Tanja Cilia
Hey! Roughton!
He started. He was alone; yet he could have sworn that somebody had addressed him by his surname. On the other hand—he knew that had been on the point of dozing off. So it could have been a mouse scrabbling across the parquet.
What does a girl have to do to get noticed around here?
This time he was sure he’d heard correctly. The voice came from the portrait of Margaret Wilson, who was usually referred to as “The Martyr of Solway”.
That was the first time it had happened.
His was no ordinary job. It was a unique concept. A museum dedicated solely to portraits.
What he had not bargained for was that the portraits . . . talked! Talked, did I say? Well, actually, It was more like a zillion vibrations, reverberating through his brain.
Soon he learned how to discern what they intended to communicate, so they lowered their tone. In time, the portraits didn’t even whisper; he just heard them inside his head.
Van Gogh coughed, a grimace on his cadaverous face. It’s only humans here, isn’t it? We could do with a couple of Louis Wain’s cats. They would keep away the mice.
Napoleon snorted. Cats! Bleurg. Why not horses? Mine—Désirée, not Marengo or Vizir or any other one of them—Babieca, Dhūljānāh, Matsukaze, Bucephalus, Shadowless . . .
Why not write a book and make money out of all this? He would camouflage it as fiction—and sell it in the foyer.
And he did.
25 comments:
Well done. Good story. Someone imagining portraits are speaking to him. Or maybe he truly does hear them, in his mind. I like.
Well written flash fiction. Congrats, Tanja. I enjoyed it.
Here! here! Jolly good show. Make it a picture book, though.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Everett_Millais_-_The_Martyr_of_the_Solway_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
I think that's an awesome story. Very well written, and I like the ending. It also gave a kick of my own to get me back to writing. I really like it. I will make sure I share it. :)
Very nice!
Great job, Tanja!!!
Very "imaginative" story. Loved it?
Very Rod Serling. I approve
I just love this idea of painting talking to each other, so original Tanja :)
Nice autobiography. ;)
Wow--true creativity at its finest!! I am in love with this idea...but I wish it weren't written as a flash fiction. I'd LOVE to read more!
Thank you all for the lovely comments!
Clever story!
great work as usual Tanja!
lol I loved this!
Good job, Tanja! Whoever evoked The Twilight Zone is right!
Nice story!
Love the idea of this story. I'm sitting here wishing there was actually more to read.Well done.
Very imaginative! Would serve
as a good concept for a short film. Thanks Tanja
Left me smiling. Hmm...I wonder how you thought up his name..Roughton. LOL. Congrats and thanks for sharing with us.
Very good short story. And very interesting too. Imagining that portraits talk. Cool. And I bet it would make a great story line for a book.
J Q - I bet you know from whom I filched the surname! Meanwhile - thank you, everyone. I am overwhelmed and humbled by the response.
Wow Tanja! I love your story! Excellent! Would have never thought of portraits talking to the curator! Also well-written!
This is such a good story! Well done Tanja!
I like your originality, Tanja. It's a nice story which we enjoyed reading. Keep them coming.
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