by Janet

Long Tall Woman

A Bit of Fiction & Illustration

Melody knew the ride would be longer than usual, so she put on her headphones and buried herself in a book. She was a bit lost in her own little world, so she never heard the bus brake to pick up other passengers, nor did she see or hear anyone boarding.

It wasn’t until the bus hit a rather large bump, sending her book flying across the aisle, that she glanced up to see that several others had joined in on the ride. The first person she noticed was a long tall woman, standing across the aisle. She seemed larger than life.

The bump of the bus made Melody a little jumpy, and butterflies began fluttering in her stomach, but the woman who was standing didn’t budge. Apparently, she wasn’t the squeamish type.

The woman seemed to sense that Melody was ill at ease, so she took the seat next to her – to comfort her a bit. Her name was Lina, and she was one of those creative types. Her clothes were bright and bold, and she had a radiant smile.

Lina spoke with Melody for several minutes, telling her about her life. She was a dancer, traveling throughout the world to perform, and she painted in her spare time. Lina had such passion, and Melody confessed to her that she was slightly envious. The monotony of her own life had taken that away from her.

“Why don’t you do something adventurous?” Lina asked. “It doesn’t have to be huge, just something different. A very small spark can light a fire, you know…”

Suddenly, the bus sputtered and bumped again, sending Melody into a panic. Lina put her hand on Melody’s hand and smiled. 

“I think we’re in for quite a ride,” she whispered with a wink.

TO BE CONTINUED

I spent way too much time on the illustration for this one. That being said, the story played second fiddle tonight and it’s not what I was hoping for… but this is a “writing on the fly” sort of experiment, so it is what it is.

I’m thinking that illustrations like this may not be good for the story, because it takes away from the reader’s imagination. Especially when they don’t turn out as I expected, haha!

Anyway, I got my word challenges in and now it’s after 3:00 a.m. here – and I’m exhausted!

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed!

We’ll learn more about Lina and Melody’s “bumpy” ride in the near future.

Peace & love!

Word of the Day Challenge: Squeamish

The Daily Spur Word Prompt: Stomach

4 Comments

  1. I dunno … I think there’s something interesting about this drawing. The antiseptic uniformity of the seats. The absurdly long woman. As seen from the pov of the protagonist it evokes a certain “unreliable narrator” notion. Is this a fantasy going on in the narrator’s mind? She’s right about a lot of the description… the books getting thrown by the jerky motion of the bus, but to me there’s tension in her recounting so far of what’s happening. That uncertainty is extremely interesting.

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    2. Oh I like that unreliable narrator thing. You’re pretty warm I think but I’ll say no more. For now. 🤣 thank you so much for the feedback, I was afraid my blurry eyes and exhaustion made the story weak but apparently it’s doing what it should so far.

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