Bedlam - Sunday

[xp_daytripper]

"The green-haired princess fell under an evil spell and she cast the wolf from her side. Injured and alone, he wandered for a time, until he reached a garden. And in the garden, he found a goddess."

It's not really charcoal, but it works the same - she rubs the cigarette butt into the plain white wall. A sweeping line for the hair, negative space - she is so focussed on what she is doing that she doesn't register the crowds stepping around her, the twinging of her ribs.

"The goddess welcomed him, bathing his hurts and giving him comfort and in time the wolf began to walk like a man again."

Tears prick her eyes, tighten her throat, and she wipes her hand across her face, smearing ash on too-pale skin.





"So I told him, you want this business, you're going to pay two-fifty. No backing off; you give these bastards an inch, they'll take a mile."

The speaker was an older man, with a face that seemed far too tanned and healthy for the suit he was wearing. He hefted his heavy leather briefcase as if it weighed nothing at all. "It's a cut-throat business..."

"He's going to be angry that you left him behind again." The businessman paused, glanced around in confusion, until his gaze fell on the dishevelled shape sitting at the bottom of the Tube steps. Just as quickly, his glance - and the man - moved on, still talking profit margins and bids.

"He hates it when you leave him behind," she continues any way to his departing back. "You can be sorry, but sorry has no meaning." Then she turns back to her drawing - the Knight on his horse, his faithful Squire alongside.