine art, I was happy to join him, expecting there would be something out of the ordinary.

However, having walked round the pictures on display, I was quite disappointed, since there was very little that appealed to me. I wandered over to join Holmes and Inspector Hopkins, who appeared deep in conversation.

“What do you make of the paintings?” Hopkins asked.

“Very little,” I replied. “I’m afraid I do not see what all the fuss is about. The one over there,” I pointed at a painting of a night sky, “is quite pretty. It reminds me of the nursery rhyme. ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star.’”

“Of course!” Holmes exclaimed. He hurried over to inspect the painting himself. “Hopkins, summon your men.”

Hopkins made a sign and a stalwart man, who could only have been a police constable, opened the outer door and called to his companions, before hurrying over.

“You’ll need to take the picture,” Holmes said, and between Hopkins and the constable it was lifted carefully off the wall.

“You can’t do that!” the gallery owner exclaimed, trying to repossess the painting.

“I think you’ll find we can,” Hopkins replied.

The gallery owner made to throw a punch, but his arm was seized by another of the constables, while a third prevented someone else from coming to his aid.

Order was soon restored, and Hopkins, the painting, the policemen and the two men who had been arrested, departed for the police station.

“Well done, my dear Watson,” Holmes said. “As you know that nursery rhyme includes the line, ‘Like a diamond in the sky’, only the stars in the painting weren’t like diamonds, but were, in fact, tiny diamonds, designed for use in delicate clockwork. Perhaps not as valuable as the larger versions to be found in jewellery, but nonetheless would provide a significant sum when they were sold.”

I laughed. “Definitely a case of, ‘How I wonder what you are’.”