Metier

“Where do you get your ideas?”

The question was a needle in Jeremy’s ear every time he heard it. How do you answer that question? Everyone gets ideas, or no one gets ideas. Some ideas are good and some are bad, and the only difference between Jeremy and his brother who painted vans was that Jeremy threw out more of his work. Every painting started out mediocre, and most never got better. But that wouldn’t mollify his interviewer, who wanted to portray Jeremy as a genius.

Fortunately, he had a prepared response. “Aliens.”

“Aliens?”

“They beam ideas from outer space.”