Flash Fiction Friday 7-15-11: "Still Life"

(Image provided by Lexi, photographer and title unknown)

Never seen a statue quite this realistic before. Absolutely exquisite.

...Wait, what? Moving eyes? Hang on a second.
The words arrowed into his brain as those eyes locked with his: Help! Get me out of here!
He stood stock still as the implications registered. He opened his mouth and she cut him off. I've jumped to the wrong place. So far I've been playing “sculpture”, but the second someone actually touches me, that's it. Please, help me!

He glanced around swiftly. The gallery was empty. All right, he thought, pulling off his coat and draping it around her shoulders. Get ready to move.

Her body was warm and soft. She felt very real indeed.

Oh, I'm definitely real, she sent. And once we have some privacy, I'll show you. I don't forget favors.

(Click for details on FFF!)

Your challenge for today was to use the picture above and write a flash fiction of 85-135 words. Additionally, I provided a key phrase I wanted to see used somewhere in the submission:

"...stock still..."

Nobody's checking word counts, or for the key phrase, but you're only cheating yourself if you break the rules. Unless you're doing it to earn a spanking (in which case, see me after class).

Special Bonus Director's Commentary Track: 

I had a lot of fun with this one. I've seen plenty of nude photos suggesting the subject was part of an exhibition at a very avant-garde museum, which leads to interesting speculations about how the average gallery-goer would react to a living, breathing nude.

But that wasn't enough for me. I just finished reading a time-travel novel (Up the Line by Robert Silverberg) and when I saw this my mind just naturally headed in that direction. I imagined her as a time-traveler who'd jumped into the wrong place and time entirely. How would you react at finding yourself nude in an art gallery god only knows where or when?  If you're her, well, you freeze in terror and hope you can find somebody who might be sympathetic before you get arrested or otherwise apprehended. The idea to make her telepathic was partly to give her story more credence and partly to save time with introductions.


I kind of wish now I'd made the word length less stringent. I'd have liked to explore how, exactly, she rewarded him for his favor, later on.....

If you are playing along this week, please leave your link below using the widget. It will appear in the text of the post itself, not in the comments, so everyone that's playing will be listed here. This frees me from having to chase people down to find out if they're playing or update the Friday post several times for late entries. Your cooperation is appreciated.

In any case, the participants list is below. Go check them out, and thanks to all who played along.



Check back here on Monday for the next challenge! And if you have any photos or artwork you'd like to see in a future challenge, please send them my way. Thanks to Lexi for providing this week's photo!

-- PB