No Prince.
By Alice K. Boatwright.
“Long strands of hair blow in the breeze as a pale forehead is pressed against the bars, and a querulous voice begins a litany that rises slowly in intensity.“
Artwork by Nina Ždanovič.
On a bright, hot summer morning, white hands flutter from a window on the top floor of the old state hospital. They hover in the air, reach for the sky, then fall to the sill, limp.
Disappear.
Return.
Long strands of hair blow in the breeze as a pale forehead is pressed against the bars, and a querulous voice begins a litany that rises slowly in intensity.
“When will you come?”
Pale fingers drum on the sill, then leap to clutch the bars with fierce knuckles as the woman begins to scream.
“When. Will. You. Come?”
“When. Will. You. Come?”
The Blood Pudding – October 1, 2020
Alice K. Boatwright’s stories have appeared in Calyx, Mississippi Review, America West, and elsewhere. Her book, COLLATERAL DAMAGE, received the 2013 Independent Publisher Book Awards’ Bronze Medal for Literary Fiction. She is also the author of SEA, SKY, ISLANDS and the Ellie Kent mysteries. She lives in the Pacific Northwest. http://www.alicekboatwright.com.
Artwork: Nina Zdanovic is originally from Vilnius, Lithuania, and is currently based in Tokyo. Her work reflects her belief that humans don’t live in an objective world, that the reality that surrounds us always reflects what we are going through. She explores how our memories, thoughts, and experiences affect how we perceive reality and searches for the intersection between the real and mystical, between the inner and the outer worlds. You can find her and buy her work at ninazdanovic.com.