She enters the gallery, keeps her gloves and her sunglasses on and makes her way straight up the stairs. Underfoot an emerald carpet runner takes another right at each landing. First, second, third; a bust of a different man on each. Then, through open double doors, the gilt edge of a frame across the room quickens her heart. A panel dividing the space, still painted primrose yellow, obscures the rest.
The heels of her boots beat rhythm on the parquet till she sits on the low bench. She looks up and the child bride’s weary eyes look down, the soft pleat of her dark hair the gentlest so far of her restraints. A year since their last meeting. Hope across twelve months. Hope which has written polite requests and collated a popular petition for change.
And yet he remains.
Held in his cold regard, she pivots. She is sitting in the space between death and do us part. Now she faces the once-king’s brother, infamous predator, favourite wolfhound by his side.
Oils on linen.
Death, yes. Parted, no.
Her fingers are shrouded now, carefully retrieving the waiting water pistol in her coat’s lining pocket.
The first jet of thickened turpentine hits his peachy browbone, a viscous leach stretching a lazy, shapeshifting journey down his nose. The second jet will blind him. The third – the final – takes his upper lip; moustache will meld with chin, voice sealed inside. She replaces the cap, slips the toy back in her pocket. Looks to the girl. Nods. Rises. Leaves.
Between nine twenty and nine thirty on the third Tuesday of every month all the sensors in the gallery are off while backup batteries are changed. A time to reflect on what we keep, for posterity.
Heather Pearson is a Scottish writer, editor and creative who is passionate about intersectional equalities, ethics, innovation and the natural world. Her fiction has been published in anthologies by Aesthetica, Speculative Books, The Dangerous Women Project, UK Authors and ABC Tales. Her most recent non-fiction work can be found at Common Weal Scotland, Counterpoint Magazine, Bella Caledonia, WomenBeing Magazine and The Grantidote. Heresy was longlisted in Fish Publishing’s 2020 Flash Prize and is Heather’s first flash fiction work. Find Heather at @betamother and www.thegrantidote.com.
