Since my earliest days in WP I have been friends with Anja from Oh Pithy Me.
Check out her blog at: http://abstractorganizedchaosliterally.wordpress.com/
If you have not seen her blog then you are missing out on following an extraordinary writer and artist. Her art work and photography are stunning.
Anja has developed a strong and close association with Livestrong. You can read her story here:
https://www.livestrong.org/profiles/3726/story/
This year Anja placed her art work and photography up for sale through Fine Art America with the profits from every sale to go towards Livestrong. Here is the link to see the wonderful work she has for sale. Please go and look and if you feel moved by what you see please purchase some as I know it will enhance any wall it hangs on:
http://anja-partin.artistwebsites.com/
I have also been fortunate to have been able these past months to use Anja’s art as the basis for a series of stories and as today I received my order from across the seas, I wanted to promote her great cause by sharing the story I wrote to my favourite image.
Going Out
Are you going out?
Yes.
You look beautiful.
Thank you.
Will you be long?
Not sure, some things take time.
Yes of course. I’ll see you when I see you.
I hope so.
Miriam made her way to the car aware of the eyes watching her from the windows around the complex.
Going out was an effort.
She preferred to be home as much as was possible.
But a job was a job and she needed to pay the bills.
They rang as they often did at the most inopportune time.
She was in the shower, she liked the shower, it was a time for cleansing, removed the grime of the night and the only thing that allowed her to feel better with herself in the light of a new day.
Her neighbours were prying busy bodies.
But she knew they were afraid of her.
And she liked it that way.
That way they stayed their distance and she didn’t need to interfere in their lives.
She sat in her car contemplating the reason she did this work.
She was not much more than a call girl she thought.
They called. She acted. They paid.
Life had become a vicious circle for her.
The sameness of it caused her to doubt her calling as a calling but rather a burden she could not rid herself of.
But over time she had developed her own style, her unique way of dealing with the issues that confronted her and her efficiency at her job had earned her great kudos from her employers who were more than happy to employ her on a regular basis.
Her elaborate costume was like most things about her, a mask that sheltered her from the reality of her world.
That’s why she liked her own time. Only then was she herself.
Behind her front door lived another person, different to the painted devil she became on a job.
The costume had taken her years to perfect. She had learned early on that appearance and reality were two different things and could operate quite happily in opposition to each other. At least in her world.
And costumes hid the little girl she knew she was inside her head, the little girl who hid a whole basket of ill against the world. At least the jobs served as a means to expunge some of the hatred she knew welled inside her.
At home Arthur stoked the fire.
He checked his watch.
He knew he had time to sit and read for a while before she would come back.
He knew that when she returned she would dismiss him immediately and retire to her room, shower and sleep.
Never had she discussed a job with him.
Rather she held it all inside, how she managed this he could never understand for he had a fair inkling of what she did when she went out, dressed as she was.
He heard the car door slam, the front door and steps on the tiles inside the door.
Good night Arthur she called and was gone as she was every time.
As if on cue he rose and went to the front door, made sure it was locked and gathered the small black plastic bag she always left beside the door on her return.
He placed in the fridge and knew that in the morning a man would call and take it away.
Please go visit Anja’s blog, go look at her art work, support the Livestrong cause.
Morpethroad 