Partly Cloudy, 64°
According to onlookers, the prim-seeming young girl and her little brother apparently rationing out cellophane packets of saltine crackers in a corner of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts just might be living in the place. The pair, speaking in hushed whispers in a corner of the museum’s Greek and Roman collection, looks to be counting out the crackers as if to live on for a period of several days. They also seem tired, panicked and entirely without adult supervision.
“I don’t see their parents anywhere,” said Stephen Alpert, who was present with his own son and daughter. “If I didn’t know any better, I would say that boy and girl have escaped from grammar school, where they felt unappreciated by the adults in their life. Maybe they escaped to this museum to satisfy a thirst for knowledge and whimsy.”
The girl and boy are cautiously eyeing all passersby, and among their stashed crackers are also a well-annotated map of the museum, several candles, a button, a cat’s-eye marble, two red pennies and a well-worn length of string. Museum-goers confirm that the girl is dressed in an anachronistic and smart red cardigan while her brother looks to be dressed in an old nightshirt.
“I might bring this to the attention of a curator or guard,” said Judy Flaherty, another museum attendee. “I bet they’re living in this art museum. She’s probably punctual. He’s probably precocious, with a nose for mystery and adventure.”
According to observers, it’s not impossible that the sibling pair duck into a service closet or air vent or something as the lights are turned off at closing, only to sneak out at night and live among the artworks. The Museum of Fine Arts is likely so much more engaging than the drab boarding school from which the two may or may not have run away.
“I’ll put one of my security men on this straight away,” said Clay Fosse, museum director. “One of the children has a photographic memory probably. And I’d bet that the other one has amazing powers of deduction. They’re orphans I’d wager. Man alive, the grandparents they live with must be so boring. I’ll bet that’s why this dynamic duo are living here in the museum in the first place.”
At press time, the pair of children were discreetly picking pennies out of the fountain in the grand hall.
