Nude Drawing - Two Flash Fiction Interpretations

SECRET LOVER By Eleanor Spiess-Ferris   
A demon lives in the cupboard of her one-room apartment. When she sleeps, he crawls out from behind the corn flakes and the confectionary sugar and angles his way to her bedside.  There, looking down at her, he sighs and dares to touch her bare breast. She stirs and the rascal fearfully withdraws his hand. He waits for her shallow breathing.  Pulling back the sheets, he slips onto the fold out couch and rests beside her until dawn. The morning comes. She walks nude to the cupboard for her breakfast. From behind the sugar, he stares longingly at his beloved.
Nude Drawing # 3 – Courtesy of Eleanor Spiess-Ferris

SUICIDE SKETCH  By Umberto Tosi 

She would take pills and draw until she expired. Jill hated to write. Naked as born, she bent to her suicide self-portrait, intending  truth to every storied crease, curve and sag until her visage -- just missing beauty – would explain her life and death. But her own hand betrayed her just as Jack had done and drew the bastard there instead, mocking her. Or did her demon seaman mean to send a message? Infuriated, she downed a cold coffee left on the side table from morning. It perked her up. Her hand knocked over the rest of the pills.

(copyright c 2009 by Umberto Tosi, all rights reserved.)

The old man and the ballerina - a Victorian tintype - two nanostories

LULU                      
by Umberto Tosi

DIRECT FROM PRAGUE: LULU, THE AMAZING, LIFELIKE MECHANICAL BALLERINA DANCES FOR YOU: 5 mins/15.  Oh, this is the tenth time that leering, bald goat has popped his head through the window at me, whispering lurid suggestions while I dance. Does he suspect? He is extremely wealthy I know. He'll want to buy “Lulu”  for a princely sum, and Willie will take the money. And, again,  I will pretend until the last moment before running off, just like in Saratoga. But Willie'd better be closer by with the carriage this time, or I'm done being love's fool for him.

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THE GIFT
By Eleanor Spiess-Ferris


 On her 16th birthday, McSneed, gave a jewelry box to his daughter.

“Daddy, this is dreadfully out dated. ” whined the daughter.

However, McSneed found the box with its ballerina enchanting.
Staring at the dancer spinning on her little slippers, McSneed soon discovered that she would dance longer for him if he placed a piece of jewelry in the box. The more expensive the adornment, the longer and more gracefully she would entertain.

Finally the box was filled with expensive bobbles.
McSneed was bankrupt.

One day, McSneed discovered his daughter and the box missing.
The ballerina’s departure was deeply mourned.