Listen!
This is Picasso, a short I wrote in 2009 for a story prompt on the EditRed website. It was subsequently published on Postcard Shorts, but I’m still very fond of it, so I thought it would make a nice Audioboo for today’s Spoken Sunday! I hope you like it.
Silence held the gallery in its tender grasp. Silver ribbons of moonlight snaked across the parquet floor. Reaching up the walls, they fingered the heavy wooden frames that held some of the world’s most beautiful paintings.
Miles away, the clock struck midnight. Its heavy chime floated on the still night air. Life stirred in the gallery as goddesses, royalty and anonymous angels hauled themselves out of their frames. Renaissance minstrels struck up a tune, while Pre-Raphaelite heroines started to dance. Laughter soon filled the gallery as its famous inhabitants joined the ball.
The frivolous atmosphere broke as a solitary figure limped into the main hall. Two eyes stared forlornly from the right hand side of its face, and a cruel mouth twisted into a snarl beside its ear. A simple slash served as a nose, and it tried to disguise its backward-facing hands held at right angles.
The music stopped as the congregation turned to face the newcomer. Millais’ Ophelia stepped forward, dripping water onto the chequered tiles.
“Dear me, who painted you?!” she exclaimed, barely able to contain her revulsion. The reply was plaintive and dejected.
“Picasso”.
Great visual and sharp ending.
Thank you! It was partially inspired by Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon of 1907! Obviously Millais’ Ophelia is a beauty but I always thought she’d be a bit haughty…
Oh, I like this, but I can’t get the audio file to work.
That’s a shame, it works fine in my browser.
Love this… Works on so many levels. And I found it even just a tad creepy — but that’s prolly just me. Nice one, Icy…
Oh, poor thing! It’s quite something to consider the consequences of art, particularly the less, um, “pretty” pieces (even if they are in fact more interesting.) I like this a lot, Icy.
The audio file works fine for me.
I’m an absolute sucker for the Pre-Raphaelites or the German Romantics, but I do wonder how it would feel to exist as a Cubist or Abstract Expressionist work. Cor, imagine being a Mark Rothko – you’d feel like a paint chart!