Billy got up very early with the first rays of sunlight. His room faced the sun at the beginning of the day. So, on clear summer mornings, it woke him up no matter how late he stayed up. He got up, made breakfast, watched TV and had a shower. All the rest of the family were still asleep.

Billy lived with his mother and older brother, who supported the family. Every morning when Billy’s brother got up for work, Billy went downstairs to make him a cup of tea and say, “Morning”. Billy’s brother usually looked gloomy and sleepy, with his hair untidy. He worked in a fish factory. They produced all kinds of canned fish that went to different cities and different countries. The business was going well and the money was good. Actually, Billy’s brother was lucky to have got a job in the factory. Jobs like his were scarce in a coastal village.

Like all boys of his age, Billy had to go to school because two months later he had exams. He promised his mother he would pass them and now had to spend half the day in the classroom. His grades left much to be desired and his teachers considered him an average and poorly motivated student. Indeed, he never felt happy about learning. Instead he would rather go to the library to read another book on artists and painting.

At school the boys were taught to draw straight lines and circles, but Billy was not very good at it. He had a special kind of talent: he could get the idea of a picture clearer than other students. He hoped to develop his drawing skills but didn’t want anybody to know about it. Even Billy’s mother knew nothing about her

son’s interest. Billy practised painting like the famous artists he had read about. He studied their techniques and tried to imitate them, spending hours in the attic of their old house.

Billy had happy memories of his father, who had disappeared five years before. He was a fisherman and one day their boat didn’t come back to the port. The neighbours kept saying there was no hope, but Billy still couldn’t believe that. There were lots of small islands in the region  — why couldn’t his father have reached one of them? The islands were uninhabited but his father could cope with tough living conditions.

They never discussed it in the family, but Billy often recalled the days from his childhood when he and his father went shopping in town. Father bought him oils, paints and books about famous painters and kept asking Billy to paint him. Billy was nine at that time and said he couldn’t.

During the next five years, things changed. Father’s birthday was a special day for Billy. Every year, on his dad’s birthday, the boy drew a picture of him. Each year, it looked different. When Billy was twelve, he painted like Monet. At the age of thirteen he preferred the Italian style. He hoped that someday father would see the paintings and realize how much Billy loved him.